August 19, 2024
Supporting children's transition to secondary school
Supporting children to successfully transition from primary to secondary or senior school is vitally important. It's a big life change, which can leave both parents and children feeling excited and nervous in equal measure. At Tooled Up, we often use the analogy of a journey for the transitional experience. In fact, anyone who has attended or watched a talk with our founder, Dr Kathy Weston, is likely to have heard her say that we'd all want our children to be well prepared for any journey they go on, and that, as loving parents and carers, we wouldn't dream of sending them off on any journey without the right equipment, mindset and strategies to reach their destination safely and securely. Transition to a new school is no different.
Research shows that there are numerous holistic protective factors that can help to ease transition. Conversely, it's also the case that problems with successfully transitioning to secondary school and subsequent lower levels of school connectedness are associated with lower education outcomes, school drop-out, higher levels of depression and anxiety, and increased involvement in criminal, violent and antisocial behaviour. Research also shows that these difficulties may not be equal across different socio-demographic variables, with children from underserved communities (including those from minority ethnic backgrounds and lower socio-economic status) and children with behavioural difficulties facing greater challenges during the transition to secondary school. It's therefore important for all parents and educators to consider how to make this transition as seamless as possible.
Along with her co-authors, our Researcher of the Month, Dr Aurelie Lange, has published a new paper which evaluates the efficacy of a new UK-based online intervention called Level Up. In it, Dr Lange seeks to explore families' experiences of facilitators and barriers to engagement and change.
Summary
Level Up, a psychoeducational and therapy-based intervention which was developed by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, consisted of five online group sessions for families taking place over the summer holidays between Year 6 and Year 7. The intervention was aimed at children identified by their teachers as being at risk of developing a range of behavioural and emotional problems during the school transition.
Despite the important position that parents and carers hold during the transitional period, previous research has shown that less than half of the interventions supporting school-to-school transitions involve parents. The Level Up sessions worked with both children and their parents/carers, and aimed to help them identify the potential strengths and risks of school transition, and consider how to manage some of the feelings that it might give rise to. The sessions also sought to identify struggles that children may face in terms of academic achievement and behaviour in school, and to build children's resilience. Some of the activities focused on helping children to consider the available support and resources within their community, and what they could do to make it even better. The final session reviewed the children’s move to secondary school and reflected on possible changes that had occurred since then.
In analysing the programme's efficacy, the research team interviewed 14 children and 17 parents/carers who took part in Level Up. The participants described various facilitators and barriers to effective engagement with the intervention. They found that the safe, supportive, non-judgemental and fun space offered by the programme helped them to engage and learn, as did the sense of connection forged in the group sessions (though some participants highlighted problematic group dynamics). Inviting both children and parents to the programme also provided a valuable opportunity for parents and children to talk about the upcoming transition and spend time together.
Whilst a small number of participants felt the progamme had limited positive impact, for most, it helped ease the transition to secondary school. Children reported feeling more confident and less worried about their school change after completing the programme and parents also felt that their anxieties lessened. Participants also felt that Level Up helped with forming friendships and developed greater social confidence which benefited children once they started secondary school. Parents also reported feeling more confident in their parenting role.
There are no current plans to launch Level Up as a large scale intervention. However, the trial provides valuable learnings for both educators and families.
Implications
"To achieve a smooth transition, it seems crucial to create a safe, supporting, and fun space where parents and carers and children can connect."
Implications for schools
Provide a bridge. The paper notes that there is a need for interventions which provide an actual bridge between primary and secondary school. When planning your transition provision, think about what might best facilitate this kind of support.
Remember the power of parents. Empowering parents with the skills to help their children through school transition is vital. Encouraging parents to think about their own feelings about the upcoming change, and providing holistic, evidence-based advice about the best way to support children's wellbeing during this period is likely to be effective. It's worth considering what opportunities you might be able to offer which encourage parents and children to think through the upcoming change together. This is likely to be particularly beneficial for pupils identified as at-risk of struggling with transition.
Implications for parents
Assess your own mindset. Do you feel anxious about your child’s next steps? If the answer is yes, it’s optimal to try to approach this constructively. Jotting down the things that are worrying you, or talking them through with a partner, friend, or your child’s new school, might help to alleviate them. We don’t want to unwittingly pass on our own concerns to our children.
