Index Of Child Well-being Research Articles

5 The Relationship between National Paediatric Research Funding and Health Outcomes in Canada

Abstract Introduction The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is Canada's federal funding agency for health research. CIHR invests approximately $1 billion each year to support health research. A recent cross-sectional analysis of 14,060 paediatric grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) showed that funding for paediatric research was correlated with level of disease burden, although certain conditions were identified as either over- or under-funded. Objectives The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between national paediatric research funding and health outcomes in Canada. Methods Health research grants (project, operating, foundation, team, and catalyst grants) related to paediatrics were identified annually for each of 6 financial years (2015-16 to 2020-21) through systematic keyword searches of CIHR’s research funding database. Two researchers extracted data on the disease or topic being studied, and coded each grant according to the top 50 causes of mortality, top 10 causes of hospitalization, and 8 well-being dimensions (as defined by the Canadian Index of Child and Youth Well-being). Inter-rater reliability was first established and then 20% of grants were double-coded and reviewed for consistency. Data were then used to summarize total annual funding for paediatric research and compared to paediatric health outcomes. Results A total of 1703 grants with total funding in the amount of $702,217,490 related to paediatric research were identified in the period between 2015-16 and 2020-21 ($74,944,445 in 2015-16, $87,447,167 in 2016-17, $103,754,359 in 2017-18, $124,277,052 in 2018-19, $132,734,406 in 2019-20, and $179,060,060 in 2020-21). A total of 248 abstracts (14.6% of all included grants) were identified as focused on one of the top 4 leading causes of paediatric mortality. These included accidents ($3,709,863), intentional self-harm (suicide) ($8,529,544), congenital malformations, deformations, and chromosomal anomalies ($30,230,136), and malignant neoplasms ($61,550,990). A total of 379 grant abstracts (22.3%) were identified as focused on a leading cause of paediatric hospitalization. These included disorders related to short gestation and low birth weight ($33,381,731), mood (affective) disorders ($32,236,327), anxiety disorders ($10,445,260), and other mental health disorders ($56,584,714). The top dimensions of well-being identified as being studied were “Feeling happy and respected” (218 grants, $78,315), “Feeling protected” (89 grants, $34,166,781), and “Feeling secure” (83 grants, $27,158,835). Conclusion This analysis indicates that there is general alignment of health research funding in Canada with paediatric mortality, hospitalization, and well-being indicators. Understanding paediatric research funding patterns can help inform prioritization of specific paediatric areas for future strategic funding.

Индекс детского благополучия в России: актуальные вопросы, разработки и перспективы развития (обзор по итогам международной научно-практической конференции «Перспективы внедрения индекса детского благополучия в России»)

<p><span lang="EN-US">Currently, the main assessment of the state’s attitude to children is the degree of ensuring their well-being. Approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 122-r of January 23, 2021, the plan of the main activities carried out within the framework of the Decade of Childhood for the period up to 2027 (hereinafter referred to as the plan) defines the main goals and objectives for ensuring the well—being of children in the Russian Federation. The plan provides for the organization of scientific research to assess the quality of life of children, including the subjective well-being of children and adolescents; development of guidelines for the assessment of child well-being, assessment tools; comparative analysis of the level of child well-being in Russia; assessment (rating) of child well-being of the subjects of the Russian Federation. The review article presents the main theses of the international scientific and practical conference “Prospects for the introduction of the index of child well-being in Russia” held on December 12, 2022. The article reveals the existing issues, developments and prospects for development in the field of child well-being, including the Russian experience of developing a child well-being index, conducting research in the field of subjective well-being of minors.</span></p>

Актуальные вопросы, результаты и перспективы развития исследований международного проекта по изучению субъективного благополучия детей «Детские Миры» (обзор по итогам международной научно-практической конференции «Перспективы внедрения индекса детского благополучия в России»)

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The article presents the results of research conducted in Algeria and Chile within the framework of the international project on the study of children’s subjective well-being “Children’s Worlds”, the main theses of which were presented at the international scientific and practical conference “Prospects for the introduction of the index of child well-being in Russia” held on December 12, 2022 in Moscow.</span></p>

Implementation of the Threshold Aggregation Model for Estimation of the Child Well-Being Index in the Subjects of RF

