understanding children’s well-being: a national survey of young people’s well-being
DESCRIPTION
27 January 2010. Understanding children’s well-being: A national survey of young people’s well-being. Bob Reitemeier Chief Executive The Children’s Society. Gwyther Rees The Children’s Society Jonathan Bradshaw University of York. Well-being: overview. The State of Britain’s Children. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Understanding children’s well-being:A national survey of young people’s well-being
27 January 2010
Bob Reitemeier
Chief ExecutiveThe Children’s Society
Gwyther ReesThe Children’s Society
Jonathan BradshawUniversity of York
Well-being: overview
The State of Britain’s Children
The evidence base is improving• Every Child Matters indicators• Opportunity for All• Equality and Human Rights Commission
indicators for children and young people• Surveys: Tellus, BHPS, FACS, MCS, etc• International sources: HBSC, PISA, EU SILC
Arguably subjective well-being the least developed domain
Attempt to fill the gap
British Household Panel Survey – 11-15
year olds
Well-being and life satisfaction
HBSC 2005/06: Children who report high life satisfaction95.0090.0085.0080.0075.00
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R Sq Linear = 0.59
Why well-being matters
Promotion (and distribution) of well-being can be seen as a fundamental goal of any society
UN CRC “the primary consideration in all actions concerning children must be in their best interest and their views must be taken into account”
Well-being has been shown to vary between nations and over time. Need to understand why.
Subjective well-being can be an important indicator of underlying issues
The research programme
Aims
Understand the concept of well-being taking full account of young people’s perspectives
To establish self-report measures and use these to
Identify the reasons for variations in well-being
Monitor changes in well-being over time
Survey development
2005 survey – 11,000 young people
Development of framework
Identification and testing of questions
2008 survey (administered by Ipsos MORI)
Survey overview
Random sample of mainstream primary and secondary schools in England
Covers Years 6, 8 and 10 (10- to 15-year-olds)
One class randomly selected in each school
Total sample of just under 7,000 – over 2,000 in each of the three age groups
Survey content
Secondary questionnaire - about 140 items Primary questionnaire – about 100 items
Four broad areas: Measures of overall well-being Single measures for 21 aspects of well-being
(e.g. family, local area) More detailed questions on particular aspects of
subjective and psychological well-being Demographics and socio-economic
Overall subjective well-being
Overall well-being
Distinction between:
Happiness• Happiness with life as a whole
Life satisfaction (more of a cognitive assessment) • Cantril’s ladder • Huebner’s life satisfaction scale (7 items)
Overall well-being Composite
measure
Most young people happy and satisfied
But around 7% of young people relatively unhappy
Variations in well-being
What factors can explain variations in overall well-
being?
Individual characteristics
Factors considered: Age** Gender** Disability** Religious affiliation* Ethnicity* Country of birth
Low explanatory power (3%-4%). Age most significant factor
Age and gender variations
8.17.5 7.2
7.9 7.8 7.6
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10
Year 6 Year 8 Year 10
Ov
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ell-
be
ing
Female
Male
Family factors
Factors considered: Poverty** Family structure* Number of siblings
Very low explanatory power (1% to 2.5%)
But, query re: poverty measures
Sub-groups
7.7 7.2 6.7 6.2
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Wholesample
No paid job Disabled Not livingwith
parents
Ov
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ing
Cumulative effects
Factors considered: disability, poverty, change in family structure
7.77.0
6.1
0.01.02.03.04.05.06.07.08.09.0
0 1 2
Number of factors
Me
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Other explanations for
variations
Role of environmental factors.
