Analysis of annual crime survey data for the 12 months up to March 2019 by the Office for National Statistics found that an estimated 751,000 (19.3 per cent) children aged between 10 and 15 years old were living in households where at least one of the toxic trio issues was present.
Around 84,000 children in the age group (2.2 per cent) were estimated to have lived in households where an adult reported experiencing two of the toxic trio factors and 6,000 children (0.2 per cent) where all three factors were present.
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According to the data, the majority of children living in a household where one or more of the toxic trio are present did not report victimisation or negative behaviours in the 12 months prior to being interviewed.
However, the ONS said the figures suggest that the presence of one or more of these issues could make children more vulnerable to victimisation and more likely to engage in negative behaviours.
Children living in households with an adult who reported going through mental ill-health or domestic abuse were more likely to have been a victim of crime in the previous 12 months than children living in households where the interviewed adult did not report mental ill-health (16.7 per cent compared with 10.8 per cent) or domestic abuse (16.1 per cent compared with 10.7 per cent). They were also nearly twice as likely to have been excluded or suspended from school.
Meanwhile, around one-third of children living in households with mental ill-health or domestic abuse had been bullied in the last year (32.4 per cent and 29.5 per cent respectively), compared with under one-fifth of children living in households without mental ill-health (18.1 per cent) or domestic abuse (18.1 per cent).
Previous research by the children's commissioner for England, published in 2018, estimated that 420,000 children and young people under 18 are in homes where all three toxic trio issues are present to a "moderate" or "severe" extent. It also highlighted a need for better evidence on the numbers, needs, experiences, outcomes and voices of children affected.
Sophie Sanders, head of crimes against children at the Office for National Statistics' Centre for Crime and Justice, said the research is the first of its kind, at a national level, to examine the victimisation and negative experiences of children who live in households where one or more of the toxic trio are present.
“[This] new research using the Crime Survey for England and Wales suggests that the presence of one or more of these issues could make children more vulnerable to victimisation and more likely to engage in negative behaviours.
“Whilst this may be the case for some children, there are lots of factors which influence childhood experiences. The majority of children living in a household where one or more of the “toxic trio” are present did not report victimisation or negative behaviours in the 12 months prior to being interviewed.
"Importantly there are also many socioeconomic and environmental factors which can influence whether or not an adult is likely to experience and report domestic abuse, mental ill-health or substance misuse and whether a child is likely to be vulnerable to experiences of victimisation beyond the factors analysed here.
"Our findings from the Crime Survey therefore do not provide a definitive measure of these issues but offer another piece in the puzzle towards understanding the complex picture surrounding their prevalence and childhood vulnerability."
Sanders added that, as the findings relate to the period before the coronavirus pandemic, it is not known what impact the pandemic may have had in recent months.
