Profiling Challenges to Well-Being

Select the indicator that most interests you and review that section in the report. Summarize the findings and explain why you believe this information is important in terms of understanding and supporting children's well-being.

            The economic well-being is an important indicator because it can provide informed data to enable the understanding and support of children’s well being. A family’s economic success provides a child with a good foundation for development, which promotes positive outcome in adulthood. According to the report, continuous exposure to hardships or economic stress can affect the physically, mentally, and socio-emotional well-being of children in single parent families that are below the poverty index.  According to the UNICEF report about child well-being in rich countries, a nation’s rank of child well-being is how it addresses children’s needs in terms of material security; education and socialization; health and safety; and children’s sense of being valued, loved and included in a family or society where they are born. The report states that children who are raised in poverty are more vulnerable to develop behavioral and learning problems; low aspirations and skills; poor health; become early parents and welfare dependent. This information is important to understand and support children’s well-being because in seeking to establish whether children are adequately housed, fed, clothed and protected; or whether their circumstances will make them unable to participate fully in various opportunities in life, we can establish whether children feel cherished, loved and supported within a family or community in addition to understand whether the family and community is being supported to ensure child-well being by various public resources and policies (UNICEF, 2007).

Based on your growing knowledge of child development and the early childhood field, suggest at least two factors that are key to understanding children's well-being but were not utilized as indicators in the report. Explain your thinking.

        i.            Public policies

            Government programs and public policies are other factors that can be used to provide informed evidence to promote and foster child-well-being aspects in child development. The growth of a nation relies in large on the ability of children to grow into adult members of the society and contribute in developing its economy. This makes it as what many would regard the community and policy maker’s moral responsibility to focus on child well-being of the young and vulnerable children (Townson, 1999).  According to Townson (1999), children are the most valuable resource of a nation because they constitute the future generation of parents, workers, and taxpayers. Policy makers should take redirect their attention and develop interest in promoting and supporting the well-being of children because they are the future adults who will be responsible in building the economy of the country. For this matter, the well-being of children including their ability to develop into adults who are productive in a competitive global economy is key for public policy makers to take into consideration (Scott, Ward & International Looking after Children Conference, 2005). It is important that policy makers understand that public policies can affect children’s well-being because policies affect factors determining well-being to varying degrees. For example, debating over transfer policies or tax involves creating incentives or disincentives in working and saving, which does not consider its effect in stability and income adequacy impacts on well-being of children whose parents are affected by these policies (Townson, 1999). 

      ii.            Positive identity and self concept

            Evidence shows that the way children feel about themselves, whether they believe there are being listened when they speak or their opinions are respected are important factors of their well-being. Children’s feelings concerning how they look have been found to linked to well-being. Children whose clothes do not fit in with those of their peers have been found to be three times vulnerable to possess low well-being.  Those who have experienced bullying at least two to three times in a few months were identified to have low well-being compared to children who had not experienced bullying  (Gottfried & Aghajan, 2011).  Developing a positive self concept and identity by believing that their views and opinions are respected and taken seriously, feeling that they are treated well in crucial areas of their development  and having a positive view of themselves leads to a greater well-being  (Eagle, 1982).

Articulate the ways your definition of well-being is expanding and deepening based on what you have learned and thought about so far in the course.

            Through this week’s learning, I have understood well-being that it refers to an individual’s general condition for their economic, social, emotional and emotional state. My understand of well-being has deepened because I have learned that negative feelings or experiences are associated with low well-being while an individual’s positive experiences are associated with high well-being. I have further learned that it is important to ensure positive well-being in children which is determined by various factors such as health, social environment, safety, behavior, economic circumstances and education (UNICEF, 2007). Further external research about well-being has helped me learn positive identity, self concept  and public policies are that other indicators that affect well-being of an individual and influence the other indicators in varying degrees (Gottfried & Aghajan, 2011).

Reference

Eagle, R. (1982). Well being. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Gottfried, B., & Aghajan, H. K. (2011). Behaviour Monitoring and Interpretation - BMI: Well       being. Amsterdam: IOS Press. 

Scott, J., Ward, H., & International Looking After Children Conference. (2005).Safeguarding      and promoting the well being of children, families, and their communities. London:       Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Townson, M. (1999). Health and wealth: How social and economic factors affect our well being.   Toronto: J. Lorimer. 

UNICEF (2007). Child poverty in perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries.             Innocent Report Card 7. UNICEF Innocent Research Centre: Florence.