The Children's Society
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Contents |
Overview
The Children’s Society’s well-being research programme was initiated in 2005 to fill a gap in research regarding young people's own views of well-being, with a focus on positive rather than negative indicators, and on well-being in the present rather than ‘well-becoming’.
The programme's aim is to:
- Develop a better understanding of the concept of well-being as it relates to young people, taking full account of the perspectives of young people themselves.
- Establish self-report measures of young people’s well-being and use these to identify the reasons for variations in wellbeing and to monitor changes in well-being over time.
History
In 2005, The Children's Society included two key questions on well-being in a national survey that were carried out with 14 to 16-year-olds in England. Those questions enabled 8,000 young people to tell in their own words what they think makes for, and what prevents, a good life for young people. Their comments mostly related to a number of key topics that fit under the three headings of ‘self’, ‘relationships’ and ‘environments’.
Using these ideas as an organising framework, in 2008 The Children's Society developed their first ever survey of children and young people’s subjective well-being in partnership with the University of York. This survey was carried out with a representative sample of 7,000 10 to 15 year olds in England.
Analysis of the 2008 survey led to the development of The Good Childhood Index, a short index of subjective well-being that can be used to measure trends and differences in the well-being of children and young people at the population level.
The latest development in the research programme is the second wave of the well-being survey, which is currently being administered in primary and secondary schools across England. This survey will allow The Children's Society to validate new measures for their longer index of children’s well-being, and test ideas that they have about the factors that are associated with high or low well-being. The findings of the 2010 survey will be disseminated via a seminar programme throughout 2011.
Resources
In October 2010 an index of children's subjective well-being in England (full report) was developed in collaboration with the University of York.
Publications
- Good childhood? A question for our times - 2005
- Understanding children's well-being: A national surbey of young people's well-being - 2008
- Developing an index of children's well-being in England - 2010
