happiness

Measuring happiness: a consultation with children from care and children living in residential and boarding schools

Many people in universities, government departments and voluntary organisations,are doing research to find out what is meant by‘happiness’, and what makes children happy or unhappy. They are also doing research on how to measure ‘happiness’, or how to measure ‘wellbeing’. This report gives some of the answers children themselves have given on these questions.

So far so good: age, happiness, and relative income

In a simple 2-period model of relative income under uncertainty, higher comparison income for the younger cohort can signal higher or lower expected lifetime relative income, and hence either increase or decrease well-being. With data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Survey, this paper confirms the standard negative effects of comparison income on life satisfaction with all age groups, and many controls.

Promoting positive well-being for children: a report for decision-makers in parliament, central government and local areas

Report that highlights six priorities for improving the subjective well-being of our children. It sets out each priority and explains why they all matter for children and families.

It makes a compelling case for understanding and measuring the subjective well-being of children, and gives advice for decision-makers in formulating and evaluating the impact of policy on children’s well-being.

Class of 2011 yearbook: how happy are young people and why does it matter?

This report puts the national statistics about children and young people’s emotional wellbeing and mental health into context, and tells the stories of some typical young Relate clients. It also presents the evidence that emotional and mental distress in childhood and adolescence matter in both the short and long term, and that they can be ameliorated by the right services being easily available. Recommendations are also made for the provision of these services.

OU on the BBC: Child of Our Time 2013

Child of Our Time is one of the programmes available on the Open2.net website, which is the online learning portal from the Open University and the BBC. The programme's presenter Robert Winston returns to the children born in the year 2000 to discover how they're developing. The children are now learning right from wrong, discovering about happiness - and, for some, adjusting to no longer being an only child.