Implementation of the Threshold Aggregation Model for Estimation of the Child Well-Being Index in the Subjects of RF

A governance perspective on East Central Europe’s population predicament: Young exit, grey voice and lopsided loyalty

Much of East Central Europe today faces the double challenge of having a population that is both ageing fast and shrinking steadily. Elderly-oriented political dynamics and myopic governance are part of this predicament, and are also among the reasons why future prospects are not rosy. Having started the post-communist transition with younger populations, successive governments in this region have comprehensively squandered a decades-long window of opportunity to adapt their policies to the predicted ageing ahead (Vanhuysse and Perek-Bialas, 2021). Especially in Hungary, Poland, Czechia, the Slovak Republic, Romania and Bulgaria, this failure is reflected in low active ageing and child well-being index rankings, low levels of social investment and mediocre educational outcomes, and family policies that reinforce traditional motherhood roles or barely support parents at all. Poland, Romania, Croatia, Hungary and, especially, the Baltic states also experienced large-scale emigration (‘young exit’). Slovenia and the Visegrad Four, but not the Baltics, became premature pensioners‘ democracies characterised by unusually high levels of pro-elderly policy bias (‘lopsided loyalty’). While the salience of family policies increased around the time the demographic window closed, this shift was driven by pro-natalist, neo-familialist and gender-regressive political ideologies, rather than by a concerted effort to boost human capabilities or reward social reproduction. But by then, elderly voter power (‘grey voice’) in East Central Europe was among the highest in the world. Politics strongly constrains the likelihood of appropriate human capital-boosting policy responses to the region’s population predicament. Alarm bells thus ring for a generational contract under pressure and for longer-term societal resilience.

Latent Classes of Adverse and Benevolent Childhood Experiences in a Multinational Sample of Parents and Their Relation to Parent, Child, and Family Functioning during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are known to contribute to later mental health. Conversely, Benevolent Childhood Experiences (BCEs) may buffer against mental health difficulties. The importance of ACEs and BCEs for mental health of both parents and children may be most obvious during periods of stress, with potential consequences for functioning of the family. Subgroups of ACEs and BCEs in parents during the COVID-19 pandemic were investigated and validated in relation to indices of parent, child, and family well-being. In May 2020, ACEs/BCEs were assessed in 547 parents of 5–18-year-old children from the U.K., U.S., Canada, and Australia. Subgroups of parents with varying levels of ACEs and BCEs were identified via latent class analysis. The subgroups were validated by examining associations between class membership and indices of parent and child mental health and family well-being. Four latent classes were identified: low-ACEs/high-BCEs, moderate-ACEs/high-BCEs, moderate-ACEs/low-BCEs, and high-ACEs/moderate-BCEs. Regardless of the extent of BCEs, there was an increased risk of parent and child mental health difficulties and family dysfunction among those reporting moderate-to-high levels of ACEs. Parents’ history of adversity may influence the mental health of their family. These findings highlight the importance of public health interventions for preventing early-life adversity.

The Role of Single-Sex Schooling in Adolescent Well-Being : A Case of South Korea

Prior research on single-sex schooling has mainly focused on its role in students" academic achievement. However, little attention has been paid to how a gender-separated environment affects adolescents" mental and physical health. In order to fill this void in the extant literature, this article investigates the role of single-sex schooling in a broader set of student well-being outcomes. Using data from the Korean Child Well-being Index Survey, we deploy propensity score models with school district fixed-effects to mitigate selection bias due to the non-random allocation of students to high school. Results suggest that gender-segregated environments have heterogeneous impacts on adolescent well-being by gender. Single-sex school attendance increases academic stress and BMI among girls, whereas it decreases boys’ physical activity and smoking behavior. We also find that gender differences in single-sex schooling effects are more pronounced in physical activity and smoking behavior. These findings highlight the gendered impacts of single-sex schooling on adolescent health and point to the need to examine its role in non-academic outcomes to provide a fuller picture of adolescent well-being. We discuss the implications of this study for future research and policy on adolescent health and school environments.

