4

Results

4.1 DEMOGRAPHICS

The overall response rate to the CLAN survey was 50% with a sample of

3,259 full time undergraduate students participating from across the third

level sector. The sample represented 62% female and 38% male students

(Table 1).  The average age of the students sampled was 21 years. The age

distribution of the respondents was similar between males and females with

65% under 21 years, 28% aged 21 to 24 years and the remaining 7% were

25 years and over. Of the total sample, 33% were in first year, 30% were in

second year and 37% were in third year or higher.  However, there was a

difference in gender distribution across years with a higher representation of

first year male and third year female undergraduate students. Education of

parents had a similar spread between males and females.

Table 1: Demographics   age, year in college and education of parents by gender

No. of respondents

Males

Females

Total

N=1232

N=2027

N=3259

%

%

%

Gender

37.8

62.2

100

Age category

Under 21 years

63.5

65.2

64.6

21 24 years

29.3

28.1

28.5

25 +

7.3

6.7

6.9

Year in college

1st year

44.3

26.4

33.1

2nd year

36.5

25.9

29.9

3rd year plus

19.2

47.7

37.0*

Education of parents

Primary/Group Cert

23.2

26.6

25.3

Leaving Cert

35.6

34.0

34.6

Third level

41.2

39.5

40.1

*significant between gender (p<.01)

19