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SECTION FOUR

xiv. Use of Welfare Centres.

xv. Proportions keeping daughters’ hair short, and having difficulty in keeping hair clean.

xvi. Children’s sleep.

xiv. Use of Welfare Centres.

Tables 25, 26 & 27

Parents of children under 5 years of age were asked if they used a Welfare Centre or Maternity Clinic. The replies are given by urban and rural areas in England, Wales and Scotland, and suggest that about the same proportion, 57% - 59%, of parents use the Welfare Centres in rural and urban areas usually or sometimes, and that 41% - 42% never use them. Urban parents use them far more regularly than do the rural parents.

The result for the Scottish urban areas closely follows those for the English and Welsh urban areas, but the greater number of parents in the Scottish rural areas never use a Welfare Centre.

34% of the A and B social classes use a Welfare Centre, increasing to 56% of the C class and 60% of the D class.

In appropriate cases parents were asked why they never used welfare Centres, or used them only occasionally. The replies show that 21% of those in English and Welsh urban areas thought Welfare Centres unnecessary if their children were healthy, to which could be added the 8% who used them only when their children had an ailment. 17% said they did not use them because they were visited by the Health Visitor. 6% (mainly in the A and B social classes) had their own doctor to consult. 13% replied that they were too busy. 3% of parents thought the Welfare Centres were unpleasant, that there were always dirty children to be found there, and that they did not want their own children exposed to the risk of contagion from unhealthy children. Other reasons given were that the family was new to the neighbourhood, or that the Welfare Centre was too far for them.

Much the same reasons were given for not attending in the rural areas of England and Wales, and for the Scottish areas, except that the number of parents who said the Welfare Centre was too far was very much greater in the Scottish rural areas covered by the enquiry.

xv. Proportions keeping daughters’ hair short, and having difficulty in keeping hair clean.

Tables 28 & 29

This question and the one that follows on children’s sleep require fuller treatment than it was possible to give them in this enquiry. The results should therefore be taken as a basis for further investigation rather than as findings on which to take immediate action.

Parents of girls between the ages of 2 ½ to 14 years were asked if they kept their daughters’ hair cut short. In England and Wales, 90% said they kept the hair short, 10% that they did not. In Scotland, 97% said they kept the hair short, 3% that they did not.

Parents were further asked if they had any difficulty in keeping the hair clean. Investigators reported that there was reluctance on the part of parents in giving completely reliable answers to this question. One investigator altered the question to “Now that your daughters are growing up and playing with other children, do you find that you have any difficulty in keeping their hair clean?” and found that by thus shifting the responsibility the answers tended to be more reliable. It is suggested that some such approach be used if the question is dealt with in future enquiries.

In spite of the Possible bias in the answers, some 14% of parents in England and Wales and 4% in Scotland said they did have difficulty in keeping their daughters' hair clean. This information has been analysed separately for those who kept the hair short and those who kept it long. Of the 1,142 parents who state, they kept the hair short, 12% said they had difficulty in keeping it clean. Of the 100 who said they kept the hair long, 11% said they had difficulty in keeping it clean. The enquiry, therefore, suggests, that in the parents' view, long hair is not necessarily more difficult to keep clean than short hair.

xvi. Children's Sleep

All parents interviewed were asked to state what sleep their children had had during the 24 hours preceding the time they were interviewed. It was hoped that by reducing the period of recall to the lowest possible unit the loss of accuracy through lapse of memory would be reduced to a minimum. The investigator entered the times given for each child as being in bed or asleep on page 2 of the questionnaire. After the hours at which the child was stated to have been in bed or asleep were entered, the total time was computed by the investigator and checked by the parent. It was a reasonable assumption therefore that the estimate of total hours in bed or asleep for each child would have some reliability.

Some difficulties were encountered, however. The sleep of infants in prams when taken out was probably not mentioned, or is difficult to estimate. In the case of large families the mother usually had difficulty in remember­ing the exact times at which the various children went to bed and got up. In a few cases the investigator was taken for a health visitor with conse­quent over-estimation of the amount of sleep.

Table 30

It is important to consider the results in relation to the time of year in which they were obtained. The table gives information from 2,026 families over the period 21st July to 15th, August 1942. Interviews were made on each day during this period except on Sundays and the Bank Holiday. (This would exclude Saturday from the sample, so arrangements were made for information obtained on Monday 27th July to refer to the previous Saturday instead of Sunday, which made good the omission).

Departures from normality were caused by:

Disturbances due to the light evenings and nights.

Alterations in times of going to bed and getting up on the part of children on holiday.

Disturbances due to air raids or alerts, during which children would be brought downstairs and taken to shelters.

A further point of importance is that raised by a member of the Advisory Panel of the Survey, who holds that since the individual child's sleep pattern may vary from day to day it is not possible to deduce, on the evidence afforded by this type of enquiry, that x% of the population have too little sleep. In order to determine the sufficiency or deficiency of sleep there would be needed a period of continuous observation for an adequate sample of children and not a single observation for a series of different samples of children.

The only way to check this would be to carry out an experiment, using both of these methods simultaneously in the same districts. Since, however, the question was incorporated for its interest in an enquiry made primarily for another purpose, the information is presented as obtained.

The recommended amount of sleep (C. C. H. E. “Health Hints, No.1”) is here compared with the results of asking the question.

so that with the above limitations in mind, it would appear that the average child, during the time of the enquiry, had adequate sleep.

There are interesting class differences shown, the A and B class children almost invariably getting more sleep than the C class, and the C class more than the D class.

Based on interviews conducted during the period 21st July to 15th August 1942.