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Researchers from the #BeeWell programme at The University of Manchester have published the largest contemporary study of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) in England. Drawing on data from 120,645 secondary school pupils across Greater Manchester and the Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton regions, the study finds that most young people report multiple positive everyday experiences. These everyday experiences are consistently linked to better mental health and wellbeing in young people. But those experiences are not equally shared, and groups already at higher risk of mental health difficulties are also more likely to be missing out.
Read the full paper here: Positive childhood experiences in English adolescents: Prevalence, predictors and measurement using the Benevolent Childhood Experiences framework.
Key findings
What are positive childhood experiences?
Positive Childhood Experiences are the everyday relationships, routines and supports that protect young people’s mental health. The concept is often discussed alongside Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), but it focuses on what helps young people thrive: things like having a trusted adult to turn to, a sense of belonging at school, opportunities to spend time on things you enjoy, and good friendships. The study measured these experiences using the Benevolent Childhood Experiences (BCE) framework, the most widely used international tool for capturing them.
The study captured ten everyday experiences:
What did the study find?
PCEs are common in this cohort, but unequally distributed. The most commonly reported experiences were free time to do enjoyable things (92.7%), a happy home environment (87.1%) and a sense of belonging at school (77.7%). On a 0–10 count score, most young people endorsed multiple positive influences in their lives, indicating that the building blocks of resilience are broadly accessible across the secondary school population.
Figure 1. Prevalence of the ten positive childhood experiences in the #BeeWell cohort (N = 120,645). Free time, a happy home and a sense of belonging at school were the most widely shared. Multi-item composites such as self-esteem and friendships were thresholded at the upper end of the scale, which is why their prevalence appears lower.
Who has fewer positive childhood experiences?
While most teenagers report multiple PCEs, some groups consistently report fewer:
These patterns matter for both research and policy: PCEs are linked to better mental health outcomes, so unequal access to them translates into unequal protection for the young people who may need it most.
How do positive experiences group together?
Using factor analysis, the study identified three meaningful domains of positive childhood experiences in adolescence:
Relationships with parents and carers emerged as a distinct, fourth element. This structure has practical implications for schools, youth services and local authorities: rather than treating PCEs as a single index, the data point to specific levers (school belonging, community provision, support for parent-child relationships) that can be addressed in different ways.
Why does this matter for schools and policymakers?
The findings reinforce a growing consensus that protecting young people’s mental health is not only about reducing adversity, but also about strengthening the everyday supports that help them flourish. Most teenagers in the study have access to those supports. The opportunity is to focus on the building blocks of wellbeing, particularly for the groups most likely to be missing out.
School belonging emerged as a particularly important lever, sitting at the centre of the School Connectedness domain. Investment in supportive staff relationships, positive school climate, and a clear sense of welcome and inclusion for all pupils, including LGBTQ+ young people and those with special educational needs, can directly raise the floor. The findings suggest that promoting teenage mental health is less about delivering something rare and exceptional than about ensuring the everyday things that already work for most young people are accessible to all.
An easy win: investing in what young people do with their free time
Nine in ten teenagers in the study said they could do things they enjoy in their free time. This was the most commonly reported positive childhood experience by some distance. It is also one of the most actionable for local authorities, schools and community organisations: the building block is already there for the vast majority of young people, and the question is how to make it count.
Spending on youth services in England has fallen by around 73% since 2010–11. This study suggests that rebuilding that provision (safe spaces to spend time, affordable activities, inclusive clubs, supported mentoring) is not only a community wellbeing question. It is one of the most direct levers for protecting teenage mental health, because the underlying behaviour (having free time) is already happening for almost all young people.
There is also a closing-the-gap opportunity. The young people most likely to report fewer positive experiences overall (LGBTQ+ pupils, those eligible for free school meals, and pupils with special educational needs) are also the ones most likely to need free time provision that is inclusive, accessible and affordable in order to access these benefits at all. Targeted investment in inclusive youth services and after-school provision can therefore raise the floor for the groups currently most at risk of missing out.
For policymakers looking for cost-effective ways to support young people’s mental health, the data point to a relatively rare combination: a building block that is already there for most teenagers, that is unequally distributed across the groups we already know need more support, and that is responsive to community-level investment. That makes it a strong candidate for a public mental health priority rather than a luxury.
What’s next?
Future #BeeWell research will examine how positive childhood experiences link to specific mental health outcomes over time, with particular focus on which combinations of experiences offer the strongest protection. The data will continue to inform school-level reporting, policy advocacy, and youth participation work across Greater Manchester and the HIPS regions.
The findings give schools and policymakers a clear, hopeful starting point: most of the building blocks of wellbeing are already accessible to most teenagers in England. The work ahead is closing the gaps for the groups who currently report fewer of them.
