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Chapter 2 Quantitative Results
2.1 Age and sex
Three quarters of the young people who called were female. Ages ranged from 5 to 18. The mean age of young people was 13.5 (13.9 for boys, 13.4 for girls), the median age was 13 and the modal age was 14 (15 for boys and 14 for girls). Table 1 gives a detailed breakdown of age by gender and shows that calls from under 10s were relatively rare (6% of males and 5% of females).
Table 2 Age at first call by sex (column percentages)
Age at first call | Overall | Girls | Boys |
|---|
% | N | % | N | (%) | N |
|---|
5 | < 1 | 22 | < 1 | 12 | < 1 | 10 |
|---|
6 | < 1 | 38 | < 1 | 30 | < 1 | 8 |
|---|
7 | 1 | 94 | 1 | 66 | 1 | 27 |
|---|
8 | 1 | 129 | 1 | 86 | 2 | 43 |
|---|
9 | 2 | 224 | 2 | 161 | 2 | 62 |
|---|
10 | 5 | 485 | 5 | 367 | 4 | 110 |
|---|
11 | 6 | 678 | 7 | 538 | 5 | 121 |
|---|
12 | 13 | 1,382 | 14 | 1,109 | 10 | 253 |
|---|
13 | 17 | 1,821 | 19 | 1,466 | 12 | 316 |
|---|
14 | 18 | 1,978 | 19 | 1,526 | 16 | 425 |
|---|
15 | 17 | 1,803 | 16 | 1,225 | 21 | 544 |
|---|
16 | 11 | 1,203 | 10 | 812 | 15 | 377 |
|---|
17 | 5 | 531 | 4 | 311 | 8 | 213 |
|---|
18 | 2 | 232 | 2 | 135 | 3 | 90 |
|---|
Total number | 10,620 | 7,844 | 2,559 |
|---|
Because of rounding percentages may not sum to exactly 100
2.2 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
| Girls (%) | Boys (%) |
|---|
Facts of life | 41 | 43 |
|---|
Sexual abuse | 25 | 39 |
|---|
Pregnancy | 23 | 5 |
|---|
Relationships | 9 | 6 |
|---|
Sexuality | 4 | 8 |
|---|
Total number | 7844 | 2599 |
|---|
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. ( NB. It should be remembered that proportions are based on cases featuring the five sexual health issues and not all cases covered by CLS.)
2.3 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 relationship. Table 4 gives the top five additional problems for each of the five main sexual issues.
Table 4 Percentage of each case type mentioning the additional problem.
Facts of life | Sexual abuse | Pregnancy | Relationships | Sexuality |
|---|
Family relationships (5%) | Family relationships (57%) | Family relationships (27%) | Facts of life (12%) | Family (10%) |
Relationships (4%) | Physical abuse (13%) | Relationships (7%) | Family relationships (11%) | Facts of life (7%) |
Bullying (4%) | Parents div / sep (8%) | Facts of life (5%) | Problems with friends (7%) | Bullying (7%) |
Problems with friends (3%) | Pregnancy (7%) | Sexual abuse (4%) | Pregnancy (4%) | Problems with friends (7%) |
Health (1%) | Bereavement (7%) | Parents div / sep (3%) | Physical abuse (4%) | Relationships (2%) |
Although 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.
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