Background to the Research

• The YPBAS was commissioned by a consortium of government departments and public bodies to explore the behaviour and attitudes of young people in years 8 to 12 of second level education. The initiation of the study was partly motivated by a need to rationalise the number of government sponsored surveys which accessed young people through the school system. To this end the steering group for the study drew together representatives of all NI government departments and, in addition, agencies and public bodies with an interest (e.g. Health Promotion Agency, PSNI). As a result of the wide range of interests represented, the survey itself covers a broad range of topics including health, drugs, experience of school, bullying and citizenship..
• The most recent round of the survey was carried out in October and November 2007. Two previous surveys were conducted in the autumn of 2003 and the autumn of 2000.
  

Research Approach

• The target population for the research are young people in Years 8 to 12 of second level education, who will fall into the age range 11-16 years. The questionnaire was a self-completion instrument which the young people completed in the school environment. In 2007, 6902 pupils aged 11-16 took part in the survey. The sample was designed to be representative of all post-primary schools in NI (with the exception of independent schools and those which catered solely for pupils with special needs) and was drawn in two stages.
• Firstly, a sample of post-primary schools was drawn from the complete list held by DENI to represent school size, selection type (secondary, grammar), management group (controlled, voluntary etc.) and education and library board area. These schools were approached and invited to participate in the research, The 70 schools that agreed to participate provided details of the number of classes in years 8-12 together with class names. Within each participating school, one class was randomly selected from each of the year groups and only the pupils from these selected classes were included in the study.
• Trained interviewers from the CSU in NISRA visited each school and assembled the selected pupils in class-sized groups. Each pupil was given a self-completion questionnaire and allowed up to two school periods in which to complete the questionnaire. The interviewers supervised these groups and provided clarification where necessary but otherwise did not interact with the pupils as they completed their questionnaire. To underline the confidentiality of the process, the young people were provided with an envelope into which they placed their completed questionnaire and returned it, sealed, to the interviewer. Sealed envelopes were returned to CSU for data processing.
• The range of topics covered by the 2007 survey was such that it necessitated two versions of the questionnaire. Core topics were included in both versions with additional variable modules. Schools were selected at random to complete one version of the questionnaire or the other. In analysing the results of the study, the sample was weighted to reflect the characteristics of the total population of pupils in the year 8-12 group as reflected in the school census data held by DENI.
  

Main Findings

• Most pupils felt good about their health in general and 12% reported a long-standing illness or disability.
• The majority of pupils have been taught about healthy eating though only 15% usually eat 5 or more portions of fruit or vegetables each day.
• Whilst the majority of pupils generally enjoy doing sport or physical activity and 84% had exercised so that they had become out of breath in the last week, only just under half did so for a total of at least 60 minutes each day for 4 or more days that week, whilst the recommended level of physical activity is 60 minutes every day of the week.
• 43% of pupils live in a household with adults who smoke and most of these adults (57%) smoke inside the home. 24% of pupils had tried smoking and a quarter of these said they smoked everyday.
• 54% of pupils had had an alcoholic drink, and most of these were aged 13 or under when they had their first drink. However, 69% thought that the education they had received on the use of alcohol in the last school year had made them less inclined to drink alcohol. Just under a quarter of pupils have been offered drugs (excluding solvents) and just less than half of these had ever tried or used them, with the four most common drugs being Cannabis, Poppers, Ecstasy and Cocaine. The majority of pupils thought the drug education they had received in the last school year made them less inclined to take drugs.
• 9% of pupils have had sexual intercourse with 81% of them having sexual intercourse for the first time between the ages of 13 and 15. A number of those who had had sexual intercourse had unprotected sex (14% and 3% didn't know). Most Year 11 and 12 pupils knew HIV and AIDS were sexually transmitted diseases but many fewer knew that warts, Syphilis and Hepatitis B.
• Most pupils like school at present. The majority think school is a place where the things they learn are important to them and which will help them in their adult lives. However, 84% of pupils feel a certain amount of stress due to school work and almost 2 in 5 sometimes have difficulty falling asleep because they are thinking about school. 20% had played truant/skipped classes and 7% had at sometime been subject to suspension or expulsion.
• 11% did not plan to stay in education after year 12 and 58% were interested in starting their own business but only 68% of these had an actual business idea.
• Most pupils feel safe in the area that they live yet 12% have carried a knife as a weapon. 16% of pupils had been bullied and over half have seen someone else being bullied.
• Nearly half of pupils had had some type of education on road safety in school but half of all pupils have used a mobile phone to text/call while crossing the road, carried on with friends while crossing the road and never wear a cycle helmet.
• Less than a fifth of year 11 and 12 think it is okay for a man to hit his girlfriend/wife if she has slept with someone else whilst 37% think it is okay for a woman to hit her boyfriend/husband if he has slept with someone else.
• 84% of pupils' fathers and 69% of pupils' mothers currently were in employment. 19% of pupils are entitled to free school meals.
• Most pupils are learning to manage money from their parents/guardians although if they borrowed £50 from their parents/guardians 12% would avoid paying it back.
• The majority of pupils have friends/family that makes them feel an important part of their lives. Half of pupils say that studying Citizenship makes them want to learn more about people who have a different religion to them.
• Almost 4 in 5 pupils would be comfortable being friends with someone of a different race or colour.
• Whilst 11% of pupils participate in voluntary or community work at least weekly, just over a fifth have been noisy or rude near their home so that neighbours have complained and 15% have been involved in vandalism/deliberate damage to property.
• Whilst three quarters of pupils have a school council only 3 in 5 of these pupils think it is an effective way for pupils to get their views across. Almost three quarters of pupils have the chance to give their views about issues that affect them and of these, the majority think that their views are listened to at least sometimes. Almost all pupils (94%) feel that they have family/friends who accept them just as they are.
  

Conclusions

• YPBAS gathers a great wealth of information and results are popular with schools which use the information in lessons. There are now three cycles worth of data spanning eight years that will be available for secondary research. Whilst the topics have changed across time, there are core topics (e.g. smoking, school) that always run. Changes in topics reflect changes in policy and in society since the survey was first conducted in 2000.