The Good Childhood Report 2021
The Children’s Society has produced its tenth Good Childhood Report on the well-being of children (aged 10 to 17) in the UK. The report measures children’s subjective wellbeing using data from their own Household Survey, the UK Longitudinal Household Survey and the Millennium Cohort Study.
The report focuses on children’s responses to the Good Childhood Index, this measures personal well-being around 10 key areas (including happiness with school life) and assesses children’s happiness with different aspects of life and overall life satisfaction.
The 2021 findings show that:
- On average children were happy with their home, family and their health
- Children were proportionately more unhappy with school than any other key area
- 12% of the children measure below the midpoint on life satisfaction and deemed to have low well-being
- Having enough money, being able to find a job and getting good grades were the aspects of life that more children said they were worried about in 2021
The report also looked at the prevalence of symptoms of mental ill-health, self-harm and attempted suicide for different sub-groups. It found that by age 17 females and young people attracted to the same or both genders have poorer outcomes. There was also a higher proportion of attempted suicide in the white ethnic group.
When combined with the Understanding Society data for 2018-19 it would appear that children and young people’s happiness has decreased since 2010. Schools are well placed to monitor and support young people as they fully return to education this September and with well-being and relationships key to the new compulsory RSHE curriculum, there is space in which to work on these areas.
