​Diane Marr on the Scottish Centre for Conflict Resolution (SCCR's) new survey, the results of which will help determine the best ways it can work with young people struggling with difficult family relationships

Every year in Scotland, the life chances of almost 4,500 young people are left hanging in the balance as they become homeless due to family relationships breaking down.

That’s the equivalent of nearly five high schools worth of pupils! But they are just the tip of the iceberg — we know that many more families are struggling behind closed doors.

Family arguments and disagreements are normal but if left unresolved they can have a devastating impact on the health and wellbeing of the whole family

Diane Marr

Family arguments and disagreements are normal but if left unresolved they can have a devastating impact on the health and wellbeing of the whole family, and the life chances of those youngsters caught in the storm.

When we launched as Scotland’s first national resource centre to promote and support best practice in mediation, conflict resolution, and early intervention, we carried out national survey and consultation work to verify the scale of the problem.

The results were stark: 61% of young people said arguments happened at home at least once a week and 25% of youngsters thought about leaving home at least monthly. But both young people and their parents didn’t know where to turn for help.

Now, three years after our initial survey work, we want to hear from you again. What is life really like for families across Scotland? Do you talk? If not, why? And we want to know what services are like in your area to help you deal with conflict at home — are there conflict resolution or mediation services you can turn to? If so, how do you access them? From practitioners and professionals, we need to hear what will help you to be able to support young people and parents struggling with their relationship.

We’ll also be hitting the road too over the coming months with a series of consultation events across Scotland. Keep up to date with an event near you on Facebook and Twitter @SCCRCentre.

The results of these new surveys will allow us to continue to meet the needs of young people, their parents/carers, and professionals and practitioners across Scotland by helping us to shape our resources, events, seminars, and online support.

Discussing family life is not always easy but by completing these surveys and sharing your views, you will be helping us to develop new and innovative ways to support your needs and those of others.

Responses are anonymous, the survey will take about ten minutes to complete and we kindly ask you do so before 31st October 2016.

You can compete the SCCR National Survey here.

The Cyrenians’ Scottish Centre for Conflict Resolution (SCCR) delivers a range of free events and resources, including a series of local seminars, national conferences across Scotland, training sessions, and online resources for young people, parents and practitioners working with families. To find out more about our work visit scottishconflictresolution.org.uk.

Diane Marr is network development manager of SCCR.