Anne Stafford

How children from disadvantaged areas keep safe

Purpose – The paper sets out to describe how children from disadvantaged areas perceive their communities and actively negotiate threats in their lives.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 60 interviews and 16 discussions groups were held with 8 to 14‐year‐olds sampled from four deprived communities located in the West of Scotland. Participants were asked about their local area and how they kept safe. Data were coded thematically and area, age and gender differences examined.Findings – Children mentioned both positive and negative aspects of their local area. Positive elements primarily related to being near friends and important adults. The negatives were linked to local youth gangs, adults, litter and graffiti, traffic, and drug and alcohol misuse. Participants used both preventive and reactive strategies to keep safe.Research limitations/implications – Owing to the strategies used to sample areas and participants, the extent to which findings can be generalised is limited. Thus, the study should be...

‘There was something that wasn’t right because that was the only place I ever got treated like that’: Children and young people’s experiences of emotional harm in sport

The article reports findings from a study of negative and harmful experiences of children participating in organised sport in the UK focusing in particular on emotional harm. A convenience sample of 6124 young people (age 18–22) completed an online survey about their experiences of sport as children (up to age 16); 89 follow-up telephone interviews were conducted. The article provides information about the emotional harm of children in sport and the context within which it occurs. It provides some evidence of a sporting culture where emotional harm is widespread at all levels of sport and commonly experienced by children of all ages.