Wellbeing and Young People
Project leaders: Dr Julie Newton, Cerys Ponting and Dave Breen (Techniquest)
Project Description
The Trials
Project Findings
Relevant Links
Project Description
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) committed governments across the world to develop appropriate indicators to monitor improvements in child wellbeing. It also states that “the primary consideration in all actions concerning children must be in their best interest and their views must be taken into account”. Within the UK, the work of the Children's Society, new economics foundation and the Social Policy Research Institute at the University of York have considerably advanced understanding in this area. Yet, there remains agreement that substantially more work is required to capture the voices of young people in discussions about what wellbeing means to them; which aspects of wellbeing are important; and their views on how wellbeing should be measured. It has been noted that there is a specific need for this engagement to feed directly into wellbeing indicator development for young people and children.
This project sought to address this gap by focusing on wellbeing amongst 129 young people (16-19 year olds). The project reported on data emerging from the trials of Wellbeing Contemporary Science Debates (CSD) developed by Techniquest in collaboration with BRASS. The trials took place in March, 2011 in six schools and colleges in Wales (Torfaen, Caerphilly, Bridgend and Rhondda Cynon Taf). The development of the trials and their delivery in the convergence areas of Wales was co-funded by Welsh Assembly Government-led European Social Fund project Reach the Heights and the Office of National Statistics (ONS) as part of its broader remit to stimulate a national debate on wellbeing and develop wellbeing measures.
The aims of the trials were to:
• Facilitate young people’s engagement with the topic and elicit their views on wellbeing, including their ideas for its measurement, through an interactive workshop and associated support resources for teachers
• Offer the workshop to schools in the convergence areas of Wales through Techniquest’s Reach the Heights scheme from 1 April 2011, subject to further funding
• Prepare a report for the ONS providing preliminary data on the views of young people in Wales on wellbeing.
For more information on the data collection and analysis, contact Julie Newton and Cerys Ponting (BRASS).
For more information on the project delivery, contact Dave Breen at Techniquest.
Project Methodology
The trials followed the format of Contemporary Science Debates (CSD) - informal debates designed to engage large numbers of young people (aged 16-19) in innovative and participative discussions on social and ethical issues associated with contemporary science. These debates give young people the chance to consider the relevance of the application of science to their everyday lives and to give them the opportunity to make their opinions heard on topics that have direct relevance to their lives. CSDs are run periodically by Techniquest as part of the Welsh Assembly.
Government-led European Social Fund (ESF) "Reach the Heights" programme. Through this programme, Techniquest is developing and delivering STEM (Science Technology, Engineering & Maths) programmes in the convergence areas across Wales (West Wales and the south Wales Valleys) for 11 – 19 year olds who face or who are at risk of disadvantage or under-achievement, to improve their career opportunities. As part of Techniquest’s Reach the Heights programme, Techniquest has developed Contemporary Science Debates (CSD) for post 16 students focused on the topic of wellbeing.
The CSD format used for Reach the Heights is based on DEMOCS (Deliberative Meeting of Citizens) originally developed by the new economics foundation (nef). It is a conversation game that helps groups discuss issues using cards based on stories and information relating to the topic. The debate resources are developed with input from experts in the field (in this case with expertise from BRASS) The presenter of the workshop acts as a facilitator for the discussion, so as not to influence the young people’s views, and to help them focus on the topic.
The aim of the Wellbeing contemporary science debate was to encourage the pupils to discuss 'wellbeing' and collect information directly from the young people involved. The session objectives were:
• To help the pupils learn about, think about, and reflect on the topic.
• To provide an opportunity to students to develop opinions, empathise, explore opinions and express their views with others.
• To enable the pupils to identify what they consider wellbeing means to them, and if it should be measured.
• To encourage pupils to consider moral responsibility, providing a valuable link with the citizenship curriculum.
• To develop thinking speaking, emotional literacy and decision-making skills.
The Wellbeing CSD was designed with modifications, since: there were no interactive props; pupils needed to identify what wellbeing meant to them before any information was given (i.e. through story and information cards) so their initial views would not be influenced; and data collection from the session was essential in order to feed into the ONS national debate on wellbeing. Although the facilitator collects the opinions of the group, CSDs are not typically designed to record the outcomes of the discussions.
