The Capability Approach and Child Well-Being: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Child well-being is a dynamic concept currently under revision due to its complexity and the need to incorporate traditionally overlooked perspectives. An essential aspect of this revision is considering children as active agents in defining the concept itself and incorporating new elements that enrich the more traditional economics-based and adult-centred conceptualisation. In these regards, the capability approach (CA) provides valuable theoretical support for an expanded understanding of child well-being. Therefore, this article aims to offer a systematised review of the literature from the last two decades that uses this approach in examining children and childhood. To do so, the authors examined the main international databases and conducted relevant additional searches, identifying 63 journals that have published capabilitarian articles over the last two decades. Our findings show that most publications concentrate on recent years, with an expansion of the methodologies used and the contexts addressed. Although education seems to be one of the primary interests of this literature, there has also been an increasing range of children’s realities and topics observed that we summarised in 10 categories. Between then, we dig deeper into the subsegment that specifically addresses the category of child well-being. Our review reveals that quantitative approaches and European contexts are predominant within these papers, and we analyse how they concern different spaces, well-being dimensions and intersectionalities.