The Science of Well‐Being
| Date | 01 November 2006 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17466660200600026 |
| Pages | 74-76 |
| Published date | 01 November 2006 |
| Author | Annemieke Kalsbeek |
| Subject Matter | Education,Health & social care,Sociology |
The vast majority of adults, for instance, thought that
‘children and young people grow up too quickly
these days’ and four out of five children agreed with
them. 77% of children thought that parents worried
too much about them being in danger, but,
paradoxically, when asked to say what they would do
if they were the Prime Minister, half of them put
ensuring children’s safety at the top of their list. An
important finding for those managing and working in
children’s services is that young people want to be
consulted and involved in discussions about matters
that concern them but they do not want to make vital
decisions at too early an age. Nigel Thomas’s (2002)
study of children’s participation in care reviews came
to the same conclusion. We must not confuse
listening to children with handing over too much
responsibility before they have the experience or
maturity to deal with it.
Reviewed by: Sonia Jackson
Professorial Fellow, Thomas Coram Research Unit,
Institute of Education, University of London
Book reviews
74 Journal of Children’s Services
Volume 1 Issue 3 November 2006
©Pavilion Journals (Brighton) Ltd
References
Brannen J (2004) Childhoods across the generations: stories from women in four-generation English families. Childhood11 (4)
409–28.
Mayall B (2002) Towards a Sociology for Childhood: thinking from children’s lives. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Thomas N (2002) Children, Family and the State: decision-making and child participation, Bristol: Policy Press.
The Science of Well-Being
Edited by Felicia A Huppert, Nick Baylis and Barry Keverne
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005
546pp,£35.00 paperback
ISBN 0 19 856752 9
In the field of social welfare, including children’s
services, it is increasingly apparent that research and
service provision have focused more on ill-being as
opposed to well-being. A shift is underway, however,
with a flurryof publications in recent years about
what people need in order to flourish and enjoy a
good quality of life.
This volume demonstrates the increasing
significance of research on well-being, reflecting work
done in the areas of biology (evolution for instance),
neuroscience, the social sciences and psychology. It
adopts a multidisciplinary approach, acknowledging
that well-being derives from a combination of
everything we experience in our lives, both externally
(environment and society) and internally (body and
mind). The danger with this perspective, of course, is
that ‘well-being’ can be taken to mean whatever one
would like it to mean, but the range of contributions
herewill make the volume an interesting read for
‘all those in the social, behavioural, and biomedical
sciences, the caring professions, and policy makers’.
Although the focus is mainly on adult well-being,
there is much that is relevant to children and young
people. The neuroscientific approach, for instance,
draws attention to the role that brain maturation up to
the age of 20 plays in well-being (Keverne, Chapter 2),
while Barker (Chapter 3) notes how events during early
development can influence later chronic diseases, such
as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Huppert
(Chapter 12) also points to childhood as the best stage
of intervention, in this case with respect to mental
well-being. She advocates enhancing the well-being of
individuals with average mental health. This is
because, first, it means an improvement for the
majority of the population, and, second, shifting the
mean in the distribution will drag the tailend with it so
that over time fewer individuals experience very poor
mental health (see also Rose, 1992). This is particularly
relevant considering the rising levels of some mental
health and behaviour problems among young people
in the UK (Nuffield Foundation, 2004).
In Huppert’s view, education offers another
important avenue for improving child well-being,
provided that the curriculum emphasises social,
emotional, creative and physical development as well
as academic achievement. In the same vein,
Sternberg and Grigorenko (Chapter 14) demonstrate
that practical intelligence is correlated more with
physical and mental health than either ‘analytical’
(academic) or creative intelligence. The call for the
educational system to refocus resonates with the
position taken by the economist Layard (2005), who
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