institute for policy research symposium lost youth in the 21 st century university of bath 17...
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Can policy influence the subjective well-being of young people?
Jonathan Bradshaw
Institute for Policy Research SymposiumLost Youth in the 21st Century
University of Bath17 September 2014
New interest in subjective well-being both nationally and internationally
Some of it focussed on children and youth There is evidence that subjective well-being
varies Between countries Within countries over time
Also associated with objective well-being at an international level.
But in micro analysis difficult to explain variation. Therefore policy responses not easy to
determine
Outline of argument
Well-being multi-dimensional Objective= material, health, education,
(employment), safety, housing and environment, participation/inclusion.
Subjective= feelings. Hedonic
Affective: positive (joy) and negative feelings (anxiety) Cognitive: Life satisfaction
Eudaimonic: purpose in life, flourishing…. Subjective can be objectively measured In practice mainly cognitive
Objective versus subjective well-being
The outcomes of social policy often evaluated using money metrics Poverty Inequality Spending per capita
Income not reliable Lots of good things left out of GDP
Personal love and care Quality of the environment/Absence of pollution Freedom, Justice
Increasing GDP (after a certain level) does not lead to increased happiness. Easterlin paradox
Why is there new interest in SWB
Life satisfaction (Cantril’s ladder) by GDP per capita OECD (2011)
Richard Layard (2005) Happiness Critique of mainstream economics Prosperity Paradox
Strive to increase income Much richer than in the past We are not happier
Beyond Money
Well-being: Material living standards Health Personal activities/work Political voice/governance Social connections/relationships Environment present/future Insecurity
Elements of quality of life/subjective well-being: Happiness Life satisfaction Positive affect (joy/pride) Negative affect (pain/worry)
Stiglitz/Sen/Fitoussi Commission (2009)on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress
OECD (2011) : How’s Life. Life satisfaction 2010
CHNHUN
PRT INDEST
ZAFRUS IDN
TURGRC
POLJP
NSVK
SVNKOR
CZEESP ITA
CHLDEU
OECDBRA
FRAMEX
BEL ISLGBR
LUX
NZLUSA
AUT IRLFIN ISR
AUSNLD SWE
CHENOR
CANDNK
4.0
4.5
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5
7.0
7.5
8.0
It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money, and it's time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB - General Wellbeing. It's about the beauty of our surroundings, the quality of our culture and above all the strength of our relationships. There is a deep satisfaction which comes from belonging to someone and to some place.
David Cameron, May 2006
Beyond Money
Why well-being matters
Promoting well-being is a reasonable goal for any society
Studying well-being can enable us to understand what matters in people’s lives
In the UK ONS has established two programmes to measure national subjective well-being of Adults Children
Personal well-being Life satisfaction Life worthwhile Happiness yesterday Happiness with appearance
Relationships Health What we do Where we live Personal finance Education skills Economy Governance Natural environment http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/user-guidance/well-
being/index.html
Understanding national well-being - ONS
State of the World’s Children (UNICEF) Innocenti Report Cards (UNICEF) Doing Better for Children (OECD) Child poverty and derivation (EU) Child well-being (EU Tarki) African Report on Child Well-being (ACPF) Multi-dimensional child poverty (Bristol)
