From journal articles to Quick Guides and webinars, you will find tools and information to support.
Action for Children in partnership with the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness has released a report exploring the impact of loneliness in children, young people and families. The study shows some people who are more at risk of experiencing loneliness, such as young carers who often feel isolated from their peers, and children in care who have moved away from their family networks. The report looks at the kinds of strategies that can be put in place for those children and young people – from what individuals can do to how government can ensure provide the most effective services into the future.
Child Trends has released a report exploring the ways in which states and communities need to support young people who are in foster care or who have recently transitioned out of foster care as they enter adulthood. Extending foster care beyond 18 years of age is one of the key strategies used by states to support young people through their period of transition. Housing was a key challenge for young people leaving care.
Researchers at the University College London (UCL) have published a study looking at the link between paternal and adolescent depressive symptoms. The study of 14,000 families in the UK and Ireland show an association between depressive symptoms in fathers and depressive symptoms in their adolescent children. Currently, interventions for preventing adolescent depression focus largely on mothers. This research challenges this approach and suggests that treating depression in both parents is important to the mental health of their children.
The British Youth Council’s Youth Select Committee has published a report on body image and the impact it has on the wellbeing of children and young people. The Committee presents recommendations to government, highlighting the integral role that education plays in promoting positive body image. Other recommendations include the commissioning of research to address current gaps in the evidence base and the development of resources to support the challenges faced by young men, LGBT+ youth, ethnic minorities, and young people with disabilities.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released a report exploring how national governments can develop comprehensive policy frameworks that better respond to young peoples’ needs and aspirations. This report provides analytical tools and policy guidance, based on rigorous evidence and international good practices, to help countries improve their youth-focused policies and programs. It emphasises the need to identify and focus policies on the most disadvantaged youth, calling for a more targeted policy response.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Personal Safety Survey (PSS) reveals falling rates of violence between 2005 - 2016. The PSS collects in-depth information about men’s and women’s experience of violence by a partner since the age of 15. The survey data shows women were nearly three times more likely to have experienced partner violence than men, with approximately 17% of women and 6.1% of men having experienced partner violence since the age of 15.
This resource sheet provides an overview of the statistics on child deaths resulting from abuse and neglect, and information on the recording of child deaths in Australia. In 2015-16 in Victoria, the Department of Health and Human Services referred 38 cases of children (an increase of 59% from the previous year) who had died and were known to child protection up to 12 months before their death to the commission for inquiry. Common causes of death included non-accidental trauma and self-harm.
Carnegie Trust UK has published a report exploring digital exclusion among young people. It is often assumed that young people are ‘digital natives’, however, a large number of young people do not possess even basic digital skills. Findings from across the UK show that young people who are at points of transition in their life (unemployed, homeless, in care) are most at risk of being digitally excluded. Digital literacy must be actively and passively developed through ongoing access, support and training. This report provides four in depth case studies of projects engaging with groups of vulnerable young people to help develop their digital skills.
The experience of poverty in early childhood can have far-reaching impacts on children’s health and development. Children experiencing poverty are often exposed to multiple risk factors, which interact to shape their neurocognitive development. This paper explores the complex interaction of risk factors such as malnutrition and psychological stress, and the ways in which they can effect neural development and functioning.
