Well-being

Dr Emily Lowthian (Swansea university) and Dr Knight (University of Bristol) have recently published their final report following their project on "Quantifying The Impact Of Additional Learning Needs Identification In Wales". We accessed administrative data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, a trusted research environment based at Swansea University. Data were linked from the Welsh education and health datasets for each learner, where we followed those who were born between 2002 - 2008 for around 10 - 16 years until 2018.

We found that nearly half of learners born in 2002/3 (47.9%) were identified with Special Educational Needs (SEN) /Additional Learning Needs (ALN), challenging the notion that it only affects a minority. Key factors influencing SEN identification include receiving free school meals (FSM), low attendance, male gender, deprivation, lack of breastfeeding, and being born in summer, which increase the likelihood of SEN identification.

In terms of attainment, for every 1% increase in time spent identified with SEN/ALN, the odds of meeting national expectations decreased by 4%.

A learner with SEN for 25% of school time had a 64% lower chance of meeting expectations, while 50% and 75% SEN time reduced chances by 87% and 95%, respectively.

 Learners identified with SEN for 100% of their time faced a 98% decrease in the odds of meeting expectations.

SEN identification was the strongest predictor of attainment, even when accounting for other factors, highlighting the system’s limited ability to mitigate its impact on academic outcomes and questioning the validity of national benchmarks.

We also found that educational outcomes varied by type of need identified. Each 1% increase in time spent with dyslexia reduced the odds of meeting national expectations by 1%, while ADHD and BESD decreased it by 2%.

Autism had the most significant impact, reducing expectations by 3% for each additional 1% of time spent. Lastly, we found that the earlier the learner was identified with SEN, the more likely they were to not meet the nationally expected levels of attainment. This finding shows that access to SEN provision for a longer period does not mitigate the negative impact of SEN on academic outcomes. This suggests a challenge in providing sustained and effective support to learners with SEN, demanding a closer examination of the existing support structures and strategies to better meet the evolving needs of these students over time.

These findings have gone on to attract significant media attention including The Conversation (1), The Times (2), BBC News Wales (3) featuring a piece by Dr Knight. They were also covered on “More or Less: Behind the Stats” (4) podcast featuring Dr Lowthian as a guest. This highlights the growing interest in this social phenomenon and emphasises the importance of engaging with practitioners, especially educators in schools, to maximise the transferability of these findings, particularly in the current policy context of transition to the new ALN Act.

1 https://theconversation.com/nearly-half-of-children-born-in-wales-in-2002-03-classed-as-having-special-educational-needs-this-may-have-negatively-affected-their-attainment-235375 

2 https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/half-children-born-wales-special-educational-needs-autism-qzprqmmfz 

3 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022l16  and https://x.com/SOEBristol/status/1816089389128097812 

4 https://t.co/lax9C8QXFy 

In September 2022, Dr Emily Lowthian was awarded £13,000 by eNurture (UKRI) to conduct research on young people’s online communication behaviours and social media use, and how this is related to mental, physical, and social wellbeing. The project used data on 1,432 young people in the UK aged 9-16 years; the data was collected by Understanding Society and re-utilised for the project aims.

Working with young people aged 14 - 22 years old, dinosaur comics were suggested as a method of sharing the results with young people.
Social media platforms are being used to host the comic strips for young people: see @wellness.rex on Instagram and TikTok.

For educators more information is available in a blog post here.
Researchers within the Department are actively engaging with a range of well-being themes. They have explored the mental health of children who have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences – defined as living with someone with a common or serious mental health condition, an alcohol problem, or who had died, or experienced victimisation. In physical and social well-being, they have examined how children's health behaviours and interactions were impacted by Covid-19 including their eating habits, sleep patterns and engagement in physical activities.
Researchers have also evaluated school-based programmes which aim to promote children and young people's well-being, such as outdoor learning initiatives like the Daily Mile. Their findings point to the potential of a dedicated curriculum time for physically active breaks in fostering children’s relationships with peers and teachers.
In the area of economic well-being, researchers have explored the complex topic of social class and how factors such as family affluence impact children's well-being outcomes.

The team have also explored how educational outcomes are impacted by parental substance use of alcohol and illicit drugs.

Lowthian, E., Anthony, R., Evans, A., Daniel, R., Long, S., Bandyopadhyay, A., John, A., Bellis, M. A., & Paranjothy, S. (2021). Adverse childhood experiences and child mental health: An electronic birth cohort study. BMC Medicine, 19(1), 172. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x.  

Lowthian, E. (2022). The Secondary Harms of Parental Substance Use on Children’s Educational Outcomes: A Review. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-021-00433-2.

Lowthian, E., Page, N., Melendez-Torres, G. J., Murphy, S., Hewitt, G., & Moore, G. (2021). Using Latent Class Analysis to Explore Complex Associations Between Socioeconomic Status and Adolescent Health and Well-Being. Journal of Adolescent Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.06.013.

Marchant, E., Lowthian, E., Crick, T., Griffiths, L. J., Fry, R., Dadaczynski, K., Okan, O., James, M., Cowley, L., Torabi, F., Kennedy, J., Akbari, A., Lyons, R., & Brophy, S. (2022). Pre-COVID-19 pandemic health-related behaviours in children (2018–2020) and association with being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (2020–2021): A retrospective cohort study using survey data linked with routine health data in Wales, UK. BMJ Open, 12(9), e061344. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061344.

Marchant, E., Todd, C., Cooksey, R., Dredge, S., Jones, H., Reynolds, D., Stratton, G., Dwyer, R., Lyons, R., & Brophy, S. (2019). Curriculum-based outdoor learning for children aged 9-11: A qualitative analysis of pupils’ and teachers’ views. PLOS ONE 14(5): e0212242. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212242.

Marchant, E., Todd, C., Stratton, G., & Brophy, S. (2020). The Daily Mile: Whole-school recommendations for implementation and sustainability. A mixed-methods study. PloS one, 15(2), e0228149. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228149.  

James, M., Marchant, E., Defeyter, M.A., Woodside, J. & Brophy, S. (2021). Impact of school closures on the health and well-being of primary school children in Wales UK: a routine data linkage study using the HAPPEN Survey (2018–2020) BMJ Open; 11:e051574. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-051574.