Abstract
This chapter reviews the phenomenological/ethnographic positive well-being and quantitative positive psychology approaches to the conceptualization and measurement of child and youth well-being. It then describes how the Child and Youth Well-Being Index (CWI) has used the results of subjective well-being studies to inform the selection of time series of Key Indicators – demographic, social, and economic statistics – in the construction of the CWI. The CWI and its seven major components/domains of well-being have been calculated annually for the United States as a whole and used to monitor changes in the well-being of America’s children for the years 1975–2013. The Index also has also been calculated separately for U.S. children and youth classified by gender, race/ethnicity, the 50 U.S. states, and selected geographical sub-regions within the states. Empirical findings from the calculations of the national CWI are described. Reversing the spectrum of the well-being question that motivates the CWI “How are the kids doing?” leads to the question “Are the kids suffering?” The second part of this chapter describes recent work on the conceptualization, construction, and calculation of a Child and Youth Suffering Index (CSI) to measure trends in levels of suffering of America’s children and youth. The chapter finishes with a comparison of empirical findings from the CSI and CWI and how the two indices complement each other.
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Notes
- 1.
This section and parts of the next section are adapted from Land (2012).
- 2.
Or, as stated using Census/demographic notation, ages 0–17 at last birthday. Some of the Key Indicators in the CWI use slightly higher or slightly lower upper bounds, because of the age intervals in which the Indicators are reported. Our analyses, however, have found that the main focus of the CWI – the measurement of trends over time – is not greatly affected by these small differences in upper-age boundaries.
- 3.
The geographical focus of the CWI in this Report is the U.S., that is, the nation as a whole; hence, it is termed the National CWI. The conceptual framework and methodology of the CWI also has been applied at the level of the 50 U.S. states (O’Hare et al. 2013) and to regions within the states (Lee et al. 2009).
- 4.
The averaging method used in construction of the CWI is described below in the Methods of Construction section.
- 5.
Unless otherwise noted, indicators refer to children ages 0–17.
- 6.
Some Key Indicators can be assigned to more than one Well-Being Domain, but, for purposes of Domain-Specific and Overall Index construction, each is included in only one Domain.
- 7.
The label “Material Well-Being” has also been used for this Domain.
- 8.
The label “Safety/Behavioral Concerns” has also been used for this Domain.
- 9.
The upper age limit of 19 is used for this indicator, as the data series for this Key Indicator are not available for ages 12–18 separately.
- 10.
The Monitoring the Future (MTF) Project is the source of time series data for five of the Key Indicators (Rates of Cigarette Smoking, Binge Alcohol Drinking, and Illicit Drug Use in this Domain, as well as Rate of Weekly Religious Attendance and Percent Who Report Religion as Being Very Important in the Emotional/Spiritual Well-Being Domain). The MTF Project originally began as the High School Senior Survey in 1975, with surveys of national samples of seniors (modal age 18) in U.S. high schools taken in the spring of the academic school year. Samples of 8th graders (modal age 14) and 10th graders (modal age 16) were added in 1991. In studies of time series of MTF data on these five Key Indicators, we have found substantial covariation over time among the 8th, 10th, and 12th grade responses. For this reason, and because the 12th grade data extend back to the principal base year of the CWI Project, 1975, we use the 12th grade time series as data for these five Key Indicators.
- 11.
The upper age limit of 19 is used for Suicide Rate (Emotional/Spiritual Domain) as well as Mortality Rate and Rate of Obese Children and Adolescents (Health Domain), as these data series are not available for an upper age limit of 18.
- 12.
This Domain includes participation in educational, economic, and political institutions. The labels “place in community” and “community connectedness” also have been used for this Domain.
- 13.
Since some youth are delayed in completing the requirements for high school diplomas or General Education Equivalent (GED) degrees, a higher upper age limit is used for this Key Indicator series.
- 14.
The rate of those ages 16–19 who are not working and not in school. The upper age limit of 19 is used for this Indicator, as the data series is not available for an upper age limit of 18.
- 15.
Similarly to the use of a higher age limit for the high school diploma Key Indicator, a higher age limit is used for this series, in order to index trends in commitment to, and participation in, higher education institutions.
- 16.
Since the legal voting age for presidential elections is 18, ages 18–24 are used to represent trends in youth voting behavior.
- 17.
The basic CWI that is the subject of this report is focused on the population of all American children and youth. As part of our research on child well-being, however, we also have studied time trends in the CWI for children classified by gender, race/ethnicity, family income levels, and immigrant status (Land et al. 2012; Hernandez et al. 2012). These studies generally show that, when the overall CWI changes (increases, decreases) by 1 unit, the CWI for children from African-American and Hispanic families and from families in the lowest quintile of the income distribution correspondingly changes (increases, decreases) by 1.5 to 2 units. That is, children from African-American and Hispanic families and from families in the lowest quintile of the income distribution, on average, benefit more than the total child and youth population when the CWI increases and are negatively affected more than the total child and youth population when the CWI decreases. Part of the reason for these multipliers being larger than 1 is that children from white and Asian families and from families in the upper parts of the income distribution generally fare better on the well-being outcomes measured by the CWI and have less to gain during periods of overall increasing child well-being than those from other race/ethnic groups and at lower levels of the family income distribution.
- 18.
Those Key Indicators that do not directly measure outcomes for children and youth are proxy indicators of those outcomes. For instance, data are not available on direct measure of the poverty status of children, only on the poverty status of families that have children up to age 18. However, it is not strained to infer that a child living in a family whose income falls below the poverty line has a poverty-level economic well-being. Thus, the poverty status of the family is used as a proxy Indicator for the poverty status of the child.
- 19.
For a description of the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models used to project each individual Key Indicator time series, see Land et al. (2012).
- 20.
At the level of international comparisons of child suffering indicators, our work is reported in Land et al. (2015).
- 21.
As with the CWI (see footnote 6), some Key Indicators can be assigned to more than one category of suffering. For purposes of Index calculation, however, each is included only in one category. An example is the Violent Crime Victimization Rate Key Indicator. Being victimized by a violent crime can result in both physical and mental suffering and thus this indicator could be included in both categories. Since, in most cases of violent crime victimization of children and youths ages 12–17, mental suffering (anxiety, anguish, depression, etc.) is a longer term consequence than physical suffering, we have included this Key Indicator in the mental suffering category.
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Land, K.C., Lamb, V.L., Fu, Q. (2016). Measuring Trends in Child Well-Being and Child Suffering in the United States, 1975–2013. In: Maggino, F. (eds) A Life Devoted to Quality of Life. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 60. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20568-7_2
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