The Wellbeing CSD involved a number of interactive activities aimed at stimulating debate on what wellbeing means to 16-19 year olds. In each school, the trial ran for approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. Pupils were asked to sit in groups of five to six. The key activities within the trial are summarised below.
• Post-its: individually, pupils were asked to use post-its to write down thoughts on what wellbeing means to them (prompted with ‘what do you need for life to be good?)
• Categorisation of post-its: sharing thoughts with the rest of their group and collate similar post-its on flip chart paper giving the collated post-its category headings. The selected categories were then fed back to the rest of the class.
• Mannequin heads: each group was asked to mark their agreed categories devised from the previous activity on a polystyrene mannequin head. The exercise aimed to get the pupils to capture how much importance each group apportioned to their categories.
• Story cards: the cards included dramatised accounts of individuals’ experience on certain aspects of wellbeing based on true stories. Pupils were asked to choose a card that they found interesting, shocking, agreeable or disagreeable and discuss how this related to the wellbeing categories they identified in previous activity.
• Information cards: the cards included information aimed at deepening the pupils’ understanding of wellbeing. They were asked to repeat the same process as carried out with the story cards.
• Measurement: final activity aimed at eliciting: what were the key wellbeing issues, views on whether measuring wellbeing for their age group is worthwhile, and if so how.
Techniquest developed the CSD on wellbeing with expertise and advice on content from BRASS. Techniquest was responsible for the participation of schools and overall delivery of the trials. BRASS was responsible for initial piloting of the trial, the data collection, co-facilitation of sessions and producing a final report documenting the outcome of the discussions during the trials. A copy of the final report can be made available on request.
Project Findings
The data collected from the trials suggests that wellbeing is multidimensional; there are multiple facets to how young people experience wellbeing. Our results based on word frequency analysis of individuals post-its using NVIVO software suggest that the key dimensions of wellbeing for young people (16-19) in order of most frequently cited were: friends, family, sports, money, food, music, health, fastfood, education and alcohol. The way in which these were subsequently grouped into categories and ranked on the mannequin heads provided insights into why these dimensions were more prevalent. Soundbites capturing the rich discussions emerging from the various activities provided further elaboration of why certain dimensions were highlighted as more important than others. The wellbeing dimensions highlighted in this project through the individual post-it analysis and categorisation of post-its could subsequently be considered as key wellbeing ‘domains’ for further wellbeing indicator development for this age group.
Friends and family by far outranked many of the other individual post-its cited. The discussions within the groups confirmed that these individuals were often perceived as the foundation of their wellbeing providing them with life (i.e. parents) and essential support: “that’s what your life is built around…without any of them…the others don’t really count”. Many of the pupils also put these individuals in other categories such as ‘most important’ and ‘essential’.
Other important wellbeing dimensions highlighted in the top ten post-its analysis included sports (related to its role in socialising, entertainment and hobbies); money (often seen as a route to independence and purchasing material possessions); food and health (both perceived as elements of basic needs and essentials), education (often linked to routes to employment, money and independence); music and alcohol (often discussed in the context of socialising, entertainment and an aspect of teen life). Additional dimensions of wellbeing explored in more detail during the discussions focused on the importance of social networking sites and technology more generally (e.g. mobile phones, internet and videogames) for communicating between friends. The importance of feelings and emotions (“like being happy to do them things that you want to do...it’s about how you feel about things”) as well as humour and laughter (LOL) was also highlighted. The trials also revealed that young people have very strong views about having their voices heard. The majority of our sample felt that young people are negatively stereotyped and that this is a key reason for why their views are not taken into account. These themes were further explored during the story and information cards activities. The top three selected story cards highlighted issues dealing with education, employment, family and friends, immigration, appearance and health. The top three selected information cards highlighted issues dealing with youth discrimination, negative stereotypes of teenagers in the media , mental health and the links between money and happiness.
