Competence

Competence among school-aged children is defined by a sense of opportunity and achievement in those things at which they strive to do well, most notably school and the feeling of opportunity this creates.

A noticeable proportion of children self report that they do not intend to graduate. In Grade 7 close to 20% of boys compared to 10% of girls are more likely to consider dropping out.

The study points towards a decreasing sense of school accomplishment by children in their middle years. The downward trend in perceived achievement is particularly true for boys where the percentage who say they get good grades drops from 39% to 23% from Grade 4 to Grade 7. Girls also decline from 40% to 34%.

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Body Image

The research asked children a number of questions that relate to body size and how they perceive this in a social context. In particular, the research focused on whether children believe they are over or under weight and whether they have experienced any teasing related to their physical appearance.

According to the study:

• Almost 60% of children perceived their bodies to be about right, while fully 20% of boys and girls believed themselves to be overweight to some degree.

• Children reported increased levels of depression and anxiety if they perceived themselves to be overweight.

• Nearly one-third of all boys and girls have been teased at some point about what they look like. That teasing goes up from Grade 4 to Grade 7. By Grade 7, 37% of girls report being teased - a 24% increase. Interestingly, more boys report being teased about their bodies in Grade 7 than girls.

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Social and Emotional Health

What does this mean?

How a child feels about him or herself, levels of self esteem, satisfaction with life, and overall outlook are common elements of social and emotional health. These are often key indicators of a child’s overall health and well-being.

There is a consistent downward trend in children’s social and emotional health from Grade 4 to Grade 7. We can also clearly see that this is more pronounced for boys than for girls.

Social Responsibility

Children’s composite responses to a series of questions that relate to “social responsibility” were used in the study to indicate their overall social awareness and responsibility. Although levels of social responsibility are relatively high, we can also see that they drop consistently as children near Grade 7 and this trend is particularly marked for boys.

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Connectedness

School Connectedness
Just as children are being asked to perform at a higher level at school, they are beginning to feel less of a sense of belonging to their schools. Again, this trend is more marked for boys than girls.

Community Connectedness
Children reported consistently higher levels of well-being, against every measure, the greater the number of adults they can identify in their community as knowing or caring about them. The research asked children a range of questions related to connectedness to adults in the community, from knowledge of programs to places to go if you have problems.

We know from research that the more adults with whom children could identify, the better their social and emotional health. The research shows that close to 50% of children (a consistent level across all grades) indicated more than two important adults, whereas almost one-third could not identify any.

A surprising number of children, approximately 32% of Grade 7 students, said that they did not know of organizations in their community that provide programs for them. A further 56% of Grade 7 students said they did not know of organizations which could help them in time of need.

Peer Connectedness
We know that children associate more with peers as they age. We also know as children get older they see friendship differently. Quality of friendship (having a friend who cares, talks to them, and helps with problems) becomes more important than quantity.

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