Children’s well-being in contexts of poverty

Pages: 488-491
Saloni Chandalia, Divya Saxena and Radha Rani (Department of Psychology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan)

Wellbeing is generally understood as the quality of people’s lives. It is a dynamic state that is enhanced when people can fulfil their personal and social goals. It is understood both in relation to objective measures, such as household income, educational resources and health status; and subjective indicators such as happiness, perceptions of quality of life and life satisfaction. There is some emerging consensus that childhood wellbeing is multi-dimensional, should include dimensions of physical, emotional and social wellbeing; should focus on the immediate lives of children but also consider their future lives; and should incorporate some subjective as well as objective measures. There has been a gradual shift in the last few years away from being over reliant on objective measures of child wellbeing towards engaging children and young people in defining the parameters around what constitutes wellbeing. This move has revealed some important differences in how adults and children define wellbeing and the aspects of wellbeing that children prioritise compared to adults. Studies have indicated that wellbeing is negatively associated with income inequality and positively associated with spending on family benefits and services. Others have revealed that there is no direct association between poor childhood wellbeing and the prevalence of ‘broken families’. There is a close association between childhood wellbeing and positive family relationships. The aim of this research paper is to provide an overview of recent evidence in the field of childhood wellbeing. To fulfill the aim of the study, it will employ purposive sampling including 60 samples (30 unprivileged school going children, 30 privileged school going children)