A report presented the views of a sample of children and young people on their experiences of physical restraint. Children thought that restraint should be used as a last resort to prevent injury to people or serious damage to property: but they warned that the use of restraint could sometimes make matters worse, could engender resentment, and could be inappropriate for some children (such as those who had experienced abuse by adults).
Source: Children's Views on Restraint, Children s Rights Director for England/Office of the Children's Commissioner
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Dec
A report said that a lack of awareness by schools and local authorities of the signs that a child was running away from home, together with cuts to school and local authority budgets, was leading to missed opportunities to intervene before children found themselves in dangerous or harmful situations.
Source: Natalie Williams, Lessons to Learn: Exploring the links between running away and absence from school, Children s Society
Links: Report | Childrens Society press release
Date: 2012-Dec
A report for the children's rights watchdog in Northern Ireland examined ways to support and protect young people at risk of suicide. Recommendations included: developing a decision-making tool to identify childhood adversities linked to poorer outcomes; making children identified as at risk of suicide subject to an agreed intervention plan; and providing professionals in greatest contact with young people with training on identifying and responding to depression.
Source: John Devaney, Lisa Bunting, Gavin Davidson, David Hayes, Anne Lazenbatt, and Trevor Spratt, Still Vulnerable: The impact of early childhood experiences on adolescent suicide and accidental death, Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People
Links: Report | NICCY press release
Date: 2012-Nov
A report examined aspects of well-being for young people aged 16–24. On average, young people were more likely than other age groups to be highly satisfied with their lives and the use of their leisure time. They were also more likely to be optimistic about the future.
Source: Angela Potter-Collins and Jen Beaumont, Measuring National Well-Being: Measuring Young People's Well-Being, 2012, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Oct
A report said that there needed to be more awareness about self-harm among young people, parents, and professionals. There was little open communication on the issue, and 'considerable scope for stigma and fear'. Parents associated a young person self-harming with failing as a parent and over one-third said that they would not seek help. Nearly 4 out of 5 young people say that they did not know where to turn for advice about self-harm.
Source: Talking Self-Harm, YoungMinds/Cello Group
Links: Report | YoungMinds press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Oct
A paper examined the consequences of past parental unemployment on children. A past unemployment spell of the father led to lower subjective well-being and self-confidence among children.
Source: Nattavudh Powdthavee and James Vernoit, The Transferable Scars: A longitudinal evidence of psychological impact of past parental unemployment on adolescents in the United Kingdom, DP1165, Centre for Economic Performance (London School of Economics)
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Sep
A paper examined the relationship between health behaviours and young people's well-being. Health-protective behaviours were associated with high well-being, and health-risk behaviours were associated with low well-being. Interventions to encourage healthy lifestyles among adolescents might not only benefit their future physical health but also their existing well-being. A gendered approach to targeting interventions was also recommended.
Source: Amanda Sacker, Health Related Behaviours and Wellbeing in Adolescence, Occasional Paper 9.2, International Centre for Lifecourse Studies in Society and Health
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Sep
The European Commission published a triennial progress report on the European Union youth strategy. It provided a comprehensive picture of the situation of young people in Europe based on the latest available data, statistics, and research. It called for youth employment, social inclusion, health, and the well-being of young people to be top priorities in Europe's youth policy.
Source: EU Youth Report: Status of the situation of young people in the European Union, European Commission
Links: Report | European Commission press release
Date: 2012-Sep
The government published an informal framework of outcomes for young people, designed to highlight the fundamental importance of social and emotional capabilities to the achievement of all other outcomes for all young people.
Source: Bethia McNeil, Neil Reeder, and Julia Rich, A Framework of Outcomes for Young People, Department for Education
Links: Framework
Date: 2012-Jul
The report of an independent forum put forward a series of proposals for improving health-related care for children and young people.
Source: Report of the Children and Young People's Health Outcomes Forum, Department of Health
Links: Report | DH press release | NCB press release | NHS Confederation press release | RCM press release | YoungMinds press release
Date: 2012-Jul
Date: 2012-Jun
An article examined social roles in early adulthood and their association with mental health, subjective well-being, and alcohol use in two nationally representative birth cohorts (1958 and 1970). In both cohorts, high levels of life satisfaction were associated with either 'work orientation without children' or 'traditional family' life, suggesting that there were different transition strategies enabling individuals to become well adjusted adults.
