Post-16 Transitions: a Longitudinal Study of Young People with ...

8.2 Friends and other relationships
Almost all young people in the survey said that they had at
least two good friends with just four per cent of the sample
reporting that they had no good friends at all (Figure 8:1).
Over half of all young people said that they had six or more
good friends. The incidence of statementing, the type of school
attended or the type of special educational need does not
appear to have any bearing on the friendships of young people
as all recorded similar numbers of friends.
Two-thirds of young people participating in the survey stated
that they had had a boyfriend, girlfriend or partner at some
point since completing Year 11. However, young people who
had been statemented at school and/or who had attended a
special school were much less likely to say that they had had a
partner over the same time period when compared to their
counterparts without statements or those who had attended a
mainstream school.
Most young people also reported that none or only a few of
their friends had any disabilities or difficulties (83 per cent).
However, just over one in ten of all young people stated that
most of their friends had disabilities or difficulties of some
sort. This was particularly the case for young people who had
statements of SEN at school (23 per cent of whom reported
that most of their friends had disabilities or difficulties
compared to just two per cent of young people without
statements). Similarly, young people from special schools
were very much more likely to report that most of their friends
had disabilities or difficulties (42 per cent versus just two per
Figure 8:1: Number of good friends
More than 10
22%
Don't know
1%
(None)
4%
1
7%
N = 1,874
6-10
23%
2-5
43%
Source: IES/MORI 2003
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Post-16 Transitions of Young People with SEN: Wave 2