GUIDE: Shift in child well-being research

Research on the well-being of children and young people has made significant progress in recent decades. A new longitudinal study launched by the GUIDE consortium (https://www.guidecohort.eu/) marks a shift in this field.

Previously, research on the well-being of children and young people was dominated by a social indicator approach, based on measurements of so-called “survival indicators”: mortality, diseases and social problems affecting children. Based on such measurements, the Child and Youth Well-being Index in the USA, the National Set of Child Well-being Indicators in Ireland, and OECD and UNICEF studies have been developed. These indicator-based measures are useful for understanding the well-being of children and youth at the macro level. These macro indices are used primarily to describe the well-being of children and youth, rather than to analyse the contexts that contribute to or undermine their well-being. Based on data from the US National Survey of Children’s Health, micro-level indicators of child well-being have been developed, focused on three domains: family, environment, and sociodemographic factors. These indicators clearly reveal how independent variables (children’s environment or context) play a crucial role in determining the development and well-being of children and young people. While such indicators are important to begin to address the problems of inequality and social exclusion that negatively affect children’s health and well-being, they ignore children’s potential and individual characteristics. Therefore, a new approach is emerging in research, focused on measuring the well-being of children and young people using self-report surveys.

By applying this approach, the younger generation is no longer treated as a passive object of research but as a participant in the research. Several instruments have already been developed to measure the self-assessment of young people's lives, for example, the Multi-Dimensional Student Life Satisfaction Scale, which helps to determine well-being in five domains: family, among friends, school, living space and within oneself. The main advantage of this approach is that it focuses on children and young people's self-assessment of well-being. Based on the experience of using this approach, a new approach is currently being developed that includes the perspectives of children and young people in research. This is the so-called children and young people-centric well-being studies.

Such an approach aims to collect valid and representative data about the lives and daily activities of children and young people, their time spent and, in particular, about their own perceptions and assessments of well-being. Following the paradigm shift in child well-being studies, the GUIDE consortium recognises that childhood is dynamic and that it is necessary to take into account changes at different stages of child and youth development. To better understand how these changes and other socio-economic factors related to these changes affect the well-being of children and youth, it is necessary to conduct longitudinal research using a child and youth-centred approach. This is the approach that will be used in the first comparative European cohort study on the well-being of children and youth from birth to 24 years, which will be implemented by the GUIDE consortium.

This initiative is implemented within the framework of ERDF project No 1.1.1.5/3/24/I/003 "Support for the Participation of Daugavpils University in the Horizon Europe programme".