I joined Khulisa as a Research Assistant intern in August of this year, having recently completed my undergraduate degree. I had an interest in the criminal justice system and its reform for a number of years prior to joining, and when I saw the job listing, it felt like an amazing opportunity. My time at Khulisa has been a period of real learning and growth for me, and therefore I wanted to share 4 key themes from my research looking at the link between positive mental well-being and positive life outcomes
1. One of the strongest predictors of positive life outcomes is social and emotional well-being
If we hope to see individuals lead positive and fulfilling lives, we need to address social and emotional well-being. Social and emotional well-being has a similar impact on life outcomes as physical health or material security, though it operates independently of these forces (Watts & Vale, 2008). Individuals who lack social and emotional well-being have been shown to perform worse in education (Gutman & Vorhaus, 2012; Public Health England, 2014), earn lower incomes (De Neve & Oswald, 2012), have more unhealthy interpersonal relationships, and report lower life satisfaction (Department of Health, 2015). They also engage in more antisocial behaviour and crime (Egeland et al., 2002).
It is alarming, then, that a survey by The Children’s Society found that one in every 11 British youth experience low levels of social and emotional well-being — amounting to half a million children and teens who are at risk of a lifetime of adversity and disadvantage
2. Too often, violent behaviour is rooted in trauma
Traumatic experiences expose youth to acute psychological and social stressors. Not only does stress harm well-being, it erodes an individuals capacity to buffer the consequences of trauma. The result is a ‘double jeopardy’ in which traumatised youth suffer greater stress exposure yet are equipped with diminished coping responses (Nurius et al., 2015). A traumatic childhood trains an individual to perceive their social world as dangerous and threatening — a worldview which encourages violent behaviour (Ardino et al., 2013). The trauma-violence link is robust, and devastating: each additional adverse childhood experience has been found to increase the likelihood of an individual becoming a serious and violent juvenile offender by 35 per cent (Fox et al., 2014). In one study, 74% of juvenile offenders had reported witnessing a shooting or stabbing in their youth, and over half reported witnessing a killing (Crimmins et al., 2000).
That the experience of trauma, particularly violence victimisation, increases the risk of an individual perpetrating violence against others in later life has prompted some to liken violence to an epidemic, spreading from person to person like the flu. This speaks to the vital importance of interventions which are conscious of the impact trauma has on an individuals psychological development.
3. School exclusions are on the rise, and are reinforcing the school-to-prison pipeline
In the 2016/17 school year, there were over 7,700 permanent exclusions in the UK. This amounts to more than 40 youth permanently excluded from school every day — up from an average of 35.2 in 2015/16. Almost half of youth excluded from school have special educational needs, and 2016/17 saw a 24% increase in youth excluded for violent behaviour.
The surge in school exclusions represents a serious risk to the lives of young people, as well as to society generally. Pushing the most vulnerable and troubled youth out of mainstream education puts individuals at risk of a lifetime of social marginalisation. Just 1 per cent of excluded children go on to earn the five good GCSEs required for training programs and apprenticeships (Weale, 2017), and one of the most important predictors of criminal record status is school exclusion by the third year of secondary education (McAra & McVie, 2010). A survey of male juvenile offenders found that 80% had experienced exclusion from school (Smith et al., 2014).
4. Failing to invest in early intervention is costly
Investing in the social and emotional well-being of youth can yield positive returns throughout an individuals life. A body of evidence demonstrates the success well-being interventions have in preventing violence and crime, as well as improving life outcomes. For example, a meta-analysis of 213 school-based programs determined that the improvements in the social and emotional skills of the 270,000 students involved contributed to significant reductions in violence perpetration. Moreover, an 11% boost in academic performance could be attributed to the improvements in well-being (Durlak et al., 2011).
Despite the potential for early intervention strategies to disrupt cycles of crime, violence and adversity, there is a marked lack of investment in early intervention in the UK. Despite the lifetime cost for each case of childhood conduct disorder being estimated at around £150,000 — or £5.3 billion for a single cohort of children in the UK, 71% of which is due to costs related to crime (Friedli & Parsonage, 2007) — the government invests just £200 million a year in early intervention to prevent crime (Chowdry & Oppenheim, 2015).
As a result, nearly £17 billion of government spending per year in England and Wales goes toward the costs of late intervention, whether this be income support for young people who have been excluded from education, or addressing the frontline pressures of youth crime and criminal justice (Early Intervention Foundation, 2018). The evidence shows there to be both a fiscal and moral need to invest in early intervention tackling the complex issues of trauma, mental illness, and social and emotional well-being