A Review Essay on the Measurement of Child Well-Being

Fernandes, Liliana; Mendes, Américo M. S. Carvalho; Teixeira, Aurora A.C.

doi:10.1007/s11205-011-9814-9

Cited by 63 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(93 reference statements)

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“…This is the case, for example, of the works of Land et al (2001Land et al ( , 2007, Bastos et al (2004Bastos et al ( , 2008, Bradshaw et al (2007), Moore et al ( , 2008 and Bradshaw and Richardson (2009) (Fernandes et al 2012). An exception is the research developed by Bastos and Machado (2009).…”

Section: Composite Indexes Of Child Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Here the authors opted to place more importance on the indicators in which deprivation was not widespread and, consequently, non-possession of certain items, the authors argue, translates into a strong feeling of deprivation (Bastos and Machado 2009). However, although different from uniform weights, the weighting scheme adopted by Bastos and Machado far from represents the real weights of the items considered in the construction of their composite deprivation index, since they do not take into account children's perceptions of those items' relative importance (Fernandes et al 2012).…”

Section: Composite Indexes Of Child Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Following the general consensus in current work on child well-being indexes (e.g., Land et al 2001Land et al , 2007Moore et al , 2008Bradshaw et al 2007;Bastos et al 2008;Bastos and Machado 2009;Bradshaw and Richardson 2009; for a survey, see Fernandes et al 2012), a multidimensional approach is also taken here. This being said it is necessary to specify which dimensions are to be considered in order to assess child well-being and on what basis the choice of those dimensions is grounded.…”

Section: The Current Consensus: a Multidimensional Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From this categorization, which allows us to sort variables by their main features, and taking into account insights from a literature survey on child well-being indicators (Fernandes et al 2012), we arrive at eight broad dimensions of child well-being, where three of them include context variables only, four include only interaction (with people or objects) factors and one considers personal characteristics factors only:…”

Section: Choosing the Dimensions Of Child Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This field of research has, however, experienced several changes and important developments over time, where the measurement of child well-being through summary indexes has become one of the most recent trends (Ben-Arieh 2008). Although some limitations remain-namely measuring children's perspectives of their own well-being is still not duly considered-, data on children has been growing rapidly (Ben-Arieh 2008;Fernandes et al 2012). This increase in the data available has led to some difficulties in drawing conclusions about how children are faring, especially when several dimensions of their well-being are considered, and that is basically why researchers have been called upon to build single summary indexes, in order to simplify the interpretation of data which is now abundant (Ben-Arieh 2008; Moore et al , 2008.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Weighted Multidimensional Index of Child Well-Being Which Incorporates Children’s Individual Perceptions

2012

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It has been a decade since a landmark piece of work on child well-being measurement based on a summary index was developed in the United States, the Index of Child and Youth Well-Being. Several research studies, both in the U.S. and Europe, followed on from this work. Despite these studies' valuable contribution, scope exists for further improvements at the methodological level. In the present paper we draw the methodological basis for a new, micro-based summary child well-being index in which children's views on their own well-being assume a central role and distinct weights (based on the children's perceptions) to each component that is included in the index are used. Based on 914 pairs of responses of Portuguese children and their carers, the newly proposed index was tested vis-à-vis other methodologies. The econometric estimations show that the significance of all potential well-being determinants (e.g., age, school cycle, mother's and father's level of education) remains the same across the distinct methods of calculation of child well-being indexes. However, the consideration of subjective components (degrees of importance and weights) allowed to evidence that the most relevant determinants of child well-being are the set of variables related to the child's parents, namely education and professional status. In particular, when compared to their counterparts, children whose fathers have higher education degrees reveal an increased overall well-being by around 25 %, whereas children whose fathers are unemployed present a decreased well-being by around 11 %.

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Section: Composite Indexes Of Child Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Composite Indexes Of Child Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: The Current Consensus: a Multidimensional Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Choosing the Dimensions Of Child Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Weighted Multidimensional Index of Child Well-Being Which Incorporates Children’s Individual Perceptions

2012

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Trends in Measures of Child and Adolescent Well-being in the US From 2000 to 2019

et al. 2022

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ImportanceImproving child and adolescent well-being is a critical public health goal, yet monitoring of this measure at the national level remains limited. Composite indices aggregate existing indicators from population data sources, but these indices currently have weaknesses that may inhibit widespread use.ObjectiveTo apply a novel, more child-centric index method to document changes in overall child and adolescent well-being in the US from 2000 to 2019, assess which states and racial and ethnic subpopulations experienced the greatest inequities in well-being, and identify the specific components associated with changes in the index over time.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis cross-sectional study applied the Child and Adolescent Thriving Index 1.0 to population-level data from 2000 to 2019 from several data sources. The area-based sampling frame for each of the component data sources allowed for nationally representative estimates for every year of the study period. The indices for every state and by race and ethnicity were also calculated. Due to the scope and breadth of the index components from across the life course, the Child and Adolescent Thriving Index 1.0 is intended to approximate the well-being of persons up to age 17 years. Data were analyzed from June 7, 2021, to March 17, 2022.ExposuresTime in years.Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe Child and Adolescent Thriving Index 1.0 is a weighted mean of 11 indicators intended to proxy well-being. The index comprises 11 components: non–low birth weight in neonates, preschool attendance in children aged 3 to 4 years, reading proficiency in fourth-grade students, math proficiency in eighth-grade students, food security in children younger than 18 years, general health status, nonobesity in high school students, nonsmoking in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, non–marijuana use in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, high school graduation in young adults aged 18 to 21 years, and nonarrest rate in children aged 10 to 17 years. The index ranges from 0 to 1, with 0 indicating minimum and 1 indicating maximum possible well-being at the population level.ResultsThe Child and Adolescent Thriving Index 1.0 was applied to data from 12 320 national, state, and racial and ethnic population-level estimates. Over the study period, the Child and Adolescent Thriving Index 1.0 score increased from 0.780 points in 2000 to 0.843 points in 2019. Despite some convergence in geographic and racial and ethnic disparities, inequities were still present in 2019 in the South (−0.021 points) compared with the Northeast and among American Indian or Alaska Native (−0.079 points), Black (−0.053 points), and Latinx (−0.047 points) children and adolescents compared with White youths. Index components most associated with the overall increases in index scores of well-being were high school graduation rate (+0.028 units) and nonsmoking in adolescents (+0.022 units), amounting to 80.6% of the total increase.Conclusions and RelevanceResults of this study suggest that child and adolescent well-being scores increased from 2000 to 2019, but substantial work remains to address persistent inequities across states and racial and ethnic populations. The newly developed Child and Adolescent Thriving Index 1.0 may be used in future work to evaluate which public policy types (economic, social, health care, housing, or education) are associated with higher levels of well-being.

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The Powerful Combination of Group Interviews and Drawings: How to Give Children a Voice in the Understanding of Well-being

Alexandre

Russo

Castro

et al. 2021

Children’s Concepts of Well-Being

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A Review Essay on the Measurement of Child Well-Being

Cited by 63 publications

References 20 publications

A Weighted Multidimensional Index of Child Well-Being Which Incorporates Children’s Individual Perceptions

A Weighted Multidimensional Index of Child Well-Being Which Incorporates Children’s Individual Perceptions

Trends in Measures of Child and Adolescent Well-being in the US From 2000 to 2019

The Powerful Combination of Group Interviews and Drawings: How to Give Children a Voice in the Understanding of Well-being

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