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The #Covid-19 pandemic has put children’s #wellbeing under the spotlight. But how are #children doing really? And how do we know? ~ thread
There has been a continued decrease in average #happiness with life in 10-15 year olds, according to @ChildrenSociety Good Childhood Report.
...a trend reflected in @ONS State of the Nation Report on children and young people’s wellbeing. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-of-the-nation-2020-children-and-young-peoples-wellbeing
6 months without school
Overall, children have coped well with #lockdown. Some children have even #thrived, with more family time and less pressure from school. https://whatworkswellbeing.org/blog/life-on-hold-childrens-wellbeing-in-lockdown/
Children coped less well with not seeing #friends and family. Social connections and a sense of control are important to #wellbeing and lockdown took both of these away. https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/news/almost-quarter-adults-living-under-lockdown-uk-have-felt-loneliness
But the impact of the #pandemic has not been equal. Some #family relationships have been adversely affected - redundancies; financial worry; and the #stress of juggling working from home with childcare
https://mailchi.mp/whatworkswellbeing.org/inequalities
https://mailchi.mp/whatworkswellbeing.org/inequalities
For vulnerable children living with domestic #violence and #mentalhealth issues, lockdown was particularly bad, as usual sources of support were harder to access.
https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/news/covid-19-could-widen-mental-health-inequalities-generation-says-centre-mental-health-report
https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/news/covid-19-could-widen-mental-health-inequalities-generation-says-centre-mental-health-report
But do we really know how #children are doing? In the UK @ONS collects national #data on adult #wellbeing https://whatworkswellbeing.org/blog/ons4-evaluations-what-works-to-improve-personal-wellbeing/
...but there is no formal #data for #children, although @ONS has published proposals for a new framework.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/articles/childrenswellbeingindicatorreviewuk2020/2020-09-02
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/articles/childrenswellbeingindicatorreviewuk2020/2020-09-02
This means schools end up using different methods for measuring pupil wellbeing but then struggle to benchmark it. This is an important gap in the #evidence... https://whatworkswellbeing.org/blog/measuring-wellbeing-in-schools-and-colleges/
...so we are working with @childrensociety and @HealthFdn on a national measurement of children’s subjective wellbeing, so decision makers can understand how children feel about their lives, target resources properly and better understand #outcomes. https://whatworkswellbeing.org/category/children-and-young-people/
Our latest #podcast talks about all these issues and more with @RichardCrellin @adrianbethune @pravpatalay. Listen here… ~ ends https://whatworkswellbeing.org/blog/what-has-wellbeing-got-to-do-with-children-and-young-people