Talk about change in positive terms. Try to exude a sense of excitement about the new school start and confidence in your child’s ability to settle in well. Where possible, strive to model confidence around change, an acceptance that we can’t control absolutely everything, and show your children that you have a strong sense of belief in their skills and capacity to both cope and thrive.
Think about changes that have opened up opportunities in the past. What seemed scary at the time, but led to new friendships or valuable experiences? Remind children that change might not always feel welcome, and it’s natural to feel some anticipatory anxiety, but it can also lead to exciting outcomes. For Tooled Up members, our activity might help.
If your child does seem anxious, these tried and tested strategies might offer some support through starting school nerves. They might find it helpful to draw things that they are worried about, add worries to a family wobble jar, or visualise their first few days at school and work out together what things they can control and influence.
Role play. Nearer the start of the school term, together with your child, you might practise openers for conversations with new people or think about ways to initiate interactions at break times.
Lean in. Ask your child how they are doing. Find out what they are looking forward to and what they aren’t. These kinds of conversations shouldn’t be one offs. You have the time to dip in at natural and appropriate opportunities over the summer holiday.
Tooled Up members can access a huge range of resources designed to support school transition for different ages and stages. Check them out here.
Dr Aurelie Lange
Senior Researcher, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Dr Aurelie Lange studied Pedagogical Sciences at Utrecht University and completed her PhD in 2018 at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. She works as a researcher at the Youth Care research group on various projects. Before this, she worked at various mental health/youth care institutions in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and has conducted qualitative and quantitative research into the effectiveness and implementation of interventions for young people and families.
Dr Aurelie Lange
Senior Researcher, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Scroll our research gallery
Oct 17, 2024
How influential is social media on young people's mental health?
A significant body of evidence tells us that young people's mental health has decreased over time, and a potential link between social media use and this mental health decline has triggered wide interest and concern. Research into social media use and mental health is being conducted at a rapid pace but, so far, findings are far from conclusive. Our new Researcher of the Month, Dr Margarita Panayiotou, adds to this body of work. She led a team of researchers who recently published a study involving thousands of young people in the UK. It set out to explore the interplay between social media use and teens' mental health, wellbeing and social life, and found that when considering the complex combination of multiple factors, things such as a lack of family support are arguably more important for adolescent mental health than social media use.
Sep 16, 2024
How do young children’s relationships with parents and teachers impact their adjustment to school?
We already know that children's relationships with their parents and teachers contribute to their school adjustment and achievement, and that positive, close relationships with adults are really important for a wide variety of children’s outcomes. However, few studies have examined interactions between these relationships or sought to address the nuances of children’s experiences in terms of how different relationships have different impact or influence. To address this, along with colleagues, our new Researcher of the Month, Dr Caoimhe Dempsey, has recently published an article which aims to examine the links between children's relationships with their mothers, fathers and teachers, and three domains of school adjustment: academic achievement, academic self-concept and behavioural adjustment in the classroom. By examining a range of data, the researchers sought to find out whether some children are more susceptible to the effects of the quality of their relationship with their teacher.
Jul 15, 2024
The impact of digital experiences on teens with mental health vulnerabilities
Over the last decade, digital developments have led to major changes in the ways that teens learn, work, play and interact with others. Digital access is a daily reality for most children and young people. Nine in 10 children in the UK now own a smartphone by the time they reach the age of 11, and the large majority of children aged 11 now use social media (78%) and have a social media profile (72%), despite being younger than the minimum age requirement for many platforms. By the time teens are 17 years old, 97% will use social media. Coincident with this change, adolescent mental health problems have also increased in prevalence. It is therefore no surprise that much research has focused on the relationship between digital experiences and adolescent mental health. However, comparatively few studies have directly compared the experiences of teens with mental health conditions meaning that some key questions remain unanswered. Do adolescents with pre‐existing mental health conditions differ in terms of why and how they engage with the digital world compared to peers without such difficulties? Are specific mental health conditions linked to different patterns of digital usage? What role do such differences play in the development and escalation of these conditions? In a recent paper, our Researcher of the Month, Dr Kasia Kostyrka-Allchorne, and her colleagues, explore what the evidence shows about the digital experiences of teens with mental health vulnerabilities.
