The Times report on some polling that Barnardos have done to support their campaign Believe in Children. They found:
that people believe the main threats to a happy childhood are growing up without a father (31 per cent), being brought up in care (27 per cent), teenage motherhood (18 per cent) and being expelled from school (12 per cent).
I was struck that this mirrors a number of risk factors that drug education and prevention try to act on.
The Barnardo’s survey suggests that:
- One in four adults think that children who are disruptive or antisocial are beyond long term help by the time they are just 13.
- Two thirds of adults are convinced that children are more criminal now than ever before, when in fact there has been a substantial drop in youth crime since 1995.
On a similar theme; Parmajit Dhanda MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the DfES, talking about how young people are percieved:
If you search Google’s ‘pages from the UK’ for the word ‘disaffected’, 5 out of the top 10 hits couple the word with youth. Louts, monsters, brutes, scum – even inhuman. All words that have been used by the press to describe British youngsters. If they are to be believed, the better half of youth is drinking, shouting, and swearing in the streets (all wearing hoodies of course), while the rest are getting pregnant at 13, taking drugs, and trashing their neighbours’ property.
When did we become so down on young people? Two thirds of 18-25 year olds elected to stay at home rather than vote in the last general election. With such a bad press, it’s no wonder they are so down on us.
Filed under: risk and protective factors
