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Appendix II: Additional quantitative analysis, tables and graphs

Figure 1 Illustration of the structure of the ChildLine dataset.

Table 1 Children and Young People's Concerns in Rank Order (Highest to Lowest) 2003 and 2004 inclusive

Note. As a small number of cases had more than one main problem the percentage of cases sums to more than 100 and the sum of the number of cases will be more than the total number.

Table 2 Girls' Concerns in Rank Order (Highest to Lowest) 2003 and 2004 inclusive

Note. As a small number of cases had more than one main problem the percentage of cases sums to more than 100 and the sum of the number of cases will be more than the total number.

Table 3 Boys' Concerns in Rank Order (Highest to Lowest) 2003 and 2004 inclusive

Note. As a small number of cases had more than one main problem the percentage of cases sums to more than 100 and the sum of the number of cases will be more than the total number.

Figure 1 Children's and Young People's Cases by Age

Figure 2 Male Cases by Age

Figure 3 Female Cases by Age

Figure 4 Children's and Young People's Cases by Age and Sex

Figure 5 Children's and Young People's Concerns by Age

Figure 6 Children's and Young People's Concerns by Age and Sex

Further data

Table 2 Percentage of cases with sexual issue as main and additional problem and overall prevalence of each problem.

Prevalence by sex

Table 3 gives for girls and boys the percentage of cases of each type. In numerical terms, girls were most likely to raise each issue. The rank frequency of problems for girls was facts of life, sexual abuse, pregnancy, relationships and sexuality. For boys it was facts of life, sexual abuse, sexuality, relationships and pregnancy.

Table 3 Percentage of young girls and boys reporting each problem

Proportionally (and controlling for age), when boys contacted Childline they were more likely to speak about the facts of life (p < 0.01), sexual abuse (p < 0.01) and sexuality (p < 0.01) than girls were. They were proportionally less likely to call about pregnancy (p <0.01) and relationships (p < 0.01) than girls were.

It should be remembered that proportions are based on cases featuring the five sexual health issues and not all cases covered by Childline.

Average age

Table 4 shows the mean age of young people by type of main problem. Sexual abuse cases had the lowest mean age with relationship cases the highest mean age. Tables a1 to a10 in the appendix give a detailed breakdown of the percentage and number of young people calling about each subject by their age and sex.

Table 4 Mean age by sexual health problem and sex

Additional problems associated with sexual health cases

Of the 10,716 sexual health issue cases, 4,490 (42%) had one or more additional problems. By far the most common additional problem recorded was family relationships. Table 4 in the main report, p 13, (and below) gives the top five additional problems for each of the five sexual issues.

Although the facts of life was the most frequent main problem such cases did not often have additional issues (20% of cases), with family relationships - the most frequent - featuring in only five per cent of facts of life cases. On the other hand sexual abuse cases (77% of cases) often had additional problems, most commonly family relationships (57%) (perhaps reflecting the high level of family based abuse).

Physical abuse was also mentioned in 13% of sexual abuse cases. It was also associated with parental divorce and separation in 8% of cases. Although not in the top five additional problems associated with sexual abuse, school problems (5%), relationships (5%), bullying (3%), emotional abuse (3%), problems with friends (3%), facts of life (3%), suicide (2%), alcohol (2%) and runaway (2%) were also mentioned.

Family relationships was recorded as an additional problem in over a quarter of pregnancy cases and this was the most common additional problem in sexuality cases as well (10%). In cases where relationship issues were the main problem facts of life was the most common additional problem. Finally, in sexuality cases, family relationship was, again, the most common additional problem recorded.

Table 3 Additional problems associated with cases (only shows additional problems occurring in 1% or more of all cases).

Table 4 Top five additional problems for each main sexual issue. Percentage of each case type mentioning the additional problem.

Classification of facts of life and sexual abuse cases

Facts of life and sexual abuse cases were further classified to reflect the detail of the call. Childline use three summary codes for facts of life cases. Sixty five per cent of these cases received further classification. Of these the most widely used classification was the broad category of facts of life (table 8). Just under 10% of facts of life cases were classified as the young person calling about a 'crush or fancying someone' and just under five per cent about self image / self esteem. There were only small variations in the proportion of boys and girls raising each type of issue.

Table 8 Classification of facts of life cases

Eight summary codes are used by Childline for cases featuring sexual abuse, 82% of which were further classified. Table 8 lists these and gives the average age, age range and percentage of girls / boys reporting the particular problem. About 6% of classified sexual abuse cases featured more than one classification. The most common combinations (just under 3% each of classified cases) were touching with harassment and touching with rape. Rape was the most common classification followed by touching. There were few variations in the proportions of boys and girls reporting each type of abuse.

Table 9 Classification of sexual abuse cases

¹ Total of sexual abuse cases with a descriptive code.
² Because of multiple coding percentages sum to more than 100

Perpetrators of sexual abuse

Most (94%) sexual abuse cases recorded details of the perpetrator. Table 9 shows the type of perpetrator and the percentage in each group who were male and female. (It was possible to identify the perpetrator's gender in 90% of cases where the perpetrator was recorded). In total, 48 per cent of perpetrators were a parental figure, 38% being the child's 'natural' parent; most commonly the father (71% of 'natural' parents). Overall, four fifths of perpetrators were male. Table 10 shows that boys were nearly as likely to report abuse by males as abuse by females. For girls the majority of cases featured abuse by males.

Table 10 Perpetrators of sexual abuse and their gender

Excludes 231 cases where no details were given about the perpetrator.
Because of rounding percentages may not sum to 100.

Table 11 Gender of perpetrator by child's gender in sexual abuse cases.

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