Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2022 - wave 3 follow up to the 2017 survey

This section of the report presents findings on problems with sleep and loneliness, as well as on substance use, online gambling and self-harm.

Parents of 7 to 10 year olds were asked whether their child had problems getting to sleep, waking in the night, or waking early in the previous 7 days. They were also asked on how many days their child had experienced each problem. The number of nights they experienced each problem was added together to get the total number of times they had experienced a sleep problem over the previous 7 days.

Older children aged 11 to 16 years, and young people aged 17 to 24 years were asked these questions directly.

These questions were asked in 2021 and 2022.

In 2022, 34.0% of children aged 7 to 16 years had a problem with sleep 3 or more times over the previous 7 nights.

Of children with a probable mental disorder, 72.3% had a sleep problem 3 or more times over the previous 7 nights compared with 22.9% of those unlikely to have a mental disorder. Girls with a probable mental disorder (82.4%) were more likely to have had a sleep problem 3 or more times than boys with a probable mental disorder (64.2%). Rates of sleeping problems were similar in 2021 and 2022.

In 2022, 64.0% of young people aged 17 to 23 years had a problem with sleep 3 or more times over the previous 7 nights; almost twice the rate in children aged 7 to 16 years. This figure was higher for young women (76.7%) compared with young men (52.3%).

Rates of sleep problems were higher in young people with a probable mental disorder, 89.5% had a sleep problem 3 or more times over the previous 7 days, compared with 51.5% of those unlikely to have a mental disorder.

Rates of sleeping problems were similar in 2021 and 2022.

For more information see: Table 2.1 of the Excel data tables.

Figure 2.1 base: 7 to 23 year olds.

Children aged 11 to 16 years, and young people aged 17 to 24 years were asked how often they felt lonely. These questions were asked in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Comparisons are therefore presented for children and young people aged 11 to 22 years.

In 2022, 5.2% of children aged 11 to 16 years said they often or always felt lonely. This was similar for boys and girls.

Children with a probable mental disorder were more likely to feel lonely; 18.0% of those with a probable mental disorder said they felt lonely often or always, compared with 1.7% of those unlikely to have a mental disorder.

Rates of loneliness were similar in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

For more information see: Table 2.2a of the Excel data tables.

In 2022, 12.6% of young people aged 17 to 22 years reported often or always feeling lonely, this was more than double the figure for children aged 11 to 16 years (5.2%). Loneliness levels were similar for young men and young women.

Loneliness was higher among young people with a probable mental disorder, 28.9% reported that they often or always felt lonely, compared with 5.2% of those unlikely to have a mental disorder.

Rates of loneliness were similar in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

For more information see: Table 2.2a and Table 2.2b of the Excel data tables.

Figure 2.2 base: 11 to 22 year olds.

Children aged 11 to 16 years, and young people aged 17 to 24 years, were asked on how many of the past 7 days they had done each of the following:

• had a drink containing alcohol
• used cannabis or other drugs
• smoked 1 or more cigarettes
• gambled money online

Children aged 11 to 16 years were only asked about gambling money online in 2022. For the other behaviours, comparisons are presented for 2020, 2021 and 2022.

In 2022, most children aged 11 to 16 years reported that they had not had alcohol (94.1%), cigarettes (98.5%), or cannabis and other drugs (98.8%) in the previous 7 days. The vast majority of children also reported that they had not gambled money online (99.6%).

For more information see: Table 2.3 of the Excel data tables.

In 2022, the majority of young people aged 17 to 22 years reported that they had not smoked cigarettes (86.0%) or used cannabis and other drugs (88.8%) in the previous 7 days.

In terms of alcohol consumption in the previous 7 days:

• 47.2% reported they had not drunk alcohol
• 42.4% said they had drunk alcohol on 1 to 3 days
• 6.8% said they had drunk alcohol on 4 to 5 days
• 3.6% had drunk alcohol on 6 or 7 days

Therefore, 52.8% of 17 to 22 year olds had drunk alcohol on at least 1 day in the previous 7 days.