In summary, our results suggest that key dimensions of wellbeing for young people include the people in their lives (specifically friends and family), how they socialise (i.e. through technology, drinking, sports), the spaces and times in which they socialise (schools, homes, weekends). These findings support the work of others working in this field who have highlighted the importance of family, friends, leisure, school/education/learning, behaviour, the local environment, community, money, attitudes and health. The centrality of interpersonal relationships with family and friends as well as the value of ‘activities’ and ‘things to do’ appears to be a consistent theme across current research on young people wellbeing. (See the Links pages for others working in this area)
Attempts to develop both objective and subjective measures of wellbeing should subsequently include questions that address these specific areas which can be considered as examples of wellbeing ‘domains’ for this specific age group. Ideally, more research is required to unpack why these particular ‘domains’ are of importance and the links between them. Further comparison is also necessary in order to explore the extent to which these potential domains might differ amongst other age groups of young people and children as well as adults.
When asked whether measuring wellbeing was worthwhile the majority agreed that it was particularly important for their age group as they were the future generation and were going to have an impact on the future development of the economy. It was strongly felt that they should have equal rights to older groups to be heard. It was also noted that it was important to monitor wellbeing for their age group as this is a highly stressful, emotional and transitional phase for young people with the pressures of exams and finding jobs. A range of suggestions were given on how wellbeing could be measured for young people: questionnaires, surveys, focus groups, all of which could be delivered through places of education and youth clubs. It was also highlighted that it would be useful to get young people to reflect on various wellbeing dimensions; most notably to do with home, education and work. Others noted that it would be useful to conduct surveys at different stages of their lives (i.e. when doing exams). A number of participants also felt that social networking sites would be a more effective mechanism of outreach to gauge views of young people on wellbeing more generally.
Relevant links
Listed below are links to organisations and institutions working on young people, children and wellbeing. Other sites providing links to key policy documents and relevant information on subjects related to the project are also provided. These sites will open in new windows and BRASS is not responsible for the content of these sites. If you are working in this field and wish to have a link to your research, please contact Julie Newton or Cerys Ponting.
Partners
Techniquest Reach the Heights: http://www.techniquest.org/education/english/rthProgrammes.php
Office of National Statistics: http://www.ons.gov.uk/well-being
Wellbeing
ONS Knowledge Bank: http://www.ons.gov.uk/well-being/wellbeing/index.html
All Wales Wellbeing Group: http://www.wellbeingwales.org/
New economics foundation: http://www.neweconomics.org/programmes/well-being
Young Foundation: http://www.youngfoundation.org/our-work/local-innovation/strands/wellbeing/wellbeing
Children, Young People and Wellbeing (UK)
ONS and children’s wellbeing: http://www.ons.gov.uk/well-being/wellbeing/child-wellbeing/index.html
The Children's Society - The Good Childhood Inquiry
Children and Young People's Well-being (New Economics Foundation)
NEF, The Power and the Potential of Well-being Indicators: Measuring Young People’s Well-being in Nottingham
Social Policy Research Institute, University of York: index of child wellbeing
Child Poverty Action Group
2011 Children and Young People’s Wellbeing Monitor
Voices of Children and Young People in Wales Study: A qualitative study of Wellbeing among children and young people under 25 years old (850KB)
Measuring child wellbeing in Ireland
Children’s understanding of wellbeing, Ireland
Children, Young People and Wellbeing (International)
Ben-Arieh, A. and Goerge, R. Multinational Project for Measuring and Monitoring Children’s Well-being
The International Society for Child Indicators
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) OECD
UNICEF - The State of the World's Children Reports
Outputs
Executive summary (English)
Executive summary (Welsh)
Full report and appendices (March 2011)
Summary sheet for schools (July 2011)
Presentations on this work have been delivered/are planned at the following:
Well-being 2011: International Conference Exploring the Multi-dimensions of Wellbeing, Hosted by Birmingham City University and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), 18th – 19th July 2011
Wellbeing Wales Network's Research Evaluation and Application Group, July 20th 2011
Public Engagement and Science Communication - Sustainable Strategies, Cardiff University
3rd Conference of the International Society for Child Indicators, University of York, 27 - 29th July 2011
