Indicators and Indices of Child Well-being: A Brief American History |
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Authors: | Laura H Lippman |
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Institution: | (1) Data and Measurement Child Trends, 4301 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 2008, USA |
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Abstract: | This paper traces the history of indicators and indices of child well-being from its origins in the social indicator movement
of the 1970s through recent developments in the field. Initial work calling for comprehensive sets of indicators of child
well-being and later recommendations for indicator improvement are detailed. Products that resulted from these recommendations,
such as comprehensive indicator reports and online resources are described. The development of child well-being indices is
shown to parallel the history of indicators. The contributions of state and international indicator and index projects are
included as well. Important aspects of child well-being indicator development are uncovered through documenting its history,
including the need to focus on subjective as well as objective measures of well-being, and the need to develop indicators
for the multiple ecological contexts of children’s lives, but to separate measures of context from measures of child outcomes.
A rough consensus emerges across the history of indicator efforts on the critical domains of child well-being: physical, psychological,
cognitive, social, and economic well-being. Recent recognition of the importance of indicators of positive development is
noted.
This paper was funded by the KIDS COUNT project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. |
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Keywords: | child children child well-being child development indicators indices child health social context context ecological context social indicators state-of- the-child international comparisons states measures outcomes condition of children status of children |
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