Many, many national reports
Comparative indices of child well-being
The well-being of children in the UK – three reviews latest Bradshaw, J. (ed) (2011) The Well-being of Children in the United Kingdom, Bristol: Policy Press
International comparative studies of child well-being – EU, OECD/UNICEF, CEECIS, Pacific Rim
The well-being of children - at small area level in England using indicators Bradshaw J, Noble M, Bloor K, Huby M, McLennan D, Rhodes D, Sinclair I, Wilkinson K. (2009) A Child Well-Being Index at Small Area Level in England, J. Child Indicators Research 2, 2, 201-219
The subjective well-being of children – Children’s Society survey http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/the_good_childhood_report_2014_-_final.pdf
Trends in the subjective wellbeing of children 1994-2008
Our research on child well-being
UNICEF (2007) Report on Child Well Being
UNICEF 2013 child well-being
Material Situation Health Education Behaviour Housing and
environment Child well-being index
Netherlands 1 5 1 1 4 2.4
Norway 3 7 6 4 3 4.6
Iceland 4 1 10 3 7 5.0
Finland 2 3 4 12 6 5.4
Sweden 5 2 11 5 8 6.2
Germany 11 12 3 6 13 9.0
Luxembourg 6 4 22 9 5 9.2
Switzerland 9 11 16 11 1 9.6
Belgium 13 13 2 14 14 11.2
Ireland 17 15 17 7 2 11.6
Denmark 12 23 7 2 15 11.8
Slovenia 8 6 5 21 20 12.0
France 10 10 15 13 16 12.8
Czech Republic 16 8 12 22 18 15.2
Portugal 21 14 18 8 17 15.6
United Kingdom 14 16 24 15 10 15.8
Canada 15 27 14 16 11 16.6
Austria 7 26 23 17 12 17.0
Spain 24 9 26 20 9 17.6
Hungary 18 20 8 24 22 18.4
Poland 22 18 9 19 26 18.8
Italy 23 17 25 10 21 19.2
Estonia 19 22 13 26 24 20.8
Slovakia 25 21 21 18 19 20.8
Greece 20 19 28 25 25 23.4
USA 26 25 27 23 23 24.8
Lithuania 27 24 19 29 27 25.2
Latvia 28 28 20 28 28 26.4
Romania 29 29 29 27 29 28.6
OECD Index of child well-being
Material situation Health Education Subjective well-being
Living environment Risk and safety
Japan Hong Kong Singapore China Japan Hong Kong
Korea Singapore Japan Vietnam Singapore Singapore
Vietnam Japan Korea Philippines Thailand China
Australia Korea Taiwan Indonesia New Zealand Taiwan
New Zealand Australia New Zealand Taiwan Hong Kong Japan
Taiwan Taiwan Hong Kong Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia
Singapore China Australia Australia China Vietnam
Hong Kong New Zealand Malaysia New Zealand Australia Korea
Thailand Thailand Thailand Singapore Philippines Australia
Indonesia Malaysia Vietnam Thailand Vietnam New Zealand
Malaysia Vietnam Indonesia Hong Kong Indonesia Thailand
China Indonesia Philippines Japan Korea Indonesia
Philippines Philippines Korea Philippines
Pacific Rim
CEECIS indexAverage
rankMaterial Housing Health Education Personal Family Risk
Croatia 3.4 1 1 1 4 1 7 9
Bosnia Herzegovina 4.8 9 3 13 - 2 1 1
FYR Macedonia 6.3 8 10 3 6 3 4 10
Serbia 6.6 5 6 9 11 7 3 5
Uzbekistan 7.5 14 2 6 - 13 8 2
Turkmenistan 7.6 - 9 15 - 4 6 4
Belarus 8.3 6 5 4 2 11 14 16
Montenegro 8.6 7 11 8 13 7 2 12
Bulgaria 10.6 2 7 14 5 16 12 18
Ukraine 10.6 4 13 7 8 9 19 14
Kazakhstan 11.1 15 12 10 1 12 17 11
Russia 11.3 3 15 5 3 17 16 20
Kyrgyzstan 11.7 16 17 11 18 5 9 6
Romania 12.0 10 19 16 7 14 5 13
Armenia 12.1 17 8 19 12 15 11 3
Georgia 13.6 18 4 17 15 6 18 17
Turkey 14.0 13 - 12 17 - - -
Azerbaijan 14.1 11 16 20 16 19 10 7
Albania 14.4 12 14 18 9 20 13 15
Tajikistan 14.4 19 18 21 10 10 15 8
Moldova 16.1 20 20 2 14 18 20 19
Child well-being by GDP Euros per capita: EU only
gdp100000800006000040000200000
do
ma
in
120.00
110.00
100.00
90.00
80.00
uk
swe
spa
sln
