The well-being of children in the UK (Third edition)

Author/Editor(s):

Jonathan Bradshaw

Format:

Paperback, 336 pages, 240 x 172 mm

ISBN

9781847428363

Published:

04 Jul 2011

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North America customers can order this book here from the University of Chicago Press.

"A significant contribution to improving our understanding of children's well-being in contemporary Britain. Indeed, the text successfully brings together a vast amount of information in one accessible and compelling volume...Its relevance is wide-ranging and students, lecturers, researchers and policy-makers will all find it a useful resource."
Children & Society

"Any effort to measure and monitor children's well-being is about children and how we can positively affect their lives. Jonathan Bradshaw stands at the forefront of this effort, worldwide and in the UK. His monumental work on the status of children in the UK is a superb example for a state of the child report. This third volume keeps up with his former works and beyond. It is rich in data and a comparative perspectives and should be read and used by anyone working with and on behalf of children."Asher Ben-Arieh, Chair, International Society for Child Indicators and Editor in Chief, Child Indicators Research journal

About This Book

The well-being of children is a vital and highly topical issue. This important new book is the third in a series and updates the findings from a wide range of data to evaluate the outcomes of the Labour government's policies for children. Edited by a highly regarded expert in the field, it uses a framework to compare policy areas, making it an excellent source book for researchers, policy makers and students.

Author Biography

Jonathan Bradshaw CBE, FBA is Professor of Social Policy at the University of York. In addition to research into family policy, in recent years his research has focused on international comparisons of child poverty, child benefit packages and child well-being. He is a member of the Board of the International Society for Child Indicators and of the Foundation for International Studies in Social Security. 

Contents

Introduction ~ Jonathan Bradshaw
Demography of childhood ~ Jonathan Bradshaw
Child poverty and deprivation ~ Jonathan Bradshaw
Physical health ~ Jonathan Bradshaw and Karen Bloor
Subjective well-being and mental health ~ Jonathan Bradshaw and Antonia Keung
Education ~ Antonia Keung
Housing and the environment for children ~ Deborah Quilgars
Children's time and space ~ Antonia Keung
Children and young people in and leaving care ~ Gwyther Rees and Mike Stein
Child maltreatment ~ Carol-Ann Hooper
Childcare and early years ~ Christine Skinner
Children, crime and illegal drug use ~ Lisa O'Malley and Sharon Grace
Conclusion ~ Jonathan Bradshaw

ReviewsOwn it? Review it!

The well-being of children in the UK (Third edition)
This important and very comprehensive book reviews all aspects of children's well-being in the UK, updating the 2005 edition, and is written by a heavyweight team from the University of York under the editorship of internationally renowned expert Jonathan Bradshaw. ,,It is particularly timely as it addresses the Unicef 2007 report on children's well-being, in which Britain was shamefully placed at the bottom of the international league of rich nations, and as such it presents a detailed comparison of the position of the UK in relation to other prosperous countries. ,,It also gives an initial analysis of the efficacy of the policies of the last Labour government in relation to children and young people, and Jonathan Bradshaw makes no secret of his concerns that the spending cuts of the coalition government risk undoing the slow progress in the well-being of children made under Labour.,,Each chapter has a host of statistics, but these are not presented in a dry fashion, rather having impassioned arguments to back them up. Thus this text is both scholarly and easy to read, which is surely a hugely important plus-point.,,This book should be read by everyone working in the field of childcare and would also interest the general reader who is concerned about the status of children in the UK. ,
Reviewed by Margaret Eyre

The well-being of children in the UK (Third edition)

'The well-being of children in the UK' makes an enriching contribution to the policy thinking underlying the well-being of children. It emerged from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) 'Children 5-16: Growing into the 21st Century' research programme and the growing concerns of increasing rates of relative child poverty. The book aims to address the critical gap in the dearth of official means to review the well-being of children in the UK. One of the pressing concerns presented is related to the UK being placed 21 out of the 25 European Union (EU) countries on child well-being. The book draws on theoretical perspectives based on Sociology of Childhood and ecological perspectives on child development, which locates the child in the context of the family, friendship, networks, school, neighbourhoods and the family’s place within the community. The authors have skilfully presented empirical data on the intersections of the various social, physical and economic risks to the well-being of children. Some of the risks addressed include the structural changes in the family, which has resulted in an increasing number of children growing up in lone parent families or families involving repartnering of natural parents. Children growing up in small families are less likely to experience poverty, greater physical space and increased parental attention. Other protective factors for the well-being of children include: if two parents are married; cohort member is white or of Indian ethnicity; family lives in owner occupied housing; dual earning family; and mother has tertiary education and is over 30 at the cohort child's birth. Another pressing issue presented is related to the high rates of infant mortality in the UK and low birth weight rates remain comparatively high compared with rich countries; immunisation rates remain low for infectious diseases; breastfeeding rates are low (is directly linked to greater vulnerability to gastroenteritis, chest infections, diabetes, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease and childhood leukemia) and high rates of teenage pregnancy also has an adverse impact on well-being. Mental ill-health amongst children is also linked to poverty, caring roles that they are undertaking in families and more time spent undertaking structured activities related to education and learning. On a positive note, the book presents enriching insights based on critical internal reflective stances by the authors, which provide a solid foundation for future policy thinking in this field.

Reviewed by Dr Keerty Nakray

The recent concern with happiness and well-being began with the work of the economist Richard Layard, but as far as children were concerned the UNICEF report of 2007 was significant. This showed that in comparative index of child well-being, the UK came bottom of 21 OECD countires. As a result, and as this important book highlights, the well-being of children is a vital and topical issue.

Chapters look at such as child poverty, physical health, mental health, housing and the environment, children leaving care and child maltreatment. All seek to evaluate New Labour's policies for children, and show that overall the UK does not do well in the international league tables of child well-being. For a country with its level of GDP it is underperforming.

This is an important book edited by an acknowledged expert in the field. It should be widely read and digested.

Reviewed by Dr Steve Rogowski

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