5. A safe and suitable home environment and local area
Children need safe and suitable environments at home and in their local area. Where children are unhappy in these environments, often because they feel unsafe, they lack privacy, or their home or local area has inadequate facilities, this has a strong association with lower levels of well-being.
- Almost a quarter (23%) of children who had moved home more than once over the past 12 months had low levels of well-being, compared to the average of around 10% in the survey.
- Children who experience a change in the family members or carers that they live with are twice as likely to have low well-being as those that have stable living arrangements. However, in circumstances of change and upheaval, quality of relationships remains a strong driver of well-being.
- Around 14% of children aged 10 to 15 who shared a bedroom had low levels of well-being, compared to around 9% of those who had their own bedroom. This impact increases with age, 14 and 15 year olds who share a bedroom are twice as likely to have low well-being as those that do not.