slk
rom
porpol
nor
net
mal
lux
lit
lat
ita
ire
hun gre
ger
fra
fin
est
den
cze
cyp
bul
bel
R Sq Linear = 0.477
WELL-BEING BY CHILD POVERTY RATE: EU only
Child well-being and inequality: EU only
WELL-BEING BY FAMILY BREAKDOWN
Measures not very good Lost in translation – life satisfaction Adaptive preferences Homeostatic adaptation Difficult to explain variations Personality a factor Most important factor relationships and choice
- ?social policies But
Why subjective well-being might not be a cause for social policy
Multiple regression of subjective well-being: England (The Children’s Society)
Variable Demographic variables only
+ deprivation scale + family type
Year group (6 as reference)
8 -1.16** -1.39** -1.33**10 -2.82** -2.86** -2.80**
Ethnicity (white as reference)
Mixed -0.83 NS -0.82 NS -0.91 NSIndian -1.06 NS -0.36 NS -0.65 NS
Pakistani/ Bangladeshi -0.59 NS -0.52 NS -0.59 NS
Black -0.18 NS 0.23 NS 0.33 NSOther 0.59 NS 0.56 NS 0.42 NS
Number of siblings (none as reference)
1 0.30 NS 0.20 NS 0.07 NS2 0.09 NS -0.03 NS -0.21 NS
3+ 0.01 NS 0.09 NS 0.02 NSSex (boy as reference) -0.66 * -0.73* -0.73*Learning difficulties (no as reference) -0.60 NS -0.31 NS -0.32 NSPhysical disability (no as reference) -1.39 NS -1.07 NS -1.18 NSDeprivation score -0.68** -0.64**Family type (both parents as reference)
Lone parent -1.26**Step family -0.90*
Other -4.68*r² 0.09 0.17 0.19
Feels there are people who support them
Has been bullied more than three times in the
past three months
Does not have enough friends
Does not feel safe at home
Family does not get along well together
Feels their life has a sense of purpose
Does not look forward to going to school
Does not feel free to express their opinions
Likes the way they look
Has a lot less money than their friends
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
64%
33%
17%
24%
42%
44%
51%
36%
24%
35%
93%
7%
5%
1%
5%
78%
19%
6%
65%
12%
Average to high well-being Low well-being
% of children
Overall subjective well-being HBSC
Mean life satisfaction among 12-year-olds in 11 countries: Children’s Worlds Pilot
Correlations with subjective well-being
Overall subjective well-being
Material well-being domain .677**
Health and safety domain .542**
Education domain .474**
Behaviour domain .534**
Housing and environment domain .610**
Overall (exc subjective) .666**
Objective and subjective child well-being: UNICEF 2013
-2 -1 0 1 2 3 4-4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
-0.170
0.747
-0.1450.254 0.417
-0.299
1.234
0.4940.766
-0.800
-0.085
1.038
0.351
-0.435
-1.810
-1.232
0.660
1.3030.998
-0.225-0.117
-3.382
-0.545
0.592
-0.238
0.9450.634
0.156
-1.106
R² = 0.344396820633918
subjective well-being index
over
all w
ell-b
eing
inde
x (e
xclu
ding
sub
ject
ive
wel
lbei
ng)
Social spending and subjective well-being
Child happiness has increased in the UK
Mean happiness of 11-15 year olds (BHPS/US 1994-2011). With 95% confidence intervals)
Reduction in child poverty? Big increase in spending on children? Institutional transformation? Is it schools – social and emotional education
and anti bullying? Is it social networking - friends and girls? Is it getting worse now?
Why?
How to measure well-being How to affect it with public policy How to organise to influence it
It varies over time It varies between countries It varies between individuals
What effects your well-being? What can be done to improve it? http://www.actionforhappiness.org/
We have much to learn
[email protected] Twitter @profjbradshaw http://php.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/profiles/jrb.php
Thank you for listening