The Children’s Society published a public opinion poll this week as part of an inquiry that gives a sad, if not unsurprising, insight into the mental health, well being and happiness of the UK’s children.
Naturally, the opinion poll shows that most people are pretty concerned, with 91% thinking that children aren’t as happy today as they were when they were growing up. To some extent, that’s by the by, and debating whether young people have got it tougher, or face more pressures today, won’t get us anywhere. Regardless of the past, we know that a large number of young people today aren’t happy, and our priority must be to rectify that.
27% of the 8,000 young people surveyed said they ‘often feel depressed’. But we need to know why they are unhappy in order to be able to do anything about it. In a separate Newsround survey, young people revealed the factors affecting their happiness: their looks, the influence of their peers, and bullying, which is more often that not linked to those first two factors.
In 2006/07, Beatbullying asked 1769 secondary aged pupils about their experiences of bullying and the effect it had on them. 60% of this group has been bullied, and of those, 33% had low self-esteem. Even more disturbingly, and 12% disclosed they had self harmed and 9% said they’d had suicidal thoughts.
But it’s
not just secondary aged children. Over
the last 3 years, Beatbullying has surveyed 2302 children aged 8-10. 56% said they’d been bullied, and 54% felt depressed as result.
The message is clear, and a little obvious. Bullying makes young people unhappy – it
results in low confidence and low self-worth, and it causes depression in
children. Bullying is linked to eating
disorders and self harm, and tragically at least 16 young people take their own
life each year as a result of bullying.
If a young person is unhappy, there might be a myriad
of reasons for that, and bullying may well not be one of them. But it’s certainly one of the leading factors
in the majority of cases. The Children’s
Society’s poll shows that we as a nation are concerned and that we care about
our children’s happiness, but now we must do something about it. We know the factors that cause childhood
depression, and we know bullying is one of the key ones. So surely that’s a
good place to start.
Reduce bullying and less children will be unhappy. Beatbullying’s work improves the self-confidence of young people, it promotes tolerance, respect and friendship, and it reduces tensions and conflicts that young people face. Reduce bullying and we can improve the childhood of millions of young people. That’s what we want, and that’s what Beatbullying can do.
If your child feels uneasiness, parents should know how to talk with their kids by showing love and concern. Ask them why they feel weary and unhappy.
Posted by: essay | November 21, 2011 at 09:58 PM