Young People’s Risk-Taking Behaviours and Enablers/Barriers to Accessing Support and Services
To support the development of Wirral’s offer for children and young people around ‘risk and resilience’, the Qualitative Insight Team gathered insights on young people’s risk-taking behaviours and how the pressures around them are managed by young people and families. The insights also show what helps/stops young people and families getting support, whether at home, at school, or in the community.
October 2022 - January 2023
- Physical health and wellbeing
- Mental health and wellbeing
- Sexual health
- Migrant health
- Health Protection
- Active wellbeing and leisure
- Health and Housing
- Age
- Gender
- Religion
- Language
- People seeking asylum and refugees
- Neurodiversity
- Blind and partially sighted people
- People with drug or alcohol disorder
- Social Inclusion/Exclusion
- Food poverty
- Housing insecurity
- Benefit conditions/changes
- Education (Young People)
- Older People
- Caring Commitments
- Regeneration
- Climate
- Business and Economy
- Other
Insights gathered by
Qualitative Insight Team, Public Health, Wirral Council
Aim
To support Wirral’s Children and Young People’s Department in understand the main risk-taking behaviours and pressures young people are experiencing (health-related behaviours in the Healthy Child Programme) and what helps or prevents young people and parents from accessing support and services.
People engaged with
Insights were gathered from 39 people, including young people aged 11-19, parents of young people aged 1-26, and professionals who work in young people’s services. The young people engaged with included Year 7 students (aged 11-12), Year 9 students (aged 13-14), and 17-19-year-olds who were engaged in services.
Methods
Focus groups were held with Year 7 students, Year 9 students, parents, and professionals. The focus groups included activities such as brainstorming, case studies, and designing Snakes and Ladders boards, where snakes represented barriers to accessing support and ladders represented enablers. The 17–19-year-olds engaged in services were spoken to using semi-structured 1-1 interviews and friendship interviews (where two friends are interviewed together).
Key insights
The main risks and pressures identified were: Pressures of growing up around, consuming, or dealing in substances, such as vapes, alcohol, cannabis, and Class A drugs. Young people highlighted the negative impacts of vapes in schools, including fears of consuming secondary smoke in the toilets, and anxiety caused by blazer searches before exams. Pressure to conform to norms around body image, appearance, sexuality, and processions to avoid bullying or harm. Parents felt pressure to ensure their children fit in, even if it goes against their rules/morals or adds financial pressure. Pressures of school life, including transitioning to secondary school, pressure to perform well academically, managing ADHD, and fear of judgement for taking a day off for mental health. Social media and access to misinformation and harmful content, such as videos encouraging self-harm. Parents find it hard to safeguard their children online. Strong emotional responses to small scale issues due to bottling up of emotions, including aggression and self-harm. Involvement in gangs, crime, weapons, or ‘gangster appearance’ due to peer pressure, exploitation, financial pressures, or the ‘inevitability’ of growing up in and around deprivation. Mobilisation of gangs from Liverpool to Wirral, and young people wanting to disassociate from East Wirral due to post-code stigma.
How have the insights been used/shared?
The insights contributed to a wider collation of new and existing insights (both qualitative and quantitative) on young people’s risk-taking and health-related behaviours by Wirral’s Public Health Team and Children and Young People’s Department. Together, the insights supported the commissioning of a coordinated ‘risk and resilience’ offer that meets the identified needs and is improving outcomes for families.
Online links
https://www.wirralintelligenceservice.org/media/bqskqhjl/risk-taking-full-report-v3-27-01-23-qit-accessibility-checked-v3-accchkdjh.pdf https://www.wirralintelligenceservice.org/media/3l2ixuyh/risk-taking-exec-summary-pp-17-03-23-accchkdjh.pdf https://www.wirralintelligenceservice.org/media/od0nihic/vaping-insight-from-young-people-and-professionals-accchkdjh-03-07-23.pdf