LC460 Wellbeing in Society: Report on Children's Wellbeing Analysis

This report delves into the multifaceted concept of children's wellbeing, defining it as a holistic approach encompassing emotional, mental, social, and physical health factors. It explores the key concepts related to children's wellbeing, emphasizing the importance of objective and subjective dimensions. The report identifies critical issues impacting children's wellbeing, including mental health challenges, child poverty, and the influence of traumatic events. It also discusses strategies and initiatives aimed at enhancing children's wellbeing, such as fostering positive relationships, promoting physical activity, ensuring adequate sleep, developing resilience, and managing technology use. The report concludes by emphasizing the interconnectedness of various factors and the significance of proactive interventions to ensure children's overall health and happiness. The assignment is based on the assignment brief which requires a report of 2000 words (+/- 10%) that discusses the wellbeing of children including an introduction, discussion and conclusion.

Wellbeing in Children
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Explanation of concepts that relate to wellbeing.........................................................................3
Discussion of the main issues relating to the wellbeing of your selected group/context............4
Discussion of strategies/initiatives that seek to enhance the wellbeing of your selected
group/context...............................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Wellbeing is defined as the experience of happiness, health and prosperity. It is something
which is sought by everyone as it involves many positive aspects including feeling socially
connected, healthy, purposeful and happy (What Is Well-Being? Definition, Types, and Well-
Being Skills, 2019). Wellbeing is the complex combination of emotional, mental, social and
physical health factors of an individual. It is strongly associated with life satisfaction happiness
and could be defined as the main and individual feel about himself or herself and his or her life.
Wellbeing of an individual can be positively influenced by several factors including nutritional
diet, sleep, money, network of friends, optimistic outlook etc.
Wellbeing is important as it enable an individual to flourish in all prospects of life. It
involves activities and choices which aims to achieve mental alacrity, sense of accomplishment,
physical vitality, social satisfaction and personal fulfilment (Emerson, and Giallo, 2014). There
are some principles of wellbeing including identity, autonomy, connectedness, growth, security,
meaning and joy. Healthy eating, physical activity and community interactions are some domains
of wellbeing which plays crucial role in promoting wellbeing of an individual. Nations differs
substantially in their wellbeing level. Communities with high wellbeing are those which are
developed economically, have high trust level, have government with low corruption level and
can be able to mitigate basic needs of its citizens. The trend of national and global wellbeing
involves shifting from sleep to circadian health, nutrients, alternative medicine, workout
offerings. People are emphasizing on living healthy life by adopting healthy practices.
This report is based on the wellbeing of children. The well-being of children is related to
various outcomes on their mental, social, physical and economic development (Landry, and
Cooper, 2014). It is mainly related to developmental transitions between distinct stages of life. It
covers explanation of concepts associated with wellbeing of children and the main issues related
to it. Apart from this, the strategies and initiatives that seeks to improve wellbeing in relation to
children are also discussed in the report. At last, a brief conclusion is provided which summarise
the findings of overall report.
MAIN BODY
Explanation of concepts that relate to wellbeing
Children wellbeing is a holistic and multidimensional approach that administers contextual
understanding of children in distinct domains like education, housing conditions, health,
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interpersonal relations, material wellbeing etc. The wellbeing of children puts the happiness and
quality of life in forefront as well as aims to maximise the capabilities of children according to
basic indicators in every domain. The well-being of children is associated with developing
conditions and self-realisation which are required for increasing their current as well as future
capabilities (McLellan and Steward, 2015).
Measuring wellbeing of children is crucial as all of them deserve happy life. Listening to
children as well as hand in hand along with them in order to make their life better will help in
improving their well-being. Promoting well-being of children include understanding as well as
addressing child and caregiver functioning in cognitive, social, behavioural and physical areas.
The emphasis on wellbeing must be integrated into all the prospects of services related to child
welfare. Specifically, in the area of child abuse prevention, fulfilment of family and child needs
associated with wellbeing is the significant part of increasing safety, reducing risk and protective
factors.
Objective and subjective of the two dimensions of wellbeing. The objective wellbeing is
proxy measure on the basis of assumptions regarding basic human rights and needs involving
aspects like physical health, safety, education and adequate food. It can be measured by self-
report or through objective measures. On the other hand, subjective wellbeing is measured
through asking individuals the way they feel and think regarding their personal wellbeing and
involves aspects like positive emotions and life satisfaction. Physical and mental health and
wellbeing of an individual are related to each other. The relationship is two ways, as one impacts
on the other (Pitchforth, Viner and Hargreaves, 2016).
