Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre, Institute of Education London

Childhood wellbeing briefing paper

This initial piece of work by CWRC aimed to provide an overview of recent evidence in the field of childhood wellbeing. Relevant material was identified through literature and web searching, and selected for its potential to illustrate how childhood wellbeing has been defined and understood. The briefing paper summarises how wellbeing is conceptualised; the domains and measures employed to assess child wellbeing within the UK and internationally; how the views of children and young people are incorporated into work on child wellbeing; and some findings from key studies. Key issues and challenges in the field include:

• Childhood wellbeing is a widely used concept but has a weak theoretical basis.

• There are currently limited data on child wellbeing and particularly a lack of data which is disaggregated according to age, gender, disability, ethnicity, sexuality or by wider socio-economic or inclusion markers such as migrant status.

• Cultural and class implications of wellbeing are not well understood.

• It is difficult to make valid international comparisons in child wellbeing using indicators across widely variable contexts.