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So, Good Childhood Report 2020... what does it tell us? As ever, please indulge me with a lengthy thread!
https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/good-childhood-report-2020#">https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/good-chil... (1/15)
https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/good-childhood-report-2020#">https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/good-chil... (1/15)
The trends...
Between 2009/10 & 2017/18 we see significant decline for 10-15 yr olds in happiness with: life as a whole, friends & school. Appearance had stabilised but looks like its going into decline. Thankfully family & schoolwork are holding up! Data from @usociety (2/15)
Between 2009/10 & 2017/18 we see significant decline for 10-15 yr olds in happiness with: life as a whole, friends & school. Appearance had stabilised but looks like its going into decline. Thankfully family & schoolwork are holding up! Data from @usociety (2/15)
Well-being in Europe?
Courtesy of #oecdpisa we looked across 24 European countries. UK had lowest proportions of 15 yr olds with high life satisfaction, high sense of purpose. Second highest levels of sadness. Did ok on levels of happiness though (so not all bad!) (3/15)
Courtesy of #oecdpisa we looked across 24 European countries. UK had lowest proportions of 15 yr olds with high life satisfaction, high sense of purpose. Second highest levels of sadness. Did ok on levels of happiness though (so not all bad!) (3/15)
#oecdpisa didn& #39;t get the coverage it deserved at publication. But it was published during the General Election & focused on attainment... the well-being story was lost. UK well-being had the biggest fall between the 2015 & 2018 and our gender gap was one of the largest. (4/15)
Our analysis found strong links between fear of failure and life satisfaction across countries. Moderate links to changes in relative child poverty. No significant link to technology use. (5/15)
The temptation is probably to separate out the findings about inequality & fear of failure but there are important connections to consider... our own research, & others, has found that fear of failure is significantly higher for children living in low income families. (6/15)
And of course in the UK we have a real issue with child poverty... Across 20 of the countries in the study (data wasn& #39;t available for everyone!) child poverty declines by two percentage points between 2015 & 2018. In the UK it increased by 4 percentage points. (7/15)
What about friends? The wonderful @DrAlexLTurner analysed @usociety to try & explain this concerning trend. There isn& #39;t a smoking gun. We looked at: number of close friends, bullying, social media. All important, but none adequately explain the changes over time. (8/15)
So we turned to young people to help us understand. They had a lot to say. 150 of them helped us explore some of the dynamics of modern friendship. Its a section of the report well worth a read (page 71 onwards!) (9/15)
Where does this leave us? I often think the slow and steady decline in children& #39;s well-being in this country is a bit like a melting glacier. At some point we will all collectively notice that its gone and we have lost something really precious. (10/15)
Here @ChildSocPol we are hopeful that perhaps coronavirus will allow us to have something of a reset. If you look across education, social care, health, justice, early years - so many areas of children& #39;s social policy are lacking vision at the moment (11/15)
There is an opportunity to put children at the heart of our national recovery. The CSR, perhaps a long term settlement akin to the NHS Long Term Plan. All possible. But it needs evidence - we need widescale measurement of children& #39;s well-being. (12/15)
We will be working hard to bring about the political will to do so! If you want to help, you can take our campaign action: https://act.childrenssociety.org.uk/page/66146/action/1?&utm_source=website&utm_medium=Parallax&utm_campaign=well-being%20petition">https://act.childrenssociety.org.uk/page/6614... (13/15)
Finally some thank yous... Louise, @DrAlexLTurner and @CharlotteRainer all make this possible - I am privileged to work with them. The wider @ChildSocPol family - past and present. When it comes to Good Childhood Report we stand on deep foundations laid down 15 years ago. (14/15)
And then so many people @childrensociety who support us. Data from @usociety, but also this year from #oecdpisa and @Sport_England, @OpiniumResearch, & many more. To amazing partners. And to the children & young people who give their time to tell us about their lives. (15/15)