The Significance of the Social for Child Well‐Being

Abstract

This article responds to the theme of this special edition by drawing on the findings of our research on child well‐being, where children linked a holistic understanding of well‐being with an emphasis on the socially situated nature of their experiences of well‐being. We briefly outline our epistemological approach and methodology, involving a multistage qualitative study with children 8–15 years, about their understandings and experiences of well‐being. We discuss the liberal predispositions in well‐being research and the ways in which these predispositions exclude discussion of the significance of the social for well‐being. We posit an explanation for the disparity between our findings on the significance of the social for child well‐being, and the way these topics are marginalised in much research on well‐being. In the remainder of the paper we outline the centrality of affective solidarity for children's well‐being, how generation structures adult–child relations and frames the ways in which children's experiences of well‐being can be facilitated by symmetrical, or jeopardised by asymmetrical, adult–child relations. We conclude by discussing how these conceptions of well‐being suggest metaphors of the social which challenge liberal conceptualisations of well‐being.