What is wrong with children's well-being in the UK? Questions of meaning and measurement1

^1. A longer version of this paper is under consideration for publication as a chapter in: Morgan, A., Ziglio, E., Davies, M. and Barker, R. (eds), forthcoming. International health and development: investing in assets of individuals, communities and organisations. New York: Springer.

Abstract

This paper discusses problems with existing attempts to measure children's well-being using secondary datasets, taking as an example the UNICEF Innocenti report entitled Child poverty in perspective: an overview of child well-being in rich countries (UNICEF 2007). The report placed the UK's children at the bottom of the league table of rich nations on their average score across six dimensions, including emotional well-being and ‘happiness’. The report's authors point to a number of problems with the available data and their uses of them. We seek to engage in a critical debate about the value of the report. We argue that it exemplifies a deficit model approach to the study of children's lives, as it appears to seek to demonstrate negative aspects of children's experiences. Its findings are frequently cited as scientific ‘fact’ in press reports about children and young people. In this paper, we discuss some problems with definitions of ‘well-being’, how well-being is measured, and how children's (human) rights are invoked. We also discuss the potential of research that takes a more positive approach to researching children's health, well-being and everyday lives.

Keywords:

• children
• well-being
• research with children

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Grace Spencer, Priscilla Alderson, Maggie Black, Tom Burke, Georgia Towers, Helen Roberts and Ian Warwick for very helpful comments on an earlier draft, as well as members of the seminar audience at the Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, where this paper was first presented in 2008.

Notes

^1. A longer version of this paper is under consideration for publication as a chapter in: Morgan, A., Ziglio, E., Davies, M. and Barker, R. (eds), forthcoming. International health and development: investing in assets of individuals, communities and organisations. New York: Springer.