As the post-mortem begins into who’s to blame for the riots, one thing for sure is that the image of young people has once again taken a real battering.
Like you, I’ve heard every proposed solution from military action and harsh sentencing to water cannons to curfews. Just about everyone including parents, teachers, the government and even the police has been criticised in the media blame game.
Our view (evidence based) is that the vast majority of young people are decent and law abiding. They might frustrate us by texting at the dinner table or spending too long on the X Box but most of the young people we work with don’t go out smashing up shops and stealing trainers.
Our work throughout the UK (400,000 responses gathered to date) tells us that 91% of the 14 year olds in our country will NOT get drunk next week, 96% won’t smoke Cannabis and 87% won’t even smoke a cigarette.
Young people (and to a degree some parents and teachers) believe participation in these behaviours to be 3, 4 or even 5 times higher than the reality, which is itself a real problem. Clearly there are some real concerns. We only had to see the images unfold in front of us to know that the damage caused to ordinary businesses in our towns and cities was real. We just believe that they were caused by the minority not the majority.
We heard some of the offenders saying that they got involved because ‘everyone else was doing it’ – once again proof if it were needed that peer influence is of critical importance within our society.
Problems do escalate when peer influences are built on false perceptions - perceptions fuelled by the media and/or exaggerated claims that can be circulated far easier with the advance of social networks.
Rather than admit defeat, we believe this is a reminder that we all need to work harder to prove to younger people that the vast majority of their peers DO make positive choices.
We can show them the truth and give them the voice they surely deserve.
What do you think? Tell us here
Visit www.rudifferent.co.uk
Aug 17, 2011 at 2:35 PM Of course, as you say, the great majority of young people are law abiding and as horrified by the riots and looyting as the rest of us. In your piece, you seem by implication to be pleased that (only)91% of young people won't get drunk this week. Look at the flip of that - 9% will. We cannot be complacent if 1 in 11 14 year old kids are going to get drunk in the next week. If this is an accurate refelection of the age group - and I am not sure that it is, then it is an alarming figure, and one that requies action by parents, professionals and sensible peers to change.
Aug 18, 2011 at 10:05 AM We couldn't agree more Nina and certainly we're far from pleased that any person at the age of 14 will get drunk next week.
I can assure you that the figures are very accurate as our surveys are done anonymously and we see exactly the same data trends across the UK!
What is more of a concern to us is that young people (and parents) believe participation in risky behaviours to be much higher, 5 or 6 times in some cases.
I agree that this requires action but in our view the action by previous governments has been ineffective because by promoting a negative or moralistic message it almost perpetuates the myth that everyone is doing it (which actually makes the problem worse).
Our approach is to first of all establish the truth (hence the survey) and then work hard to promote the positive majority behaviour. In doing so, we are promoting a delay (or absention) message to young people who naturally want to fit in with what they believe their friends to be doing.
We can then tangibly show shifts in attitudes and perceptions, which can then in turn positively affect these behaviours.
Aug 18, 2011 at 4:56 PM You're advocating the social norms approach, and I support that. Certainly, delayed initiation into any risky behaviour reduces not just the immediate risks, but also longer term ones.
Aug 18, 2011 at 5:07 PM I agree, and I have seen from experience that negative advertising appears to generate negative results. So why does it continue to be the default approach to social issues and how can we change it?
Aug 18, 2011 at 5:39 PM We do continue to see some negative campaigns which is a source of some frustration, however some authorities do appear to be developing on a more positive, evidence based approach.
Sometimes a simple evidence based message can be very effective and we have quite a few examples where real differences have been made.