BBC – The Heaviest Backpack By BBC Creative

To mark Mental Health Awareness Week 2024, BBC Children in Need have launched a new campaign film – The Heaviest Backpack to highlight that the issues facing children and young people across the UK are growing, with 1 in 5 children now facing a mental health issue.The campaign aims to open up a nationwide conversation around the importance of positive relationships in protecting children’s mental health. It offers free resources to support the right conversations between children and parents, carers and other trusted adults to ensure no child faces their emotional and mental health challenges alone.

As part of the campaign, BBC Children in Need has released the findings of a new Censuswide survey which sheds light on over a quarter (27%) of children and young people surveyed regularly feeling anxious and worried with more than four in ten children and young people surveyed (44%) comparing the weight of the worries they carry to books, whilst (16%) compared the weight to bricks.

The UK wide survey commissioned by BBC Children in Need of 2,512 parents and 2,512 children and young people aged 11-18, also reveals that:

The top five reasons behind the worries children and young people surveyed were:
Doing well at school/college/university or other educational institution – 37%
Losing someone they love – 30%
Their appearance/body image – 30%
Achieving their goals – 27%
Fitting in – 27%