THE POWER AND POTENTIAL OF WELL-BEING INDICATORS| 27/04/2004

PILOT STUDY SHOWS KIDS UNHAPPY AT SECONDARY SCHOOL, 'SMARTEST' SCHOOLS COULD BE LEAST HAPPY

A new study of young people’s well-being by nef shows that young people’s well-being drops drastically at secondary school, with significant effects on their personal development.

The study, done in partnership with Nottingham City Council, looks at two measures of well-being in over 1,000 youngsters: life satisfaction and personal development.   Personal development is related to being curious, and engaging in challenging and absorbing activities. Previous studies have only focused on life satisfaction, but this other dimension of well-being is important for people’s overall ability to cope well with life’s challenges and is directly related to physical health, particularly in later life.

The pilot study shows that: 

•      Sixty five per cent of primary school children rate their school experience as positive whereas this drops by more than half to 27 per cent at secondary school. Satisfaction with school is a crucial component of our children’s personal development.

•     In this study’s small sample of schools, the academically top-performing primary school has significantly lower well-being than other primary schools surveyed. This raises the question of whether there are trade-offs between academic success and promoting curiosity and personal development.

•  Young people registering sport as their favourite activity had significantly higher well-being than those that didn’t.

•  Well-being falls substantially as children get older. While nine per cent of children aged 9-11 have low satisfaction and low personal development, this rises to 16 per cent at age 12-15. Girls suffer a significantly greater drop in the personal development measure than boys.

•  Victims of crime have significantly lower well-being. Fear of crime, however, does not appear to affect the well-being of young people.

•   Children who are unhappy at home are three times more likely to have lower well-being than average.

The idea that government should be concerned with people’s well-being or happiness is no longer frivolous. There has been a surge of interest in this area, including the devastating finding that whilst economic output has nearly doubled in the last 30 years life satisfaction levels in the UK have remained flat. nef’s recently released and widely publicised report on the Measure of Domestic Progress (MDP) showed that quality of life and social progress had remained stagnant in the UK over the last 30 to 40 years, never regaining a 1976 peak, despite vigorous economic growth since then. 

The Local Government Act 2000 gave local authorities the power to promote and improve well-being, either environmental, social or economic, in their area, but many have struggled with how this should be used.  The results from this report, although from a relatively small study, shed light on policy areas from schooling to crime, and suggest ever more strongly that policy and measuring policy success should be based on personal well-being outcomes. 

Possible implications for policy areas are:

•   Education for well-being – the worrying level of children at risk of depression as a result of very low well-being suggests changes to the curriculum to incorporate skills and tools for well-being 

•   Reconsidering educational models  - the huge drop off in satisfaction from primary to secondary school suggests that the way children are being taught needs to be re-evaluated

•   Increasing opportunities for sport in school and the community – apart from growing concerns about obesity in young people, the link between sport and well-being suggests that the continued loss of playing fields and open public spaces and reduction in sport at school have wider negative effects and need to be reversed urgently

•    Support for victims of crime – the drop in well-being associated with being a victim of, rather than the fear of, crime suggests policy needs to be redirected specifically toward support for young victims of crime

Nic Marks, author of the report, said: 'Narrow targets, competitive league tables and increasing pressure in the classroom are robbing kids of the "best days" of their lives. It's time to concentrate on our children's long-term well-being, and give them back the natural curiosity for learning that will equip them for real life.'

Davy Jones of the Audit Commission said: “Nottingham City Council is one of the first councils to carry out a profile of quality of life and services in their area as part of a pilot exercise involving councils, all their partners in Local Strategic Partnerships and national stakeholders. The council is compiling local residents’ and service users’ views on the quality of life and services, focusing on the views of children and young people.

“This is a brave move by Nottingham City Council. It will provide a valuable insight into life in the area, and be a strong basis for improving their work for the children and young people of the city.”