Jun 13, 2024
NELI Preschool: a new oral language enrichment programme for preschools and nurseries
Oral language skills provide the foundation for formal education, yet many children enter school with language weaknesses. Oral language is fundamental to children’s overall development and educational success. It is linked to all higher level cognitive skills and is pivotal for literacy development, and education more generally. It’s also vitally important for children’s social and emotional development. The term oral language refers to a complex set of skills that should ideally work seamlessly together to enable children to communicate with others by producing and understanding language. It’s an umbrella term, encompassing numerous component skills which include having a good vocabulary and the grammatical ability to combine words effectively to convey meaning, along with an understanding of cause and effect, memory skills and the ability to plan what to say and what not to say. Language skills develop rapidly between the ages of 3–6 years making preschool an excellent time to intervene to support language development. Because of this, Dr Gill West and her colleagues – as part of a team headed by Professor Charles Hulme – have developed and evaluated the efficacy of a new language enrichment programme, the Nuffield Early Language Intervention—Preschool (NELI Preschool), which is delivered to children the year before they enter formal education. The programme combines language enrichment for all children, with additional targeted support for those with language needs, potentially narrowing the gap in language skills associated with social disadvantage.
May 16, 2024
"More is more”: the impact of careers education on later outcomes
Does school-based careers education, advice, information and guidance (CEAIG) have any influence on later life outcomes? A body of research has shown that careers education and activities can play an important role in helping young people to prepare for and navigate transitions into the world of work. It has also shown that the quality and quantity of provision can vary considerably, with those who are most socially disadvantaged experiencing the least and lowest quality provision. However, until now, the impact of careers education on later life outcomes has remained unclear. A new paper written by Dr Julie Moote and colleagues seeks to find out what relationship there is between young people’s perceptions of the quality and quantity of school-based careers activities and education experienced at the age of 14–16 and their outcomes several years later, when they are 21–22. Findings are discussed in the light of recent legislation relating to careers support in England, which highlights how important it is to ensure that the needs of all young people transitioning into the workforce and adulthood are met.
Apr 11, 2024
STEM in preschool settings: do teachers’ scientific questions differ by child gender?
In the US, as in numerous countries including the UK, female and non-White students are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) fields. A significant body of research demonstrates significant gender disparities in STEM achievement, participation and attitudes from early childhood, and that these continue to widen as children get older. Children are strongly influenced by their early environments and conversations with adults. Whilst gendered messages around STEM are now rarely explicit – children are unlikely to be told that girls can’t be scientists – they may receive more subtle messages about representation and belonging. These differences may contribute to children’s beliefs about their own STEM ability, their performance in STEM activities, and their decision to pursue a career in STEM. US researcher, Dr Sona Kumar, and her colleagues sought to explore whether there are subtle differences in the messages that preschool educators send girls and boys about STEM. Previous, older research with caregivers found that parents tended to provide more scientific explanations to boys than to girls. Studies have also found that, within classroom settings, boys often receive more attention from teachers on science-related subjects than girls. Dr Kumar predicted that teachers would direct more scientific questions to boys than girls and tested this by observing a preschool setting.
Mar 14, 2024
Do parental controls work and what are the pros and cons?
Policymakers and technology companies promote the use of parental control tools to ensure children’s safety in our digital age. In recent years, there has been considerable industry investment in this new generation of technical child protection measures, designed to help parents and carers to control what their children see and do online. Some of these tools operate at the level of the device (such as a phone or tablet). Other tools are embedded into specific services, such as Snapchat, or streaming services such as Netflix. Others work at the level of the operating system, such as IOS, Android or Windows, or are provided by your broadband company. Control tools vary in functionality. Some allow parents to limit the amount of time that children spend on a device or particular app. Others can track their child’s location. Internet filters block certain categories of content (violence, adult content or gambling, for example), or specific websites. There are other tools that track children’s online activity (search history, online purchases or activity logs, for example) and provide reports or real-time alerts to parents. Some tools track activity and interactions on social media platforms and can limit children’s contact with unknown users. But how many families actually make use of them, and do they work? Our Researcher of the Month, Dr Mariya Stoilova, and her colleagues, reviewed all available evidence in a recently published study.