Discussion of the main issues relating to the wellbeing of your selected group/context
Wellbeing is referred as the positive state and not only absence of negatives. In overall
health of the children or a person, feelings of well-being is important as it allowed them to
overcome the difficulties successfully and accomplish what they want to achieve. Any kind of
trauma, past experiences, outlook and attitudes can all influence the well-being of an individual.
Children with developmental and learning disorders may experience more stress in comparison
to the developing children, which can influence their well-being and health (The Importance of
Wellbeing, 2020). The similar can be said for carers as well as parents of such child who have to
try and assist them to deal with their day to day issues, overcome them and allow them to prepare
for the future. Wellbeing of children can be influenced through wellbeing of their parents. This
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makes it necessary for the parents to take time for themselves and help children effectively in
overcoming with their daily issues.
The concepts like life satisfaction, quality of life, wellbeing etc. are used interchangeably
as well as incorporate subjective and objective aspects of life of an individual and their own
feelings about these and their life. The indicators of wellbeing have tended to emphasize on
objective data or information gathered by nations (Samadi, McConkey, and Bunting, 2014). A
comparative study conducted by UNICEF child wellbeing in rich nations involved the children
belonging to families below poverty line, children in home where is the educational resources at
few, where no employed adult was there, as low wellbeing indicators within material wellbeing
domain. Children wellbeing is the multidimensional concept which requires to be contextualized
and considered in holistic way by considering the changes at distinct stages of children as well as
development of young people and transitions in other aspects of lives.
Health of children emphasize on their well-being from conception to adolescence. It is
essentially concerned with all the prospects of development and growth of children as well as the
unique opportunity that children have to accomplish their full potential. Mental health issues
influence 1 in 10 children. This includes anxiety, depression etc. which adversely influence on
their lives. Around 70% of children who experience issues associated with mental health have
not had proper interventions at early age. Apart from the physical health, the emotional
wellbeing of child is also very necessary (Spratt, 2016). Good mental health enable children to
develop resilience to deal with every situation in an effective way and develop into well-rounded
healthy and active adults. The traumatic events which are faced by the children influence highly
on wellbeing of children. There are certain risk factors which makes children more possibly to
experience issues in comparison to other children. Some of the factors involves experiencing
death of close people, living in poverty, having physical illness, being homeless, taking on adult
responsibilities, experiencing discrimination etc. There are several health and wellbeing related
issues among the children includes depression, anxiety disorder, eating disorder, self-harm etc.
Child poverty is one of the issue related to wellbeing of children in United Kingdom and
influence over 4 million children. The health of the children harms by poverty and damage their
future. It has been found that the condition is getting worse with increasing number of children
living in poverty (Swist, Collin, McCormack and Third, 2015). When a child is living in such a
family whose income is below 60 percent of an average in United Kingdom. Increasing poverty
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damage, the well-being of children along with their future life chances. A child living in poverty
is more possibly to has poor physical health, underachieve at school, feel unsafe, experience
mental health issues, experience social deprivation, have employment difficulties, have less
sense of wellbeing, experience bullying and stigma and many more. Low wages, increasing
living cost etc. are the factors that lead the children fall into poverty trap.
Mental health of the children is another issue due to which they faced major challenges
along with discrimination, isolation, stigma, lack of access to education facilities and healthcare
which impacts negatively on their wellbeing. This complex interactive relationship between
mental health of children with their physical health as well as their ability to get success in
school, at society and at work (Turney and Goodsell, 2018).
Discussion of strategies/initiatives that seek to enhance the wellbeing of your selected
group/context
In order to enhance the well-being of children, there are several strategies that can be
adopt. Some of the strategies are mentioned below:
 Foster positive relationships: developing relationships with others in positive way is
very crucial for the well-being of children. The benefits of spending time with family
members and friends is that they help the children to learn how to compromise, share and
listen. It also helps in developing conflict resolution skills among the children. Fostering
positive relationships will help the children to maintain relationships effectively in their
adult life.
 Physical activity: it is the another strategy or practice that can be adopt to improve the
wellbeing of children. Exercise is very important for each individual, especially children.