Implementation of the Threshold Aggregation Model for Estimation of the Child Well-Being Index in the Subjects of RF

Implementation of the Threshold Aggregation Model for Estimation of the Child Well-Being Index in the Subjects of RF

Опрос детей как обязательный элемент формирования индекса детского благополучия

The article is aimed at analyzing the possibilities of measuring child well-being and creating a child well-being index in Russia. It presents the materials of an empirical study that involved pilot surveys of children aged 10 to 17 (N=1942) and parents of children of the same age (N=1589) conducted in the Tambov region. The Index is based on six main areas of child well-being (domains): education, safety, health, material well-being, social relations, self-realization. The results obtained make it possible to compare the notions of parents and children about various aspects of well-being. We argue that children’s position is essential for a comprehensive assessment of child well-being, and thus interviewing children must be a necessary element in any child well-being index design.

Estimation of the Child Well-Being Index in the Constituent Entities of the Russian Federation Based on the Threshold Aggregation Model

Estimation of the Child Well-Being Index in the Constituent Entities of the Russian Federation Based on the Threshold Aggregation Model

Unpacking the complexities of child well‐being in Southeast Asia: Insights for social policy

AbstractThe body of knowledge related to child well‐being in Southeast Asia is sketchy and preliminary. Using standardized Z‐scores, we computed the child well‐being index (CWI) to observe how well 11 Southeast Asian countries take care of children. The overall result shows most countries in this region have “less” to “moderate” performance in terms of CWI realization. An exception is given to Singapore, which has achieved a higher degree of CWI. Further analysis on “child well‐being regimes” suggests that examined countries have been combining productive and protective models with more emphasis on the former. The explanation for the low level of CWI and pervasive characteristic of productivism may rest on moral argumentation, in which child well‐being is constructed as an intimate and private area. Public provisions to regulate child well‐being, consequently, remain hidden behind the family unit as objects rather than subjects of social policy. Tied to low‐performance countries, we call for generous welfare programs to support low‐income families and intensified effort for the provision of quality education, healthcare, and basic facilities in order to enhance the well‐being of children.

Review of Contributions to the Russian Child Well-Being Index: Focus on Subjective Well-Being Indicators.

In Russia, there is a demand for evaluation of children's well-being, including subjective well-being, at the national and regional levels. To implement such an evaluation system, it is necessary to develop a Russian Child Well-Being Index (CWBI), which includes indicators of both objective and subjective wellbeing in several domains. One can rely on various national data sources that can be partially integrated into the CWBI, as well as the application of the UNICEF/ Innocenti methodology for children's well-being evaluation and new developments by Russian research teams. To analyze the Russian experience in developing approaches to large-scale and multidimensional evaluation of children's well-being (with an emphasis on subjective well-being) and to provide recommendations for development of the national Children's Well-Being Index (CWBI). Scoping review of the methodology and results of the studies that can inform the Russian task force on CWBI development. Like most international models of subjective well-being, a Russian CWBI will be based on various aspects of the socio-ecological approach. The structure of domains vary but is generally compatible with the UNICEF/Innocenti model. The tools used by Russian researchers have included standardized psychometric techniques (as an independent tool and as a control of various types of validity); questionnaires specially designed to operationalize certain domains of well-being; and qualitative methods applied to small samples of children, such as focus groups, and creative and play-based methods. Work on the development of the CWBI (including the subjective well-being indicators) has been most actively performed in relation to children in state care; therefore, many of the tools have been designed to address the particular characteristics of this target group. Recommendations for development of the national Children's Well-Being Index (CWBI) are given, including both the index design and organizational/ethical considerations.

Estimation of the child well-being index in the administrative subjects of the Russian Federation based on the threshold aggregation model

Estimation of the child well-being index in the administrative subjects of the Russian Federation based on the threshold aggregation model

The Data Envelopment Analysis and Equal Weights/Minimax Methods of Composite Social Indicator Construction: a Methodological Study of Data Sensitivity and Robustness

