Surveys published by the Department of Health (DH) show that the major concerns for teenagers are losing weight and fitting in. The research was carried out with over 1,400 12 to 15 year olds and undertaken for the NHS Teen Lifecheck website on behalf of the DH.
The research has also revealed that social divides affect the concerns of teenagers with almost double the number of teenagers surveyed from low incomes families worrying about bullying compared to teenagers surveyed from higher income families who are more likely to worry about peer pressure and fitting in. Teenagers from low income families worry more about bullying, drugs and smoking compared to their peers from higher income families. Other findings include that teenagers find it difficult to talk to their friends about their concerns with 48% of teenagers surveyed who think that their worries will be considered silly or different and 31% who feel that their friends just wouldn’t understand.
The NHS Teen LifeCheck website is targeted at 12 to 15 years old and aims to help teenagers understand how choices they make in their current lifestyle could affect their health and well-being in the long term. Through the website teenagers are encouraged to complete an interactive quiz with multiple choice answers and then to take action on the results. The NHS Lifecheck website signposts teenagers to sources of further support on issues such as bullying, smoking, drugs and healthy eating and exercise and offers guidance on how to make changes to address issues identified from taking the quiz. The website was launched three months ago and so far over 100,000 teenagers have completed the Teen Lifecheck quiz. Teenagers that have used Teen LifeCheck have commented on how useful it has been to them:
“This really helps me because I’m suffering from a little bit of depression.”
“The LifeCheck helped me on areas to improve in my life.”
The survey results will be used to inform future development of the NHS LifeCheck website.
Thu, 10/09/2009 - 14:51
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A new package to develop local staff to support and train young people to conduct objective assessments of local services and support recommendations for service improvements.