Feb 09, 2024
BMI, body dissatisfaction and depression: positive steps forward
We know that more adolescents are experiencing depressive symptoms than in the past, but we don’t yet know precisely why. Noting a need to understand modifiable risk factors for depression, which could inform future preventative work, our researcher of the month, Dr Francesca Solmi, and her team, have recently published new and novel findings about the impact of high BMI and body dissatisfaction on children’s later mental health. They “found strong longitudinal evidence that a high BMI in childhood is linked with an increased risk of depressive symptoms multiple years later” and discovered that body dissatisfaction accounts for a significant proportion of this link, finding strong evidence that being unhappy with one’s appearance at the age of 11 is linked with increased depressive symptoms during the teen years.
Jan 15, 2024
New study links energy drinks to mental health problems in young people
We’ve all seen the vast array of colourful cans and bottles in the supermarket. Perhaps you are a fan yourself. But did you know that, in 2020, the energy drinks market was worth $45.8 billion globally? It is a large and expanding market, projected to grow at an annual rate of 8.2%, and reach a whopping $108.40 billion by 2031. Despite the fact that these products typically contain very high levels of both caffeine and sugar, and warnings on labels that they are ‘not recommended for children’, they are extremely popular with young people. In fact, if you have offspring of a certain age, you are likely aware that 2023 was the year of Prime, a product popularised on social media. Initially, Prime was a hydration drink, but the range has since expanded to include an energy drink containing caffeine. It became so popular among teens that bottles were spotted selling for £18 in some shops (and more on resale sites), despite the recommended retail price being only £2.99. Research from a few years ago had already found that up to a third of children in the UK consume caffeinated energy drinks on a weekly basis and ranked young people in the UK as the biggest consumers of energy drinks in Europe for their age group. 13% identified as high chronic consumers – having energy drinks four to five times a week, or more. Published today (15th January), the most comprehensive evidence review to date has found that consuming energy drinks is associated with a wide range of risks, including increased risk of mental health issues among children and young people. Our researcher of the month, Professor Amelia Lake, along with co-author Dr Shelina Visram and the rest of the team at FUSE (the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health) at Teesside University and Newcastle University, examined data from 57 studies of over 1.2 million children and young people from more than 21 countries. The study’s findings build on earlier research and highlight numerous risks associated with energy drinks.
Dec 11, 2023
Mainstreaming the Black Pill: Incels on TikTok
You may well have heard of incels (involuntary celibates). Following several violent attacks associated with the ideology, this subgroup of the ‘manosphere’ has recently received a significant amount of media interest. Once mostly contained on niche men’s forums, incel communities and theories are gaining prominence on mainstream social media platforms. The incels are an online community whose members define themselves by their inability to form or access sexual relationships with women. They believe that society is stratified according to physical attractiveness. Women and attractive men are privileged, and unattractive men (like them) are excluded from sexual or romantic relationships. The ‘black pill’ ideology maintains that unattractive men cannot escape their romantic fate because their unattractiveness is pre-determined by genetic factors. Incels believe that their physical traits are substandard and that they are therefore discriminated against by women based on their physical appearance. Misogynistic incels believe that this social structure has been created by women and encouraged by feminists. They consider women to be privileged, entitled, lookist and promiscuous, and believe that women always choose the most physically attractive men and exclude those who are less attractive, using pseudoscience and evolutionary psychology to reinforce their claims. Whilst previous research considerably enhanced our understanding of the incel phenomenon and their presence on Reddit and secluded incel forums, incel’s presence on mainstream social media platforms is understudied and their presence on TikTok is yet to be addressed. Our Researcher of the Month, Anda Solea, is hoping to fill this research gap and has recently co-authored a paper on the incel subculture on TikTok. It examines the presence and spread of misogynistic narratives linked to incels on TikTok and YouTube aims to identify the mechanisms that drive engagement to such content.