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
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Understanding children’s well-being:A national survey of young people’s well-being
27 January 2010
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Bob Reitemeier
Chief ExecutiveThe Children’s Society
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Gwyther ReesThe Children’s Society
Jonathan BradshawUniversity of York
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Well-being: overview
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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
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British Household Panel Survey – 11-15
year olds
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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
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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
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The research programme
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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
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Survey development
2005 survey – 11,000 young people
Development of framework
Identification and testing of questions
2008 survey (administered by Ipsos MORI)
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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
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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
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Overall subjective well-being
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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)
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Overall well-being Composite
measure
Most young people happy and satisfied
But around 7% of young people relatively unhappy
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Variations in well-being
What factors can explain variations in overall well-
being?
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Individual characteristics
Factors considered: Age** Gender** Disability** Religious affiliation* Ethnicity* Country of birth
Low explanatory power (3%-4%). Age most significant factor
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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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Female
Male
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Family factors
Factors considered: Poverty** Family structure* Number of siblings
Very low explanatory power (1% to 2.5%)
But, query re: poverty measures
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Sub-groups
7.7 7.2 6.7 6.2
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Wholesample
No paid job Disabled Not livingwith
parents
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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
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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
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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
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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
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(0
-10
)
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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
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(0
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Both parents Step family Lone parent
‘My family gets along well together’
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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
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Components of well-being
Understanding Children’s Well-Being
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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
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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
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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%
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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%
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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%
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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
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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
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Unhappiness with appearance
13%
23%
28%
11%14% 14%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Year 6 Year 8 Year 10
Un
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ith
ap
pe
ara
nc
e
Female Male
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Associations with overall well-being
Top seven aspects: Family Amount of choice Material possessions Expectations of the future Home environment Leisure Freedom
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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
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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
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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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0123456789
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Frie
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Sch
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Mea
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No change
Change
Change in family structure -
associations
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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
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Next steps
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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
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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
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Questions