The science of a good childhood: a review of Volume 2 of the Journal of Children's Services
| Pages | 46-58 |
| Date | 10 July 2008 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17466660200800026 |
| Published date | 10 July 2008 |
| Author | Nick Axford,Emma Crewe,Celene Domitrovich,Alina Morawska |
| Subject Matter | Education,Health & social care,Sociology |
46 Journal of Children’s Services
Volume 3 Issue 4 December 2008
© Pavilion Journals (Brighton) Ltd
1 Dartington Social
Research Unit, UK
2 ChildHope, UK
3 Prevention
Research Center,
Pennsylvania State
University, US
4 University of
Queensland,
Australia
Abstract
This article reviews the contents of the previous year’s editions of the Journal of Children’s Services
(Volume 2, 2007), as requested by the Journal’s editorial board. It draws out some of the main messages
for how high-quality scientific research can help build good childhoods in western developed countries,
focusing on: the need for epidemiology to understand how to match services to needs; how research
can build evidence of the impact of prevention and intervention services on child well-being; what the
evidence says about how to implement proven programmes successfully; the economic case for proven
programmes; the urgency of improving children’s material living standards; how to help the most
vulnerable children in society; and, lastly, the task of measuring child well-being.
Key words
Prevention; evidence; epidemiology; proven programme; operating system; poverty; looked-after
children; Type 2 translation; outcome measurement.
help rectify this, they set out a series of proposals to
address the main influences on children’s well-being,
including family, friends, neighbourhoods, schooling
and wider cultural values and socio-economic factors.
In this article we review articles from the previous
year’s editions of this Journal (Volume 2, 2007), as
requested by the editorial board, and use it to draw
out some of the main messages for how high-quality
scientific research can help build good childhoods.
This reflects a premise of the Journal of Children’s
Services, namely that research-based, outcome-
focused services will better safeguard and promote
the well-being of vulnerable children and their
families.
We start with the need for epidemiology to
understand what to target, so that services can be
appropriately matched to needs. We then examine
how research can build evidence of the impact
of prevention and intervention services on child
well-being, before considering what the evidence
says about how to successfully implement those
Introduction
The UK’s persistently poor showing in international
league tables of child happiness and well-being
(Adamson, 2007; Bradshaw & Richardson, 2009) has
so far produced little more of substance than hand-
wringing and promises ‘to do better’. But among the
good intentions it has at least found articulate and
imaginative advocates for change in the shape of a
panel of experts assembled by The Children’s Society
to analyse the results of its Good Childhood Inquiry
(Layard & Dunn, 2009).
The ensuing report, A Good Childhood, is
reviewed in this edition by Bill Jordan (pp59–60). It
is fundamentally concerned with re-examining what
children need in order to ‘flourish’, a state which it
defines as ‘social engagement and the enjoyment of
life – fulfilling our capacity to live in harmony with
others and with ourselves’ (p9). Too much in the
way our society and services are currently organised
fail to promote these ends, the authors argue. To
The science of a good childhood:
a review of Volume 2 of the
Journal of Children’s Services
Nick Axford1, Emma Crewe2, Celene Domitrovich3 and Alina Morawska4
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