New SHRN paper published today reveals reasons to be cheerful
Today, Cardiff
University’s DECIPHer Research
Centre published a briefing paper on “Student wellbeing in Wales”.
DECIPHer’s School
Health Research Network (SHRN) collects data from secondary school children
via the World Health Organization’s international Health Behaviour in
School-aged Children (HBSC) Survey
and its own Student Health and Wellbeing Survey. The surveys aim to
increase our understanding of young people’s health and wellbeing in their
social context. Improving young people’s health and wellbeing has been
identified as one of the most important current public health issues.
The most recent
survey took place in the autumn term of 2017 and was the largest survey of
adolescent health and wellbeing undertaken in Wales to date. Over 100,000
children aged between 11 and 16, from 193 secondary schools across Wales,
answered questions about their health and wellbeing. This briefing paper
presents findings for adolescents in Wales across a small selection of
variables pertaining to wellbeing.
This briefing
reveals that there are a number of reasons to be optimistic about young
people’s wellbeing in Wales. Most adolescents are happy with their lives,
enjoy going to school and do not usually feel lonely during the summer
holidays. However, there are notable inequalities in these outcomes.
Wellbeing
and life satisfaction
Females report
lower wellbeing and life satisfaction scores than males. Wellbeing and
life satisfaction reduce as adolescents get older. In addition, this
report shines a spotlight on socioeconomic inequalities in these outcomes, with
adolescents from less affluent households reporting lower levels of wellbeing
and life satisfaction.
School
connectedness
The majority of
adolescents liked school; however 15% stated they did not like school at
all. The number of adolescents that liked school reduced as they got
older (from 78% in year 7 to 47% in year 11) and adolescents from less affluent
families liked school the least.
Summer
holiday loneliness
Most adolescents
reported not often feeling lonely during the summer holidays. However,
more females and those from less affluent families reported frequent loneliness
and feelings of loneliness increased as adolescents got older.
SHRN Principal
Investigator, Professor Simon Murphy, said: “This is the largest survey of
student wellbeing that has taken place in Wales and provides very valuable data
on several aspects of adolescent wellbeing. The data will be useful for
policy-makers and practitioners trying to improve young people’s wellbeing in
Wales, highlighting as it does the need to address inequalities. Future SHRN
surveys will allow us to evaluate policies and monitor progress in
achieving this.”
The research,
‘Student Wellbeing in Wales: Initial findings from the 2017/18 Health Behaviour
in School-aged Children Survey and School Health Research Network Student
Health and Wellbeing Survey’, can be found here.
The forthcoming National Report for Wales
will be available in May 2019, containing a much wider range of variables.
For further information, contact:
Dr
Gillian Hewitt
Research
Associate
DECIPHer
Cardiff
University
T: 029 2087 9609
E: HewittG@cardiff.ac.uk
Dr
Rebecca Anthony
Research
Associate
DECIPHer
Cardiff
University
T: 029 2087 9609
E: AnthonyRE@cardiff.ac.uk