Family's financial situation a worry for every 2nd child in Germany

In Germany, more than half of the children aged between 8 and 14 years are worried about their family's financial situation, said a survey published by the Bertelsmann Foundation.

While 48.1 percent of German children "never" think about financial problems at all, 35.5 percent said that they "sometimes" worried about how much money their family had. For more than ten percent of German children, such worries were "frequent," while 5.6 percent said they were "always" worried about their family's financial situation.

Regardless of family income, parents did not compromise on "the need of children." More than 95 percent of the 3,450 children surveyed said that they had "something nice to wear," enough money for school trips, and everything they needed for school.

About 8 out of 10 primary school children in Germany feel safe at school. However, the situation gets worse at secondary schools: only about one third of German children who did not succeed in entering one of the country's prestigious grammar schools said that schools were a safe place.

Violence, mobbing and exclusion from class or from the schoolyard would play "an extraordinary role" in this regard, according to the Bertelsmann Foundation on Tuesday.

"Children should be able to feel safe at their school. This is a prerequisite for education and equal opportunities," Joerg Draeger, a member of Bertelsmann Foundation's Executive Board, commented.

Many respondents, especially older children, said that they felt left alone by parents and teachers. Draeger added that children need a "grown up person of trust" in families as well as in schools.

Many children in Germany are not well informed about their rights, the study's authors point out. Politicians, scientists and society at large should work together on the "conception and implementation of a representative and regular survey of needs with and for young people," the Bertelsmann Foundation said.