DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-9476-1
title: Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2023: Wave 4, Special Licence Access
title: Mental Health of Children and Young People Surveys
title: MHCYP Wave 4

description: &lt;p class="nhsd-t-body" style="backface-visibility: hidden; font-family: &quot;Frutiger W01&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 0.833333rem; color: rgb(63, 82, 95);"&gt;The &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Mental Health of Children and Young People&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Surveys&lt;/span&gt; (MHCYP) series provides data about the mental health of young people living in Great Britain.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="nhsd-t-body" style="backface-visibility: hidden; font-family: &quot;Frutiger W01&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 0.833333rem; color: rgb(63, 82, 95);"&gt;The MHCYP was first carried out in 1999, capturing information on 5 to 15-year-olds. It was conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on behalf of the Department of Health (now known as the Department of Health and Social Care, or DHSC), The Scottish Health Executive and the National Assembly for Wales. The following survey in the series was conducted in 2002 and focused on children looked after by their local authority. The third survey was conducted in 2004 and collected information from 5 to 16-year-olds. Follow-ups to this survey were conducted after 6 months and again after 3 years.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="nhsd-t-body" style="backface-visibility: hidden; font-family: &quot;Frutiger W01&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 0.833333rem; color: rgb(63, 82, 95);"&gt;NHS Digital commissioned the 2017 survey on behalf of the DHSC. It collected information on 2 to 19-year-olds living in England. The survey was carried out by a consortium led by NatCen Social Research, which included the ONS and Youth In Mind.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="nhsd-t-body" style="backface-visibility: hidden; font-family: &quot;Frutiger W01&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 0.833333rem; color: rgb(63, 82, 95);"&gt;The MHCYP 2020 survey was a Wave 1 follow-up to the 2017 survey and was conducted under the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020, as directed by the then Secretary of State for Health. The Wave 2 follow-up was conducted in 2021, and Wave 3 in 2022.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="nhsd-t-body" style="backface-visibility: hidden; font-family: &quot;Frutiger W01&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 0.833333rem; color: rgb(63, 82, 95);"&gt;Further information can be found on the NHS Digital &lt;a href="https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital/corporate-information-and-documents/directions-and-data-provision-notices/secretary-of-state-directions/mental-health-and-wellbeing-surveys-directions-2021/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-surveys" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;Mental Health of Children and Young People Surveys&lt;/a&gt; webpage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="nhsd-t-body" style="backface-visibility: hidden; font-family: &quot;Frutiger W01&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; font-kerning: auto; font-size: 13.5px; margin-bottom: 0.833333rem; color: rgb(63, 82, 95);"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;A similar series covering adults, the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;Adult Surveys of Psychiatric Morbidity,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt; is also commissioned by NHS Digital. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; 
&lt;p&gt;This is the fourth in a series of follow up surveys to the MHCYP 2017, exploring the mental health of children and young people in England. Before the 2017 survey, the previous surveys took place in 1999 and 2004 (in England, Scotland and Wales). The wave 4 follow up survey was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), the Office for National Statistics (ONS), University of Cambridge and University of Exeter, and was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education. It was commissioned by NHS England (formerly NHS Digital, who merged with NHS England on 1st February 2023).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The most recent face to face survey in the series took place in 2017 and involved data collection from a random sample of children and young people (aged 2 to 19 years). From February to April 2023, all 2017 participants (now aged 8 to 25 years) who agreed to be re-contacted for future research during their interview in the 2017 study, and continued to agree to be re-contacted during the previous follow up surveys (in 2020, 2021 and 2022) if they participated in all or some of these, were invited to take part in the 2023 survey.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The survey had two main aims:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Compare the likelihood of probable mental disorder in 8 to 16 year olds and 17 to 19 year olds in 2017 with that of 8 to 16 year olds and 17 to 19 year olds in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, overall and by subgroup (age, sex and ethnic group)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Describe other aspects of children and young people’s health in 2023 including on sleep problems, help-seeking and eating disorders (and compare with any comparable data available)&lt;/p&gt;