Early findings from a national schools survey around well-being in England

BASPCAN Conference – Edinburgh, 2015 1

Adolescent Neglect

Wider research programme on

adolescent neglect

Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect

15 April 2023 2

PRESENTATION CONTENT

Context

The focus of this research study and

our methodology

Parenting behaviours

What we have discovered so farEarly findings

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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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 OftenSome-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

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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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%

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 OftenSome-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

Potential scores for each scale are 0 - 12

Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect

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Overall score

% of young people

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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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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Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect

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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 out3% 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%

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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Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect

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Neglect thresholds and percentages for England

Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglect

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Parenting domainPositively 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%

The measure worked well.

First use – needs refinement / maybe some extension

(Qualitative work).

More surveys – inc. targeted samples

Adolescent neglectWHAT 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

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Parenting behaviours and adolescent neglectEarly findings from new research

BASPCAN – Edinburgh, 2015

15 April 2023 17