A comparison of child wellbeing in the EU 29

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• A comparison of child well-being in the EU 29

Jonathan Bradshaw Child ONEurope European
Seminar on Child Well-being Indicators Instituto
degli Innocenti Florence 29 January 2009
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Background

• UNICEF State of the Worlds Children
• Cornia and Danziger (1997) Child Poverty and
  Deprivation in Rich Countries
• UNICEF Innocenti Report Cards 1-6
• Luxembourg EU Presidency child mainstreaming
• Ben Arieh and the Jerusalem project
• Bradshaw, J., Hoelscher, P. and Richardson, D.
  (2007) An index of child well-being in the
  European Union 25, Journal of Social Indicators
  Research, 80, 133-177. http//springerlink.metapre
  ss.com/content/f3642p2x00hn5h01/fulltext.pdf
• UNICEF (2007) Innocenti Report Card 7 Child
  Poverty in Perspective An Overview of Child
  Well-being in Rich Countries
• Bradshaw, J. Hoelscher, P. and Richardson, D.
  (2007) Comparing Child Well-being in OECD
  Countries Concepts and Methods, IWP 2006-03.
  FlorenceUNICEF. http//www.unicef-icdc.org/public
  ations/pdf/iwp2006_03_eng.pdf
• Richardson, D. Hoelscher, P. and Bradshaw, J.
  (2008) Child well-being in Central and Eastern
  European Countries (CEE) and the Commonwealth of
  Independent States (CIS), Child Ind. Res. 1
  211-250.
• Bradshaw, J. and Richardson, D. (2009 An Index of
  Child Well-being in Europe (forthcoming)

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Conceptualisation of child well-being

• Multi-dimensional approach
• Based on childrens rights as outlined in the UN
  CRC
• the primary consideration in all actions
  concerning children must be in their best
  interest and their views must be taken into
  account
• What children think and feel is important
• Aspirations
• Child the unit of analysis
• Well-being more important than well-becoming
• Focus on outcomes not inputs
• Use direct measures

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Data Sources for EU index 2009

• Surveys
• Health Behaviour of School Aged Children (HBSC)
  at 2005
• Programme for International Student Assessment
  (PISA) at 2006
• Survey of Income and Living Conditions (EU) at
  2006
• Series
• WHO mortality data base
• World Bank World Development Indicators
• OECD Health Indicators
• EU Health for All Data base
• OECD Education at a Glance,

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DOMAINS OF WELL-BEING

• 43 indicators
• 20 components
• 7 domains

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DOMAINS OF WELL-BEING

• Health
• Subjective well-being 
• Personal relationships
• Material resources
• Education
• Behaviour and risks
• Housing and the environment

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Child well-being Summary
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Health
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HEALTH
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Subjective well-being
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Components of subjective well-being
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Relationships
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RELATIONSHIPS
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Material well-being
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MATERIAL WELL-BEING
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Risk and safety
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Components of risk and safety
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Education
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EDUCATION
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Housing and the environment
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Housing and the environment
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Background

• UNICEF State of the Worlds Children
• Cornia and Danziger (1997) Child Poverty and
  Deprivation in Rich Countries
• UNICEF Innocenti Report Cards 1-6
• Luxembourg EU Presidency child mainstreaming
• Ben Arieh and the Jerusalem project
• Bradshaw, J., Hoelscher, P. and Richardson, D.
  (2007) An index of child well-being in the
  European Union 25, Journal of Social Indicators
  Research, 80, 133-177. http//springerlink.metapre
  ss.com/content/f3642p2x00hn5h01/fulltext.pdf
• UNICEF (2007) Innocenti Report Card 7 Child
  Poverty in Perspective An Overview of Child
  Well-being in Rich Countries
• Bradshaw, J. Hoelscher, P. and Richardson, D.
  (2007) Comparing Child Well-being in OECD
  Countries Concepts and Methods, IWP 2006-03.
  FlorenceUNICEF. http//www.unicef-icdc.org/public
  ations/pdf/iwp2006_03_eng.pdf
• Richardson, D. Hoelscher, P. and Bradshaw, J.
  (2008) Child well-being in Central and Eastern
  European Countries (CEE) and the Commonwealth of
  Independent States (CIS), Child Ind. Res. 1
  211-250.
• Bradshaw, J. and Richardson, D. (2009 An Index of
  Child Well-being in Europe (forthcoming)

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WELL-BEING BY CHILD POVERTY RATE
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WELL-BEING AND LIFE SATISFACTION
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WELL-BEING BY FAMILY BREAKDOWN
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Selected ten
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Overall by select ten
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Correlations matrix of domains
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Child well-being by GDP Euros per capita
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Child well-being and inequality
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Overall child well-being by spending on families
with children 2005 as GDP
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(Self) Criticisms

• Not all aspects of child well-being covered
• Bias to older children
• Equal weighting
• Z scores
• No measure of dispersion within countries

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Future

• Innocenti report card 8 out ?9
• OECD report on child well-being coming in April
  2009
• EU project on child poverty and child well-being
• Also better questions in SILC from 2009

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Conclusions (on for example Italy)

• Italy is middling/low on child well-being overall
• Not good on
• Well-being at school
• Youth inactivity
• Poverty
• Education
• Housing
• Better on
• Self defined health
• Risk and safety
• Weak family package
• Hypotheses
• Relying on strong families - which are weakening
• ?Spending too much on the elderly