Source: Ingrid Schoon, Meichu Chen, Dylan Kneale, and Justin Jager, 'Becoming adults in Britain: lifestyles and wellbeing in times of social change', Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, Volume 3 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
A report said that widespread inequalities meant that many young people in Europe were not as healthy as they could be. Health depended on age, gender, geography, and family affluence. Health promotion programmes needed to be sensitive to socio-economic and other differences, and should aim to create a fair situation for all young people.
Source: Candace Currie, Cara Zanotti, Antony Morgan, Dorothy Currie, Margaretha de Looze, Chris Roberts, Oddrun Samdal, Otto Smith, and Vivian Barnekow (eds.), Social Determinants of Health and Well-Being Among Young People: Health behaviour in school-aged children (HBSC) study – International report from the 2009/2010 survey, World Health Organisation (Regional Office for Europe)
Links: Report | WHO press release
Date: 2012-May
A report examined the views of children and young people on health provision. Children and young people saw their parents as playing a very important role in the management of their care: but they described 'being treated like I was stupid', being ignored, or being patronized during hospital stays.
Source: Ivana La Valle and Lisa Payne (with Jennifer Gibb and Helena Jelicic), Listening to Children's Views on Health Provision: A rapid review of the evidence, National Children s Bureau
Links: Report | NCB press release
Date: 2012-May
A briefing paper examined research into single homelessness among people aged 18-25. It looked at people's experiences of homelessness, including: the reasons why young people first became homeless; their housing histories and backgrounds; the vulnerabilities they faced; and the lengths they went to in order to avoid sleeping on the streets.
Source: Young, Hidden and Homeless, Crisis
Links: Briefing
Date: 2012-May
A study found that the school lunches taken by secondary school pupils in 2011 were healthier than those of pupils in 2004. But pupils got a quarter of the recommended daily intake from lunch, rather than the third that was advised.
Source: Secondary School Food Survey 2011, School Food Trust
Links: Report | BBC report
Date: 2012-Apr
A new book examined trends in adolescent well-being, and how social change could affect young people's behaviour, mental health, and transitions toward adulthood.
Source: Ann Hagell (ed.), Changing Adolescence: Social trends and mental health, Policy Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Mar
An article examined the relationship between a set of potentially protective ('health assets') factors and the well-being of young people aged 15 living in Spain and England. The young people's well-being was found to be similar and good. Three measures of social capital and two measures of social support were found to be important factors, namely: family autonomy and control; family and school sense of belonging; and social support at home and school. However, there were differences in how the sub-components of social capital manifested themselves in each country: feelings of autonomy and control were more important in England, and social support factors in Spain.
Source: Antony Morgan, Francisco Rivera, Carmen Moreno, and Bo Haglund, 'Does social capital travel? Influences on the life satisfaction of young people living in England and Spain', BMC Public Health, Volume 12
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Feb
A report said that homeless young people struggled to access local health services, despite having much poorer health on average than their peers. The needs of vulnerable young people were too often overlooked in the design of local services. More support was needed for emerging health problems, such as low-level mental health issues; and health services needed to take better account of the challenges that some young people faced in their lives.
Source: Hidden Health Needs of Homeless Young People: Key considerations for health commissioners, Centrepoint
Links: Report | Centrepoint press release
Date: 2012-Feb
A study used a longitudinal study of young people in England to investigate the possible correlation between poor mental health and poor educational attainment. Programmes aimed at improving the mental health of adolescents might be very important for improving educational attainment and reducing the number of young people who were 'NEET'.
Source: Francesca Cornaglia, Elena Crivellaro, and Sandra McNally, Mental Health and Education Decisions, DP136, Centre for the Economics of Education (London School of Economics)
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Feb
An article examined the relationship between a range of family factors and the bullying and/or victimization of adolescents in school and at home.
Source: Dieter Wolke and Alexandra Skew, 'Family factors, bullying victimisation and wellbeing in adolescents', Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, Volume 3 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jan