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Developing an Index of Well-Being for Nine-Year-Old Irish Children

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Abstract

This paper outlines the development of an index of child well-being using data from the first wave of the Child Cohort in the Growing up in Ireland study. This national longitudinal study explores children’s lives by collecting data from 8,568 nine-year-old children, their caregivers and their teachers. Well-being indices are useful to describe children’s circumstances, to monitor child outcomes, and to create and assess the efficacy of social polices involving children. Traditionally, macro-level data has been used in the construction of child well-being indices. However, micro-level data is used in this paper to provide a child-centered perspective on their well-being. This index is comprised of three domains; physical health, social & emotional functioning and educational attainment. Fourteen measures were used in the creation of these domains utilising data from children, caregivers and teachers on the child’s current development. The domain content, protocol followed and confirmatory process used in creating this index are discussed. Evidence is provided supporting the inclusion of the domains and the factorial structure of the index. A child well-being index of this sort is valuable as it manages to efficiently summarize the richness of information provided by multiple informants on the multidimensional nature of child well-being into a single index. Consequently, it can be easily used and understood by the various stakeholders involved in services related to child welfare.

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Notes

  1. Although a very small proportion (1.7 %) of the sample included eight and 10-year-olds this Cohort is referred to throughout the paper as the Cohort of 9-year-olds

  2. From the national total of 3,177 primary schools (excluding 80 schools designated as only for infants and schools with no 9-year-olds enrolled)

  3. In the Republic of Ireland, schools within a catchment area of a low income community may be designated as disadvantaged

  4. State primary schools in the Republic of Ireland are ‘denominated’ as having a particular religious ethos by the Department of Education and Skills using one of nine religious categories

  5. This disparity in figures is a result of dropping cases when requested by the family or when the level of missingness made the data unusable

  6. Any results reported are based on the weighted dataset

  7. Scores were available for the full sample on Physical Health and Educational Attainment, but data were missing for 3.85 % of the cases on the Social and Emotional Functioning domain

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  1. School of Psychology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Carly Cheevers & Mick O’Connell

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  1. Carly Cheevers
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  2. Mick O’Connell
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Correspondence to Carly Cheevers.

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Cheevers, C., O’Connell, M. Developing an Index of Well-Being for Nine-Year-Old Irish Children. Child Ind Res 6, 213–236 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-012-9171-5

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