The Schools Health Education Unit has published the 33rd volume in its statistical series about young people
The full report (7Mb) can be downloaded on application to SHEU.
PRESS RELEASE
The Young People into 2019report
FOR FURTHER DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT:
Dr David Regis, Research Manager, SHEU Tel.(01392) 667272 Email. david.regis@sheu.org.uk
We have just published Young People into 2019, which presents figures from over seventy thousand young people (71,368) completing surveys in 2018. This report is the 33rd in a series begun in 1987. The full report may be obtained in PDF format by application to SHEU.
Where are the figures from?
Every year, SHEU carry out healthy lifestyle surveys with young people for local authorities and each year these surveys involve tens of thousands of young people. At the end of each calendar year, we put all the results from all the surveys together, and publish a report. These reports contain findings from over 100 health-related behaviour questions using answers from pupils in primary and secondary schools. They tell us about what they do at home, at school, and with their friends.
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What’s in the report?
The report has 7 chapters:
CHAPTER 1 - Food choices & weight control
CHAPTER 2 - Doctor & Dentist
CHAPTER 3 - Health & Safety
CHAPTER 4 - Family & Home
CHAPTER 5 - Legal & Illegal Drugs
CHAPTER 6 - Exercise & Sport
CHAPTER 7 - Social & Personal
The pages in each chapter show results from one question (sometimes two) and may also show links between questions and trends in responses going back over decades.
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Some of the latest figures are different from those we last published in 2018, but not all the differences are new – it’s better to describe them as continuations of trends that we have seen going on for some time. All the clearest trends are shown in the report and collected in a summary sheet published last year: http://sheu.org.uk/sheux/pix/Trends_Young_People_into_2018_SHEU1.png
Notes
1. SHEU (the Schools and Students Health Education Unit) was founded in Exeter University in 1977 by John Balding and has operated independently since 1997. It is the leading provider of health and lifestyle surveys for schools and holds a unique set of databanks showing levels of and trends in young people's behaviours since in the 1980s.
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2. The sample size was 71,368, but not all respondents answered all questions. Ages and year groups reported were:
3. We discourage surveys being conducted on Mondays, so ‘the day before the survey’ should have been a normal school day, and similarly ‘the week before the survey’ will not have been a holiday week.
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Phase
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Year group
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Ages
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Primary
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Year 4
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8-9 years old
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Year 6
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10-11 years old
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Secondary
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Year 8
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12-13 years old
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Year 10
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14-15 years old
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4. The accumulated databank from the hundreds of school surveys we support each year, involving tens of thousands of young people, is a valuable resource of information and provides many opportunities for insight and research. But we caution against simple reporting and interpretation of our figures as being from 'a national survey'; it didn’t happen that way.
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Many authorities use us every other year, and so will appear and disappear from the data sets, and there are some trends in which we can see evidence of a regional effect in the figures we obtain – as in the case of figures for eating wholemeal bread on most days in the middle 2000s, which shows a ‘rollercoaster’:
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Headlines and trends from the 2018 data set (Young People into 2019):
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Headlines
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- Around 10% of all
pupils said they ate no portions of fruit or vegetables
yesterday, while just 17% of 14-15-year-old pupils said
they ate at least the recommended 5 portions on the day
before the survey.
- Up to 11% of pupils
say they had no water to drink on the day before the
survey.
- There is a marked
increase once we get to the secondary age group among
females wanting to lose weight – 56% of 14-15-year-old
females said they would like to lose weight.
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Trends
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- The trend for more
pupils to skip lunch steadied about 10 years ago.
- Daily consumption
of crisps has declined steadily since about 2000.
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Links
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- Year 10 females who
skipped breakfast on the morning of the survey were also
more likely to have skipped lunch on the day before the
survey, and to want to lose weight.
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CHAPTER 2 - Doctor &
Dentist
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Headlines
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- Nearly half of
pupils have visited a doctor in the last three months.
- 23% of
14-15-year-old females felt quite or very
uneasy on their last visit.
- 40-88% of all
groups had been to the dentist in the last 6 months.
- Up to 88% of all
groups brushed their teeth at least twice on the day
before the survey.
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Trends
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- The proportion
visiting the dentist in the last 6 months has remained
fairly constant since 1986, despite several changes in
the organisation of NHS dental care.
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CHAPTER 3 - Health &
Safety
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Headlines
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- Around 20% of
primary pupils said they experienced bullying behaviours often or every day –
these behaviours included teasing and name-calling but
also being pushed/hit.
- Of those bullied
often, about 40% report being bullied during school
playtimes.