In the construction of composite or summary social indicators/indices, a recurrent methodological issue pertains to how to weight each of the quality-of-life/well-being components of the indices. Two methods of composite index construction that have been widely applied empirically in recent decades are Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which is based on an optimization principle, and the equal weights/minimax (EW/MM) method, which has been shown to have minimax statistical properties in the sense that it minimizes maximum possible disagreements among individuals on weights. This paper applies both of these methods to two empirical datasets of social indicators: 1) data on 25 well-being indicators used in the construction of state-level Child and Youth Well-being Indices for each of the 50 U.S. states, and 2) data on indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment, and income used in the construction of the United Nations Human Development Programme’s Human Development Index (HDI) for 188 countries. In these empirical contexts, we study issues of measurement sensitivity of the EW/MM and DEA methods to the numbers of indictors used in the construction of the composite indices and corresponding issues of robustness. We find that the DEA method is more sensitive to the numbers of component indicators than the EW/MM method. In addition, the composite indicators formed by the EW/MM and DEA methods become more similar as the numbers of indicators in the composites decreases. We also apply Chance-Constrained DEA method to reclassify countries in the HDI dataset by levels of human development. The resulting human development groupings of the DEA composite indices have a large overlap with those of the HDI in the Human Development Reports, which are based on fixed cut-off points derived from the quartiles of distributions of the HDI component indicators.

Disparities in U.S. Parental Employment Insecurity and Child Well-Being Across Income Groups: Before, During, and After the Great Recession

The Great Recession was the worst economic downturn in the U.S. since the Great Depression of the 1930s. This research focusses on children in five income-quintile groups before, during, and following the Great Recession by analyzing changing disparities across these groups using a new Index of Parental Employment Insecurity, nine additional well-being indicators, and the overall Child Well-Being Index. The new Index of Parental Employment Insecurity captures employment insecurity more fully than the official U.S. monthly unemployment rate by using a comprehensive approach spanning 15-month periods (combining January-to-December measures for a calendar year with measures for March of the following year), based not only on two traditional unemployment indicators, but also two indicators of “hidden unemployment” and two indicators of “underemployment”. The other nine well-being indicators, also with children or youth as the unit of analysis, are median family income, health insurance coverage, Prekindergarten enrollment, three health indicators – very good or excellent health, obesity, and activity limitations – two indicators reflecting family experience – one-parent families and residential mobility – and idle or disconnected youth. For each of the 10 indicators in 1994, children in the lowest-income, lower-middle-income, and middle-income families had lower levels of well-being, often much lower, than children in the highest-income families. These had gaps narrowed, as of 2014, for all three of the lowest-income groups by about two-thirds for health insurance coverage and by about two-fifths for Prekindergarten enrollment. Compared to the highest-income group, however, the gaps had widened for the middle-income group for most indicators, the direction of changes in gaps was mixed for the lower-middle-income group, and the gaps had narrowed, usually by about one-fourth, for the lowest-income group, leaving gaps for the lowest-income group for seven of the ten indicators in 2014 that were at least three-fourths as large as they had been in 1994. In addition, median family income for the highest-income group grew by $32,500 reaching $173,600 in 2014, and the corresponding disparities expanded for the middle-income, lower-middle-income, and lowest-income groups, respectively, to $113,300, $139,400, and $160,800.

Качество детства: проблемы и подходы в их решениях

Childhood problems need to be studied to timely identify and resolve them at an early stage, with the interaction of both the state and society. The author gives a general description of the main approaches to assessing the quality of childhood. The author considers the world experience of comparative analysis of child well-being, which is reflected in the concept of social exclusion suggested by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); it is based on parameters similar to the Child Well-being Index developed in 2004 by the United States Child Development Fund. We also examine the approach proposed by the World Health Organization to the specifics of the population’s quality of life. The essence of this approach relates to the individual’s perception of position in life in the context of the cultural environment and the value system in which this individual lives, considering his/her goals, expectations, standards, and views. The article mentions both the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches in the context of protecting the interests and rights of minors. It is noted that due to the lack of common criteria for understanding the well-being and quality of life of children, there is a variability in the proposed definitions, within which researchers mainly focus on two approaches: the first uses the category of «well-being», the second - the category of «quality». In public discourse, the category of «well-being» is mainly applied to families of certain type or to deviant behavior of adolescents. At the same time, terminological blurring and evaluative character are observed, which translate the discussion into a moral and ethical plane. The author sees the reason for this shift in the absence of legal definition for the «well-being of childhood.» The quality of life, and childhood in particular, can be determined through integrated approach that combines an objective assessment based on official data and a subjective one that reflects the opinion of the people themselves. Taking into account the existing practical experience in the protection of the rights and freedoms of minors, the author proposes her own multidimensional model of “Quality of childhood”. It is a system for structural assessment of state policy in the sphere of childhood to create conditions for the realization of rights and legitimate interests of minors in the Russian Federation, which also considers objective and subjective indicators in this sphere.