In terms of gambling online in the previous 7 days:

• 94.2% said they had not gambled online at all
• 5.1% reported gambling online on 1 to 3 days
• 0.5% had gambled on 4 to 5 days
• 0.2% had gambled on 6 or 7 days

Therefore, 5.8% of 17 to 22 year olds had gambled money online at least once in the previous 7 days.

Rates of substance use were similar in young men and young women, but young men (8.7%) were more likely than young women (2.6%) to report having gambled with money online at least once in the past 7 days.

Young people with a probable mental disorder were less likely to say they had not smoked in the previous 7 days (77.0%) than those unlikely to have a mental disorder (91.1%).

There were no statistically significant differences between rates in 2020, 2021 and 2022 in this age group for any of the behaviours examined with 1 exception. The proportion of young people who had not drunk alcohol at all in the previous 7 days was higher in 2021 than in 2022. In 2021, 56.7% of young people had not drunk alcohol in the previous 7 days, compared with 47.2% in 2022. However, figures for 2022 were similar to those for 2020.

For more information see: Table 2.3 of the Excel data tables.

Figure 2.3 base: 17 to 22 year olds.

Parents of those aged 7 to 16 years were asked whether their child had either talked about harming themselves or had tried to harm themselves in the past 4 weeks. They were also asked whether they had tried to harm themselves at any point in their life. The same questions were asked directly to young people aged 17 to 24 years.

These questions were included in 2022 only. Similar questions were asked in the 2017 survey, however the questions had to be modified to allow them to be asked in an online rather than face to face survey.

While the 2017 survey asked whether a child or young person had tried to harm or kill themselves, in 2022, the questions only asked about harming themselves. Direct comparisons should therefore not be made with the estimates in the 2017 report.

According to parent report, 2.9% of children aged 7 to 16 years had talked about harming themselves and 2.5% had tried to harm themselves in the past 4 weeks.

Regarding lifetime rates, 7.8% of children had ever self-harmed. Girls aged 7 to 16 years were more likely to have ever self-harmed than boys of this age (9.7% compared with 6.0%).

Self-harm was more common in children with a probable mental disorder:

• 12.6% of children with a probable mental disorder had talked about self-harm in the past 4 weeks compared with 0.6% of those unlikely to have a mental disorder
• 10.2% of children with a probable mental disorder had tried to harm themselves in the past 4 weeks, compared with 0.6% of those unlikely to have a mental disorder
• 28.3% of children with a probable mental disorder had ever tried to harm themselves, compared with 2.5% of those unlikely to have a mental disorder

Girls with a probable mental disorder were more likely to have ever tried to harm themselves. Over their lifetime, 38.6% of girls with a probable mental disorder had tried to harm themselves, compared with 19.9% of boys with a probable mental disorder.

For more information see: Table 2.4a of the Excel data tables.

Figure 2.4 base: 7 to 16 year olds.

Overall, 9.0% of young people aged 17 to 24 years reported having talked about harming themselves in the past 4 weeks, and 4.0% said they had tried to harm themselves in the same period. 32.8% of young people reported having ever self-harmed.

Young women were more likely to have talked about self-harm in the past 4 weeks than young men (12.4% compared with 5.8%). Rates of lifetime self-harm were also higher in young women (42.8%) than young men (23.3%). There was no statistically significant difference in rates of having tried to self-harm in the past 4 weeks between young men and young women.

As with children, self-harm was more common in young people with a probable mental disorder:

• 28.1% of young people with a probable mental disorder had talked about self-harm in the past 4 weeks, compared with 2.1% of those unlikely to have a mental disorder
• 15.8% of young people with a probable mental disorder had tried to harm themselves in the past 4 weeks, compared with 0.3% of those unlikely to have a mental disorder
• 68.6% of young people with a probable mental disorder had ever tried to harm themselves, compared with 17.8% of those unlikely to have a mental disorder

For more information see: Table 2.4b of the Excel data tables.

Figure 2.5 base: 17 to 24 year olds.