This report presents findings about the lives of 17-year-olds living in Scotland. The report aims to provide an overview of the data available and encourage other researchers to conduct further analysis.
Just under half of young people (47.0%) said that they were still attending school.
Most young people were told by a teacher that their work was good – 82.5% said this happened ‘very often’ or ‘often’. Young men were less likely than young women to receive praise from their teacher and more likely to be reprimanded for untidy or late work or for misbehaving. Compared with those in less deprived areas, those in more deprived areas were less likely to receive praise from their teachers and more likely to be reprimanded.
Most young people felt pressured by schoolwork, with 91.0% feeling ‘a little pressure’, ‘quite a lot’ or ‘a lot’ of pressure.
Four in ten (39.7%) young people ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that school did little to prepare them for life after school. Young disabled people were more likely to do so (48.7% compared with 33.9% of young non-disabled people). On the other hand, young disabled people were less likely to say that school had helped give them the confidence to make decisions (28.1% compared with 55.3% of young non-disabled people).
Just over a quarter (27.2%) of young people were studying at college or university, with 21.7% at college and 5.5% at university. Young men were more likely than young women to be studying at college (25.9% compared with 17.8%), while young women were more likely than young men to be studying at university (7.5% compared with 3.4%).
When asked about post-school pathways, the majority (91.8%) ‘agreed’ or ‘agreed strongly’ that having a career or profession was important and 69.2% ‘agreed’ or ‘agreed strongly’ they had a clear idea of the career they wanted.
Just over two-thirds (68.2%) of young people had ever had a paid job and 62.1% had a job currently. Young women were more likely than young men to be working (52.4% compared with 40.6%). Most young people (68.7%) worked up to 20 hours per week. Young men were more likely than young women to be working full-time (35 hours or more a week) – 25.4% compared with 10.6%.
Just under one in ten (9.2%) young people were in apprenticeships. Most apprenticeships involved some college or training centre study (70.5%). The main reasons for choosing apprenticeships were career progression (36.5%) and skill development (24.8%). Apprenticeships were more common among young men than young women (13.5% compared with 5.1%).
One in ten young people (10.2%) were not in education, employment, or training at the time of interview. Rates were higher among young disabled people than young non-disabled people (15.7% compared with 6.8%) and among those in more deprived areas compared with those in less deprived areas (15.7% in SIMD 1 compared with 6.0% in SIMD 5). The main reasons for being out of education, employment or training included health issues (23.1%) and difficulty finding suitable (19.9%) or interesting (19.9%) jobs.
In their free time, 88.6% of young people spent time with friends, 79.3% gamed, and 77.8% attended live events.
A third of young people (34.3%) checked their social media at least every half hour. Young women checked more often than young men (38.3% compared with 29.5%).
Views on social media varied: 18.4% of young people agreed that they felt anxious when unable to check social media, 17.0% that they cared about likes and comments, 28.4% agreed that other people’s social media posts sometimes made them feel worse. Young women were more likely than young men to report negative impacts – 41.4% of young women agreed that other people’s posts made them feel worse about their own life compared with 12.9% of young men. However, 93.1% of young people agreed it helped them stay in touch with friends.