1. CHILD WELL-BEING IN CROATIA
Jonathan Bradshaw
UNICEF CROATIA
Zagreb
20 April 2017

2. Outline
Put UNICEF Croatia’s work on child well-being in international context
Make a few comments on the work so far and the future
Present some data that includes Croatia
Concluding remarks about policy

3. MOTIVE
“The true measure of a nation’s standing is how well it attends its children – their health and safety, their material security, their education and socialization, and their sense of being loved, valued, and included in the families and societies to which they were born” (UNICEF Innocenti Report Card )

4. Concept of child well-being
Normative frame: UN Charter on the Rights of the Child
“the primary consideration in all actions concerning children must be in their best interests and their views must be taken into account”
Child well-being not just well-becoming
Ecological child located in the family, friendship networks, school, neighbourhood and society.
Well-being is multidimensional.
Happiness versus growth

5. Well-being: Conceptual approach
Focus on the outcomes of policy
Social indicators movement (International Society for Child Indicators (ISCI) + Child Indicators Research)
Stiglitz et al more than GDP – well-being and happiness.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – what children think and feel is important.
New sociology of childhood – well-being now just as/more important than well-becoming.
Child the “unit of analysis” – child surveys
Well-being is multi-dimensional

6. Approaches
A shift from physical survival and basic needs to development and well-being.
A shift from negative indicators of problems and failure to positive indicators that hold societies accountable for more than the warehousing of children.
Child the unit of analysis
A new focus on data at the local level.
The development of more policy oriented indicators.

7. Childs’ lives different from adults’ lives

8. A bit of (international) history
UNICEF State of the World’s Children
Cornia and Danziger (1997) Child Poverty and Deprivation in Rich Countries
UNICEF Innocenti Report Cards 1-12
Lisbon EU Summit 2000: Laeken Indicators – Social inclusion indicators – 2020 EU targets
“Jerusalem” project: The International Society for Child Indicators – Child Indicators Research
Luxembourg EU Presidency 2005 – child mainstreaming
Bradshaw, J., Hoelscher, P. and Richardson, D. (2007) An index of child well-being in the European Union 25, Journal of Social Indicators Research, 80,
UNICEF (2007) Innocenti Report Card 7 Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-being in Rich Countries
Richardson, D. Hoelscher, P. and Bradshaw, J. (2008) Child well-being in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Child Ind. Res. 1:
Bradshaw, J. and Richardson, D. (2009) An index of child well-being in Europe, J. Child Indicators Research, 2, 3, 319.
Lau, M. and Bradshaw, J. (2010) Child well-being in the Pacific Rim, J. Child Indicators Research, 3, 3,
Children’s Worlds

9. International sources of data
Health Behaviour of School Aged children. 11,13 and 15 every four years. Latest 2013/14. Not NI. National reports:
Wales:  behaviour-school-aged-children/?lang=en
Scotland:  publications/04-reports/hbsc_nr14_interactive_final.pdf
England:  content/uploads/2015/10/National-Report-2015.pdf
PISA every three years (TIMMS and PIRLS). Latest 2015
Children’s Worlds latest
European Survey of Alcohol and Drugs (ESPAD) 15/16 year olds every four years

10. Comparative reports
UNICEF State of the World’s Children and Innocenti Report Cards especially RC7 and RC11 (
OECD Doing Better for Children/How’s Life for Children (
PISA (
HBSC (
Children’s Worlds (

11. CEECIS index Average rank Material Housing Health Education Personal
Family
Risk
Croatia
3.4 1 4 7 9
Bosnia Herzegovina
4.8 3 13 - 2
FYR Macedonia
6.3 8 10 6
Serbia
6.6 5 11
Uzbekistan
7.5 14
Turkmenistan
7.6 15
Belarus
8.3 16
Montenegro
8.6 12
Bulgaria
10.6 18
Ukraine 19
Kazakhstan
11.1 17
Russia
11.3 20
Kyrgyzstan
11.7
Romania
12.0
Armenia
12.1
Georgia
13.6
Turkey
14.0
Azerbaijan
14.1
Albania
14.4
Tajikistan 21
Moldova
16.1

12. UK national reports on child well-being
Good Childhood Reports since 2010 Pople, L., Rees, G., Main, G. and Bradshaw, J. (2015) The Good Childhood Report 2015, The Children’s Society and the University of York
ONS Measuring national well-being since people-in-the-uk--2014/index.html
University of York The well-being of children in the UK since 2001
Also Bradshaw J, Noble M, Bloor K, Huby M, McLennan D, Rhodes D, Sinclair I, Wilkinson K. (2009) A Child Well-Being Index at Small Area Level in England, J. Child Indicators Research 2, 2,

13. Child well-being in the UK books

14. Child well-being in the UK
Trends
Getting better
No change
Getting worse
Total
2011
( ) 35 8 3 46
2016
( ) 27 13 48
Comparative
Top third
Middle third
Bottom third
Circa 2004 15 19 42
Circa 2014 12 23

15. Variations in child subjective well-being Klocke et al 2014

16. Incidence of bullying (HBSC)

17. Health behaviours compared

18. Risk behaviour compared

19. Subjective well-being

20. Education attainment: PISA scores

21. Child poverty before and after cash benefits 2015

22. Overall inequality (sic) UNICEF RC13
RC 13 covered income, education, health and life satisfaction – again comparing the bottom with the median on each of these and produced this overall league table.
Finland is second equal doing less well on education than on the other domains. Only Denmark is in the tope third on all domains. France, Belgium and Lux do worse than their material inequity and end up in the bottom third.
Australian and Romanian children are much happier than their inequalities in other domains might have predicted.

23. UNICEF Croatia index Extremely good Very ambitious
Domains ie participation and safety
Use of comparative indicators
Use of admin data
Very ambitious
Breakdown of admin. Data probably impossible
Test for feasibility
Matrix must be populated
Capacity?
Skills?
Choices -
Child survey ? Children’s Worlds
Outputs?

24. Croatia an inspiring example
Also exemplar
For UNICEF work on SDGs
For EU work on Social Investment
And for all countries