NATIONAL

HEALTH BEHAVIOUR IN SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN:
WHO COLLABORATIVE CROSS-NATIONAL STUDY (HBSC)
2014 SURVEY IN SCOTLAND NATIONAL REPORT
girls). There is a decrease in life satisfaction with age. Among girls, high life satisfaction is less common among 13-year olds
than 11-year olds (84% versus 92%, respectively), and less common among 15-year olds than 13-year olds (76% versus 84%,
respectively).
Among boys, there is no difference in life satisfaction between ages 11 and 13, but rates are slightly lower among 15-
year olds compared to 11-year olds (88% versus 92%, respectively). Gender differences exist at 13 and 15 years, with boys
exhibiting higher levels of life satisfaction at these ages, but not at 11 years (Figure 11.1). No change in life satisfaction was
observed for either boys or girls between 2002 and 2014 (Figure 11.2).
HAPPINESS
Two measures of happiness are used, how happy young people feel about their lives; and how often they feel happy. Forty
two percent (42%) of young people feel “very happy” about their lives. The proportion of young people who feel very happy
reduces with age (Figure 11.3), from 59% of 11-year olds to 41% of 13-year olds and 27% of 15-year olds. Overall, boys are more
likely than girls to report feeling very happy (47% versus 38%, respectively) with the difference most pronounced at the ages
of 13 and 15. This gender gap has been approximately equivalent at each survey since 1994.
The proportion of young people who are happy with their lives increased between 1994 and 2006, and subsequently
decreased between 2006 and 2010 for both boys and girls. There was no change in happiness for either gender between
2010 and 2014 (Figure 11.4).
Nineteen percent (19%) of 13- and 15-year olds report always feeling happy. As with the extent of happiness, the frequency
of feeling happy decreases between the ages of 13 and 15 (from 23% to 15%, respectively; Figure 11.5) and is higher among
boys (21% versus 17% of girls).
SELF-CONFIDENCE
Sixteen percent (16%) of young people ‘always’ feel confident in themselves , with twice as many boys (21%) as girls (11%)
reporting this. Confidence decreases with age. Among 11-year olds, 25% always feel confident, whereas only 9% of 15-year
olds do so.
The gender difference is widest at age 13, with more than three times as many boys as girls always feeling confident
(Figure 11.6). Although only a minority of young people always feel confident, a further 34% report that they ‘often’ feel
confident (38% of 11-year olds, 34% of 13-year olds and 28% of 15-year olds).
The Scottish HBSC study has included a measure of confidence since 1994. Whilst there was a peak in confidence amongst
boys and girls in the mid-2000s, rates fell gradually from 2006 onwards (Figure 11.7). In 2014 the proportion reporting that
they are always confident is similar to that seen in the early 1990s. A similar gender difference in confidence has been seen
at each survey over the past 20 years.
FEELING LEFT OUT
Seventeen percent (17%) of young people report that they ‘never’ feel left out of things. At all ages, boys are more likely
than girls to never feel left out (21% of boys; 13% of girls). The likelihood of never feeling left out decreases with age, but
the pattern of decline is slightly different for boys and girls. Among girls, a decrease is most prominent between the ages
of 11 and 13 (18% versus 10%, respectively), whereas for boys, the greatest change in the likelihood of never feeling left out
occurs between the ages of 13 and 15 (22% versus 16%, respectively; Figure 11.8).
Feeling left out was first included as an item in the Scottish HBSC questionnaire in 1998. The proportion of young people
who never feel left out increased between 1998 and 2010; however rates have subsequently declined, with rates in 2014
matching those in 1998 (Figure 11.9).
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