- The most common
reasons reported for being bullied were size
or weight and the
way you look, especially for older females.
- Fear of bullying at
school declines with age.
- Up to a quarter of
older pupils report unwelcome behaviours from
boyfriends/girlfriends, like jealousy, hurtful language
and checking my ‘phone.
- 75-90% of all
groups say they have been told how to stay safe while
online.
- 20% of older
females (14-15yo) say they have sent sexual images of
themselves.
- 42% of
12-13-year-old males reported having an accident in the
last year that needed medical attention.
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Trends
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- Reports of being
bullied and the fear of being bullied have increased
since 2011.
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Links
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- Getting plenty of
sleep is associated with fewer worries and more
contentment with their weight in 14-15-year-old females.
- There is an
association between wellbeing and time spent online or
using a ‘phone.
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CHAPTER 4 - Family &
Home
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Headlines
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- Over 40% of the
older pupils walked at least part of the way to school
on the day of the survey.
- About 2/3 of the
sample live with mother and father, less as they get
older.
- About 75% of the
14-15-year-olds identify as White (British or other).
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Trends
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- A rise in time
spent playing computer games is shown clearly in our
figures for males of all ages.
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Links
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- Being a young carer
is associated with several unwelcome outcomes – more
reports of being bullied, of smoking, of money worries
and of accidents.
- Similarly, having
free school meals is also associated with being bullied.
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CHAPTER 5 - Legal &
Illegal Drugs
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Headlines
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- Over 10% of the
14-15-year-olds had drunk alcohol in the week before the
survey. Drinking was done most often at home.
- About 5% of
14-15-year-olds had smoked a cigarette in the week
before the survey.
- 1/3 of pupils live
in homes where someone smokes, but just 10% report
someone smoking indoors.
- 23% of 14-15yo have
tried tobacco cigarettes, but over 40% report trying
e-cigarettes.
- Over 10% of pupils
aged 14-15 years had ever tried drugs – nearly always
cannabis, if nothing else.
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Trends
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- Smoking cigarettes
and drinking alcohol are in long-term decline in our
figures; cannabis experimentation has been fairly stable
for the last decade.
- Figures for
reported experience with cannabis are notable for an
absence of much effect of legislation during changes
2004-2009.
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Links
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- There is an
association between finding drugs education lessons more
useful and lower substance use (see Chapter 7).
- Alcohol use always
used to be associated with higher self-esteem among
older pupils, but this pattern has reversed in recent
years.
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CHAPTER 6 - Exercise
& Sport
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Headlines
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- Around 80% of all
groups say they did some sort of exercise last week but
less than 10% said they exercised every day, and even
fewer claimed to exercise hard enough to get hot.
(Recommendations are for daily exercise of at least an
hour in total, including some vigorous exercise and
strength-building activities.)
- Weekly sports and
activities included going for
walks (over half of secondary
females) soccer (over
half of secondary males) and dancing (over
a quarter of secondary females).
- Among secondary
pupils, the most commonly reported barriers to taking
exercise were time, cost,
availability and, especially in
females, shyness (29%
of 14-15yo girls).
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Trends
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- Enjoyment of
physical activities is lowest among 14-15-year-old
females and is declining.
- Perceived fitness
is in decline among both secondary year groups and both
sexes.
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CHAPTER 7 - Social &
Personal
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Headlines
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- Over half of
10-11-year-olds agree that the
school cares whether I am happy or not but
just a third of 14-15-year-olds say the same.
- The majority of
12-15-year-olds enjoy at
least half of their lessons.
- Worries about school and the
way you look are higher in
secondary age groups, particularly among 14-15-year-old
females (over 80% of whom are worried at least ‘quite a
lot’ about each issue).
- The most commonly
reported response to having a problem or feeling
stressed is to talk to someone
about it. Some pupils distract themselves
with music or
comfort themselves with eating
more; over 10% of 14-15yo females say they
sometimes cut or hurt myself.
- Over 2/3 of
secondary pupils judge that they can usually
or always say no if someone
wants them to do something that they don’t want to do.
- Nearly 60% of
14-15-year-old pupils know where to get condoms free of
charge.
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Trends
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- We see a continued
decline in the proportion of 14-15-year-old females who
score in the top bracket of self-esteem scores, with
more scoring in the lower brackets.
- Worry about school,
exams and tests seems to be
increasing among 14-15 year-olds.
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Links
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- Lesbian, gay and
bisexual young people are more likely than their peers
to report being bullied and also to have tried smoking
or drugs.
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