A study looking into the use of tablet devices amongst young children finds 3½ year olds who use them are more often frustrated or angry by the time they are 4½  years old, compared to other children the same age. This is associated with a likelihood for  children to spend more screentime at age 5½, with children having ‘tech tantrums’ as a result of their device usage being restricted. The study found that a 75…
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Under planned curriculum changes, children in England will learn to recognise misinformation and extremist online content. Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has announced a review to embed critical thinking skills across subjects, with the aim of protecting children from online conspiracy theories online. Examples include teaching students in English lessons how to analyse newspaper articles to distinguish between fabricated and true stories, in computer lessons how to spot fake news, and in maths lessons learn how…
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Family Kids & Youth presents our research at Children’s Media Conference 2024! We were delighted to present our annual ‘Wellbeing and the Internet’ research at the Children’s Media Conference this week in Sheffield. The brilliant annual conference attracted 950 delegates this year, and FK&Y’s Barbie and Nyasha presented at Cinema 1 under the ‘Understanding Kids’ stream. Comparing back to pre-covid, 2019, we looked at our findings then with results from this year’s research, and the…
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Recent findings from the University of Oregon, USA, have discovered that children’s behaviour can be directly linked to their mother’s early trauma. This may also be the case with children who were not raised by their biological parents and were adopted at birth, and adoptees, whose birth-mother experienced a traumatic childhood. The research team, led by Leslie Leve, a professor in the UO College of Education, and a scientist with the Prevention Science Institute, found…
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Previous research looking at the sibling dynamic has shown how influential having a brother or sister can be throughout one’s lifetime. Characteristics such as delinquency, educational attainment, and emotional regulation can be attributed to the sibling relationship – all features that are explored in a new body of research. Published for the journal Child Development, a team from several prominent universities in the United Kingdom used longitudinal data from the Millennium Cohort Study to determine…
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21st April 2024 – Family Kids & Youth carried out research on behalf of GambleAware July-November last year looking at the impact gambling has on children and young people considered to be vulnerable. We carried out 6 workshops in schools across the UK with 55 children and young people aged 11-17. Respondents included a mix of family income, gender and ethnicity, and included SEND and those with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). The…
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Gen Alpha – those born between 2010-2024 – are increasingly appearing on social media. While many of these children are still too young to use sites such as TikTok or Instagram, their parent-run accounts are attracting millions of views. The US ‘Garza Crew’ family has nearly 5 million followers on TikTok, making 7 year old twins Haven and Koti Garza TikTok stars, with their content frequently amassing millions of views. However their posts have attracted…
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13th March 2024 – We have launched the 6th round of our Wellbeing and the Internet Study this week. Results May 2024. Fieldwork includes 8 online focus groups with boys and girls aged 10-11, 11-12, 13-14 and 15-16, plus 1,000 online interviews with 7-16 year olds across the UK. A syndicated study carried out since 2018, results include data from the last 5 years, edited films from groups and a presentation of results. Clients can…
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15th March 2024 – Ofcom has today published FK&Y’s report ‘Understanding Pathways to Online Violent Content Among Children’. Family Kids and Youth (FK&Y) was commissioned by Ofcom to conduct research to explore the pathways through which children encounter violent content online. The research consisted of 2 focus groups with professionals (including teachers, specialists who work with vulnerable children, and youth social workers), 15 in-school workshops with a total of 232 children aged 8 to 17…
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Figures from the Department for Education show that the number of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) increased by around 87,000 between 2021/22 and 2022/23, while the number of state-funded special school places rose by only 7,000 in the same timescale. Figures also found that last year there were over 8,000 children who had been allocated an EOTAS (Education Other Than At School) status – that is children who need to be educated outside of…
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