Trends - Emotional Health and Well-being (including Bullying)

Emotional Health & Well-being (including Bullying) 1983-2003

This report is to be updated and is currently not available for sale.

The following is a summary of the report written in 2004 by SHEU covering the period 1983-2003

When looking over the figures from twenty years, we find that young people in recent years are...

* less likely to keep problems to themselves, although around 25% of 14-15 year old males still keep family problems and problems with friends to themselves
* less likely to share family problems with a friend, although this option has always been the most popular for older females
* less likely to be bullied as a result of a particular event, although up to 17% of 10-11 year old females report being 'called nasty names, often/every day in the last month'
* less likely to worry about the 'way they look' although it is still reported to be the main problem for around 50% of 14-15 year old females
* less likely to worry about HIV/AIDS (in 1993, 34% of older females worried 'quite a lot/a lot' and in 2003 this figure has reduced to 8%)
* more likely to share school problems with mum and dad, or a teacher or a friend more pupils are getting higher self-esteem scores and 14-15 year old males score the highest
* more likely to worry 'quite a lot/ a lot' about school and career problems - up to 39% (2001) of older females worried about these problems
* more likely to feel in control of their health, with males scoring higher than females
* more likely to feel more satisfied with their lives - 15% more 12-13 year old females report being satisfied 'a lot' (12% in 1995 to 27% in 2003)

...when compared with figures from previous years.