Abstract
This paper traces the history of indicators and indices of child well-being from its origins in the social indicator movement of the 1970s through recent developments in the field. Initial work calling for comprehensive sets of indicators of child well-being and later recommendations for indicator improvement are detailed. Products that resulted from these recommendations, such as comprehensive indicator reports and online resources are described. The development of child well-being indices is shown to parallel the history of indicators. The contributions of state and international indicator and index projects are included as well. Important aspects of child well-being indicator development are uncovered through documenting its history, including the need to focus on subjective as well as objective measures of well-being, and the need to develop indicators for the multiple ecological contexts of children’s lives, but to separate measures of context from measures of child outcomes. A rough consensus emerges across the history of indicator efforts on the critical domains of child well-being: physical, psychological, cognitive, social, and economic well-being. Recent recognition of the importance of indicators of positive development is noted.
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This paper was funded by the KIDS COUNT project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
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Lippman, L.H. Indicators and Indices of Child Well-being: A Brief American History. Soc Indic Res 83, 39–53 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-006-9058-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-006-9058-2