Populations and Policies in a Younger but Faster-Aging East Central Europe: The Political Demography of Missed Opportunity

The new democracies in East Central Europe started the post-communist era with comparatively young populations. After 1989-1990, they have largely spurned a quarter-century long demographic window of opportunity for reform, by insufficiently adapting their policy models to prepare for fast population aging ahead. Especially in Romania, Bulgaria and the Visegrad Four, this is reflected in low active aging and child wellbeing index rankings, relatively small social investment in early human capital, weak improvements in prospective old age dependency ratios, and large-scale emigration. Slovenia and the Visegrad Four, but not the Baltics, also became „pensioners‘ welfare states“ with prematurely strong pro-elderly policy bias. In some cases, massive early exit worsened pension system sustainability while boosting pensioners‘ electoral power (political push before demographic pull). However, around the time when the demographic window started closing (2010-2015), the political salience of family policies, work-family reconciliation policies, and active aging policy increased, often spurred by the same Christian-conservative and/or nationalist-populist parties that caused illiberal democratic backsliding. But by then, the relative political power of elderly voters during elections in East Central Europe was among the highest in the world.

A Territorial Analysis of Child Well-Being in Iran: Introducing a Multidimensional Index

This is the first effort to construct a multidimensional index of child well-being in Iran. This index is composed of 26 indicators which cover the following aspects of child well-being: health, material well-being, education, risk and safety, family, personal well-being, and housing and the environment. Indicators were aggregated in special components, and these components eventually construct a single well-being index. The macro data was retrieved from national data centers to compute the province-level child well-being index for Iran. Results show that child well-being and its domains are distributed unequally among the provinces. Southern and eastern provinces have the worst condition while northern and central provinces have the best. Generally, Iranian children have made significant progress in recent years in education (such as literacy rate and high school graduation rate) and health (such as infant mortality rate and underweight children under 5 years of age). However, there are growing problems in the country, including child labor, high levels of exclusion from high school, a shortage of preschool education, and child abuse.

Limited Public Healthcare Coverage as Binding Child Welfare Constraint: a Perspective of Selected Southern States in the USA

Healthcare coverage and child well-being have improved nationally as a result of public healthcare and welfare policies along with various outreach efforts across the USA. However, some southern states continue to register higher numbers of uninsured children and lower scores on child well-being index. This article operationalizes limited public healthcare coverage as medical neglect in child welfare context and reflects on the potential link between adequate healthcare coverage and child welfare in selected southern states. A review and synthesis of secondary data obtained from the Kaiser Commission Research, Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) National Health Interview Survey Data, Child Welfare Gateway, and Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count data book are presented. The data shows that improvement in healthcare coverage and outreach efforts does not correlate to the lower child well-being index in some southern states. Recommendations for enhancing children’s healthcare coverage with intended positive outcomes on child welfare variables including physical health, childcare, education, and psychological development are provided.

Consistencies and Differences Across States in the Well-Being of Non-Hispanic White, Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Black Children in the United States

Most analysis of racial differences in child well-being in the United States focus only on national level data and most state-level analysis of child well-being focus only on the total child population (all races combined). This analysis addresses the two limitations in previous research noted above by providing a state-level analysis of child well-being for the three largest race/Hispanic groups, namely Non-Hispanic White, Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Black. The analysis is based ten commonly-used indicators of child well-being. First, the values for each of the ten indicators for each of three groups are examined in each state. This shows that the disadvantaged position of Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Black children relative to Non-Hispanic White children is pervasive across all ten indicators and all states. Next, the well-being of children in each state relative to the well-being of children in their group in other states is assessed using a ten-item composite index of child well-being. Results show there is only modest positive correlations of relative well-being among the states for all three groups. Only two states are in the top ten states for all three groups. Likewise, there are only two states that were among the ten worst states for all three groups. This analysis indicates that using child well-being measures for the total population in a state does not adequately reflect child well-being of Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Black children.