Early findings from a national schools survey around well-being in England. The Children's Society

1. Early findings from a national schools
survey around well-being in England
BASPCAN Conference – Edinburgh, 2015 1
Adolescent Neglect

2.  Wider research programme on
adolescent neglect
Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect
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PRESENTATION CONTENT
Context
 The focus of this research study and
our methodology
Parenting
behaviours
 What we have discovered so farEarly findings

3. Aims
What is ‘adolescent neglect’?
How many adolescents are neglected?
What are the contexts for neglect?
What are the outcomes of neglect?
Adolescent neglect research programme
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4. Developing a survey measure – dimensions / categories of
parenting
 PHYSICAL
 EDUCATIONAL
 SUPERVISORY
 EMOTIONAL
Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect
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During the last year how often did your parents, or the adults you live with …
Always Often
Some-
times
Hardly
ever Never
… make sure you saw a doctor if you needed one
… encourage you to wash or shower regularly
… support you to look after your teeth and go to
the dentist
... make sure you ate healthy food





5. National schools survey
Newly-developed measure embedded in online questionnaire on
young people’s lives (material wealth, subjective well-being, physical
and psychological health).
12-15-year-olds / students in Years 8 and 10.
c.1,000 in each year group (representative sample).
The Good Childhood Report (2014).
Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect
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6. Overall proportions of 14-15-year-olds
Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect
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During the last year how often did your parents or
the adults you live with …
Always /
Often
Some-
times
Hardly
ever /
Never
… show an interest in what you were doing at school
(EDUCATIONAL)
75% 17% 8%
… ask you where you were going when you went out
(SUPERVISORY)
87% 7% 5%
… support you if you were upset
(EMOTIONAL)
75% 14% 11%

7. Analysis suggested:
Support for the four-dimension model of parenting.
Better reliability for a three-item per category scale for measuring
parenting behaviours.
Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect
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During the last year how often did your parents, or the adults you live with …
Always Often
Some-
times
Hardly
ever Never
make sure you saw a doctor if you needed one
take care of you if you felt ill
support you to look after your teeth and go to the
dentist
4 3 2 1 0
4 3 2 1 0
4 3 2 1 0
SCORE for Physical Care 4 + 3 + 3 = 10

8. Potential scores for each scale are 0 - 12
Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect
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Overall score
% of
young
people

9. Findings for 14-15-year-olds (living in one home!):
Most young people are well supported and cared for.
Frequency of parenting behaviours varies by category.
(e.g. half reported full scores for ‘physical care’ and 45% the same for
‘supervision’ – but less than a third reported full scores for the amount of
‘educational’ or ‘emotional support’ they received.
Context makes a difference.
(e.g. Boys are less supervised than girls; young people living with a
step parent report less educational support / with a lone parent less physical
care).
Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect
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10. Findings for 14-15-year-olds:
More frequent parenting inputs produce better outcomes, on the
whole ...
(e.g. Fewer problems + higher achievement at school; Less smoking
and drinking; less mental ill-health).
Strongest relationship was between emotional support and life
satisfaction.
... but there are nuances
(e.g. Higher life satisfaction more often reported by young people also
scoring only medium levels of inputs for supervision or educational support).
Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect
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11. Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect
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12. CONTEXT - Age matters
Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect
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12-13-YEAR-OLDS 14-15-YEAR-OLDS
During the last year how often did your parents,
or the adults you live with …
Never /
Hardly
ever
Some-
times
Often /
Always
Never /
Hardly
ever
Some-
times
Often /
Always
% change
often /
always
SUPERVISION … ask you where you were
going when you went out
3% 5% 92% 5% 7% 87% -5%
PHYSICAL CARE … make sure you saw a
doctor when you needed one
2% 4% 94% 6% 9% 85% -9%
EMOTIONAL
SUPPORT
… support you if you were
upset
3% 7% 90% 11% 14% 75% - 15%
EDUCATIONAL
SUPPORT
… keep track of how you
were doing at school
5% 14% 81% 8% 16% 76% -5%

13. Thresholds for neglect:
Systematically compared a range of scores for each parenting
dimension against indicators in the dataset for behaviours, subjective
well-being and mental ill health.
Assessed, for each dimension, where there was most consistency for
negative outcomes.
Found different ranges for different dimensions – including an ‘at risk’
range for three of the four.
Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect
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14. Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect
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15. Neglect thresholds and percentages for England
Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect
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Parenting domain
Positively
parented
At risk Neglected %
Neglected
EMOTIONAL 12 – 7 6 – 5 4 – 0 8%
PHYSICAL 12 – 8 7 – 6 5 – 0 5%
EDUCATIONAL 12 – 7 6 – 5 4 – 0 4%
SUPERVISORY 12 – 7 6 – 0 8%

16.  The measure worked well.
 First use – needs refinement / maybe some
extension (Qualitative work).
 More surveys – inc. targeted samples
Adolescent neglect
WHAT NEXT?
Measuring neglect
 Further work around conceptualising neglect.
 More consultation with young people / parents
/ professionals.
Defining neglect
 Qualitative work – e.g. case studies with
families.
Exploring
contexts /
outcomes
May 21, 2015 16

17. Parenting
behaviours and
adolescent neglect
Early findings from new
research
BASPCAN – Edinburgh, 2015
May 21, 2015 17