Three examples: Change in family structure Experiences of being bullied Quality of family relationships
Change in family structure
10% of secondary school sample had experienced a change in the adults they lived with over the last year
Significant link with overall well-being (average score 6.8 compared to 7.7 for whole sample)
Reduced significance of variations in well-being across different family structures
Being bullied
7.67.2
6.5
8.0
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
Never Hardly ever Sometimes Often
Frequency of being bullied in last 12 months
Ov
era
ll w
ell-
be
ing
(0
-10
)
Family relationships
8.1
6.9
6.0
7.9
6.8
5.9
6.9
5.9
7.7
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
Agree Neither Disagree
Ov
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-be
ing
(0
-10
)
Both parents Step family Lone parent
‘My family gets along well together’
Summary
Explaining variations in well-being: Individual and family factors explain relatively
little Poverty – needs further exploration Recent life events may play a more significant
role – stronger focus in future research Other environmental factors such as quality of
relationships show stronger associations
Components of well-being
Understanding Children’s Well-Being
Competing theories
Different explanations: ‘Bottom-up’ approach (situational)
• Demographics, socio-economic, life events• Domains >> overall well-being
‘Top-down’ approach (personality)• Temperament, instrumental• Overall well-being >> domains
Potential value of both approaches
21 aspects
Survey included single questions (on a scale from 0 to 10 of happiness with 21 different aspects of young people’s lives)
Derived from:• Cummins - Australia• Casas – Spain• Young people’s ideas from 2005 survey
Aspects (1)
How happy are you ... Mean%
unhappy
about the home you live in 8.7 4.9%
with your friends 8.6 4.6%
with your family 8.6 5.7%
about the groups of people you belong to 8.2 5.1%
about getting on with the people you know 8.2 4.9%
about how you enjoy yourself 8.2 5.2%
about the things you have 8.1 5.7%
Aspects (2)
How happy are you ... Mean%
unhappy
with your health 8.0 7.7%
about doing things away from your home 8.0 7.2%
with the things you want to be good at 7.8 7.5%
about communicating with people 7.8 7.6%
about the amount of freedom you have 7.8 10.5%
about how safe you feel 7.6 8.6%
about the amount of choice you have in life 7.6 10.6%
about how you spend your time 7.6 8.9%
Aspects (3)
How happy are you ... Mean%
unhappy
about what may happen to you later on in your life
7.4 10.4%
about the school that you go to 7.3 13.2%
with your local area 7.2 13.8%
with your confidence 7.0 16.0%
about your school work 6.9 11.9%
with your appearance 6.8 17.5%
Age variations
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Friends Safety Family School
Aspect
Me
an
sc
ore
Year 6
Year 8
Year 10
Gender variations
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
School work Safety Family Appearance
Aspect
Me
an
sc
ore
Female
Male
Unhappiness with appearance
13%
23%
28%
11%14% 14%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Year 6 Year 8 Year 10
Un
ha
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ith
ap
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ara
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Female Male
Associations with overall well-being
Top seven aspects: Family Amount of choice Material possessions Expectations of the future Home environment Leisure Freedom
Cummins
Personal well-being index:• Standard of living • Future security• Relationships • Health• Safety• Achievements in life• Community connectedness
Explains 47% variation in overall subjective well-being
Huebner
Brief multi-dimensional student life satisfaction scale:• Family• Living environment• Friends• Self• School
Created measures to approximate to items 2 and 4Explains 50% variation in overall subjective well-
being
Alternative model
Based on 2005 survey:• Family• Amount of choice• Material possessions• Safety• Health• School work• Leisure• Friends• Local area
Explains 54% variation in overall subjective well-being
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Saf
ety
Mea
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No change
Change
Change in family structure -
associations
Summary
Substantial variations in well-being re: different aspects
Importance of family, freedom/choice, expectations of the future, home and possessions
Concepts of well-being may vary according to age – both in comparison with adults and between different age groups
Next steps
Why well-being matters
The concept of well-being provides a means of understanding what is important for young people’s lives. It is a means of ensuring that young people’s views are heard.
2008 survey establishes a base line for future exploration
Well-being research can have important practical applications in terms of informing how to improve young people’s lives
Next steps
Four further publications over the next year on specific aspects of well-being
Application of well-being indicators within The Children’s Society to measure impact
Next wave of the survey in 2010 - first step in beginning to identify trends in young people’s well-being in England over time. To include• Better measures of family economic factors• Personality• Wider range of life events
Questions