A recent study published in the journal BMJ Open finds there has been an increase in the number of children aged 8-12 diagnosed with anorexia. The report found that roughly 3.2 children per 100,000 were thought to have an eating disorder across the UK and Ireland, compared to just 1.5 to 2.1 distinguishable cases in 2006. Findings were based on research with child and adolescent psychologists, who were asked to recount the number of anorexia…
Read more

Our client, innovative children’s publisher Egmont Books, has just announced the launch of an exciting campaign to make daily storytime statutory for Key Stages 1 and 2 (Ages 7-11) in school. This follows FK&Y’s research ‘Stories and Choices’, carried out over the last year with one of our UK Panel schools, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary Academy, Stoke on Trent. The research explored the impact of reading aloud to Key Stage 2 children each day in…
Read more

Children’s charity the NSPCC estimates that up to 201,000 adolescents in the UK are being subject to attempted grooming online. The new findings come from a study carried out by Family Kids & Youth on behalf of the NSPCC in which 2,004 young people aged 11-17 were asked about their use of social media. The research found that at least 1 in 25 children have received a request to send sexually explicit material to an adult…
Read more

Children’s charity Barnardo’s has recently published research exploring the dangers and benefits of social media usage amongst young people. Entitled ‘Left to their Own Devices’, Barnardo’s official report finds children are being exposed to bullying or inappropriate online content at what appears to be alarming rates. The research interviewed child practitioners, 79% of whom say they have worked with victims of cyberbullying, and 78% reporting that they have assisted in helping children who have been…
Read more

The continuing fall in birth rates has left the child population in Japan at a record low since comparable data became available in 1950. Of countries with a population over 40 million, Japan has the lowest proportion of children in the population. 12.1% of the Japanese population are children, South Korea is similar with 12.9%, with Italy and Germany the next lowest at 13.4%. In Japan the current population is 126 million, however it is…
Read more

Figures from BookTrust Represents recently revealed that between 2007-2017, only 5.6% of published children’s authors and illustrators were from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. While the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) found that of all published children’s books in 2018, only 4% featured BAME characters and even fewer, 1%, featured a BAME lead character. The analysis also found that these books tended towards themes of social justice and conflict rather than fun or magical…
Read more

FK&Y has been working closely with St Joseph’s Catholic Academy in Stoke-on-Trent for the past 6 months (September 2018 to February 2019) to explore the impact of reading aloud to children in-school for Egmont’s ‘Stories and Choices’ intervention. Evidence shows that being read to aloud can prompt a greater love of reading and improve children’s emotional wellbeing, but that after the age of eight children are less likely to be read to by parents and…
Read more

Dr Barbie Clarke talks to Sunday Times journalist Lizzie Catt who spent a week as a ‘digital teenager’, learning how young people today get their news and current affairs. With a world full of fake news and dramatic stories, parents can be concerned that their teenagers are vulnerable. However, from the time spent with them Lizzie finds that there is a drive from teenagers to find the real news; they are not to be duped…
Read more

FK&Y are delighted to be presenting new research at the MRS Kids and Youth Research Conference 24 January 2019 Dr Barbie Clarke will be presenting with Lucy Gradillas from mental health charity, Shout, looking at FK&Y’s brand new research that explores children, young people, social media and mental health. We took a new approach to finding out how young people are behaving online. The Kids & Youth Research Conference looks at new approaches to understanding…
Read more

The article from Campaign Asia explains how today’s kids are better than those of previous generations at talking about what’s going on in their emotional lives. Dr Clarke comments on the responsibility of gaming and social media brands to provide more information to help parents become aware of when they need to step in to protect the welfare of their children. The article also looks at the way in which Children’s IKEA keeps in touch…
Read more