Child Wellbeing Vision
Early conceptions of ‘wellbeing’ emerged from a more general movement to de-medicalise health and encourage governments to consider a wider range of factors which contributed to poor health beyond disease or its absence.
The Alma Alta definition of health (WHO 1978) defined health as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. Since then, well-being has evolved as an overarching concept which is generally held to describe the quality of people’s lives.
The Government Office for Science Foresight Report on Mental Capital and Wellbeing (2008)
suggests that wellbeing is a dynamic state that is enhancedwhen people can fulfil their personal and social goals and achieve a sense of purpose in society.
Rather than being static, wellbeing emerges from how people interact with the world around them at different points in their lives. It is not necessarily the same as being happy, since anxiety,
depression and anger are sometimes to be expected in life.
Pat Willis Child Wellbeing Vision is based solely on children participation
Given the opportunity to self report on their wellbeing. Health-related quality of life questionnaire is developed to provide measures that could be used to assess quality of life among all children, not just those with health difficulties (which is the usual focus of such a measure). It contains items organized into 10 domains including factors such as physical health; moods and emotions, home life, school environment, social acceptance (including bullying) and the child’s perception of financial
resources.
Pat Willis Child Wellbeing Vision
We are based solely on children participation and given the opportunity
to self report on their wellbeing.
Suggestion here is the link between poverty and wellbeing using a questionnaire to analyze some United Kingdom homes and amongst poor families.
The analyzed data is from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and specifically the self-completed questionnaires by 11-15 year olds (British Youth Panel) which formed the basis for the measurement models of child-wellbeing. Four dimensions of child wellbeing were included in this analysis: home life (a measure of the child’s relationship with their parents); educational orientation (a measure of how well the child is doing at school); low self worth (a single indicator of subjective wellbeing or lack of wellbeing); and risky behaviour (as a measure of risk-taking or anti-social behaviour).
Combining these data with general indicators of:
poverty (financial strain, material deprivation, environment, social isolation, civic participation and psycho-social strain), the study concluded that irrespective of the long-term impact of poverty, growing up in impoverished households directly impacted on the wellbeing of children and young people. Children who were poor were more likely than those who were not poor to have a more difficult home life, have negative attitudes towards school, to feel isolated and anxious and to engage in antisocial and risky behaviour. Pat Willis Wellbeing Vision subscribed that a worst situation exist in many countries especially Africa.
Our Vision on Child Wellbeing includes:
▪ Is multidimensional considers measures offering both objective and subjective perspectives
on quality of life
▪ Incorporates the views and perspectives of children and young people themselves
▪ Focuses on attributes and strengths as well as difficulties and deficiencies
▪ Considers the wellbeing of children in the ‘here and now’ and does not focus exclusively on
long-term outcomes
▪ Incorporates measures of individual physical and emotional/mental wellbeing
▪ Incorporates measures which take account of the context of children and young people’s lives
▪ Is considered at different stages of children and young people’s lives
▪ Pays attention to culture, gender, age and other personal characteristics and how these factors
may influence feelings of wellbeing as well as objective child wellbeing outcomes