Exercising regularly will provide a lot of benefits to the children involving that it releases
the stress of the whole day and fosters positive mood (5 Ways to Boost Children’s
Wellbeing, 2020). Exercise will help in keeping the children mentally and physically fit
and contributes in improving their health and wellbeing.
 Sleep: in order to maintain good physical and mental wellbeing, sleep is very important.
Having enough sleep will help the children in staying fit. Ensuring that the child get
adequate sleep is one of the important strategy or practice. This will help children in
keeping their mind fresh and stay healthy all day (Vathi, and Duci, 2016).
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 Developing resilience: it is the crucial quality to be developed in the children.
Developing the ability among the children to learn from mistakes, be persistent, not give
up easily and accept feedback assistant maintaining positive wellbeing among children.
The educators and parents, by modelling these qualities can assist children bounce back
as well as move problems and mistakes of past. To maintain health and wellbeing, letting
go is the most appropriate way for children (Zarobe, and Bungay, 2017).
 Technology time: today, the world is becoming techno-savvy and availability of
advanced technology to children makes it necessary for their parents to limit the time that
their children have spent on using technology. It is very much easy to utilize technology
as babysitting gadget, but child must be restricted to spend no more than 2 hours in using
technology. This includes computers, television, iPads etc. From the early age, setting
consistent and clear guidelines for children makes it easy for parents to reinforce these
limits.
All the above mentioned strategies or practices will help in enhancing the wellbeing of
children. These will help in keeping the children stay healthy and fit and also ensures
improvement in their health and wellbeing.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report it has been concluded that, the well-being of the children
is associated with their overall mental and physical health. There are several factors that
influence the well-being of a children including his or her past life experiences, trauma, outlook
and attitudes. Some concepts like wellbeing, life satisfaction and quality of life are used to
improve the lives of children. The concept of children wellbeing is multidimensional and
considers holistic way to see changes in the stages of life of children. Child poverty and mental
health are the issues which influence the wellbeing of children. There are some strategies like
physical activity, adequate sleep, fostering positive relationships, developing resilience,
technology time etc. which will help in improving the well-being of children.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Emerson, E. and Giallo, R., 2014. The wellbeing of siblings of children with
disabilities. Research in developmental disabilities, 35(9), pp.2085-2092.
Landry, S.H. and Cooper, C.L., 2014. Wellbeing in children and families, Vol. I. Wiley-
Blackwell.
McLellan, R. and Steward, S., 2015. Measuring children and young people’s wellbeing in the
school context. Cambridge Journal of Education, 45(3), pp.307-332.
Pitchforth, J.M., Viner, R.M. and Hargreaves, D.S., 2016. Trends in mental health and wellbeing
among children and young people in the UK: a repeated cross-sectional study, 2000–
14. The Lancet, 388, p.S93.
Samadi, S.A., McConkey, R. and Bunting, B., 2014. Parental wellbeing of Iranian families with
children who have developmental disabilities. Research in developmental
disabilities, 35(7), pp.1639-1647.
Spratt, J., 2016. Childhood wellbeing: what role for education?. British Educational Research
Journal, 42(2), pp.223-239.
Swist, T., Collin, P., McCormack, J. and Third, A., 2015. Social media and the wellbeing of
children and young people: A literature review.
Turney, K. and Goodsell, R., 2018. Parental incarceration and children's wellbeing. The Future
of Children, 28(1), pp.147-164.
Vathi, Z. and Duci, V., 2016. Making other dreams: The impact of migration on the psychosocial
wellbeing of Albanian-origin children and young people upon their families’ return to
Albania. Childhood, 23(1), pp.53-68.
Zarobe, L. and Bungay, H., 2017. The role of arts activities in developing resilience and mental
wellbeing in children and young people a rapid review of the literature. Perspectives in
Public Health, 137(6), pp.337-347.
Online
What Is Well-Being? Definition, Types, and Well-Being Skills, 2019. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/click-here-happiness/201901/what-is-
well-being-definition-types-and-well-being-skills>
The Importance of Wellbeing, 2020. [Online]. Available through: <https://starjumpz.com/the-
importance-of-well-being/>
5 Ways to Boost Children’s Wellbeing, 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://childcarebumblebee.com/news/5-ways-to-boost-childrens-wellbeing/>
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