Abstract
Research which focuses on children’s perspectives of their well-being complements and challenges existing research and policy on children. The study reported on here explored children’s views of what constitutes well-being, what meaning children and young people ascribe to the concept and whether distinct dimensions or characteristics of well-being can be identified. The project was initiated by the New South Wales Commission for Children and Young People as a basis for developing an authoritative child-informed framework for monitoring of well-being of children in New South Wales, Australia. In this paper, we outline the rationale for and details of qualitative research methods employed in the project, along with details of the major findings from the research. These include, the overarching importance of relationships with others and, more specifically, the importance of agency and control in the various domains identified as relevant to their wellbeing, the importance of safety and security and the way these factors contribute to sense of self. More minor but significant domains identified were: dealing with adversity, material and economic resources, physical environments, physical health and social and moral responsibility. The significance of the findings for policy development and the particular challenge of developing indicators from the research are discussed.
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Notes
The definition of child used in this article is that used by the United Nations, being persons from birth to 18 years of age.
In total, 178 interviews were conducted, totalling approximately 150 hours of transcript.
The specific characteristics of relationships, which can be described along a number of different lines, including the degree of love, affection, communication, interaction, time together, attachment, identification and commitment and, alternatively, the amount of conflict, violence, disagreement and abuse (Thornton 2001), are touched upon in specific well-being themes discussed below.
Here Giddens draws upon the work of R. D. Laing. See Laing 1960.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the children who contributed from their knowledge to this project and to the research team who contributed in very significant ways to the project: Cath Brennan, Jan Falloon, Penny Irvine, Ros Leahy, Rachel Scott and Ainslie Yardley. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.
Funding for this research was provided by the New South Wales Commission for Children and Young People and a University of Western Sydney partnership grant with the New South Wales Commission for Children and Young People.
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Fattore, T., Mason, J. & Watson, E. When Children are Asked About Their Well-being: Towards a Framework for Guiding Policy. Child Ind Res 2, 57–77 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-008-9025-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-008-9025-3