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| So do our children have a good childhood or not?
Here's the summary
"Most of the obstacles children face today are linked to the belief among adults that the prime duty of the individual is to make the most of their own life, rather than contribute to the good of others. The inquiry report, A Good Childhood, says excessive individualism is causing a range of problems for children including: high family break-up, teenage unkindness, commercial pressures towards premature sexualisation, unprincipled advertising, too much competition in education and acceptance of income inequality.
The report says that although freedom and self-determination bring many blessings, the balance has tilted too far towards individualism in Britain.
The Good Childhood® Inquiry received evidence from over 30,000 children, adults and professionals and undertook a comprehensive review of all the available research. It looked at these seven aspects of childhood:
Family
Children with single or step parents are 50% more likely to suffer with lower academic achievement, poor self-esteem, unpopularity with other children, behavioural difficulties and depression.
Friends
The age at which people have their first sexual experience has dropped dramatically due to many forces including more privacy when both parents work and commercial pressures.
Lifestyle
Promotion of sugary, salty high-fat foods to children is leading to rising obesity, and the upward trend in media violence is helping to produce an increase in the levels of violent behaviour.
Values
There needs to be a significant change at the heart of society, so that adults, be they parents or teachers, are less embarrassed to stand up for the values without which a society cannot flourish.
Schooling
To maximise its league table position a school has no incentive to improve the scores of the 30% of children who are well below the target level of five good GCSEs.
Mental health
Only a quarter of children that are seriously troubled or disturbed by mental health difficulties are getting any kind of specialist help.
Inequalities
More money will have to be redistributed from the rich to the poor if the Government is to hit its target of eradicating child poverty by 2020.
The report seems to make some huge assumptions about parenting, children and mothers in particular, as neatly highlighted by Finkelstein in the Times yesterday, where he basically knocked it over with the following:
"Here is an equally brutal summary of my response. Children in this country are not unhappy. The inquiry presents no convincing evidence at all that children are being damaged by the behaviour of their parents or by women working. There is no reason to believe that our individualism is excessive or a social evil. And even if it were, it is impossible to divine what might connect individualism to the happiness of children or the behaviour of parents."
He also pointed out that:
"The central contention of the report is that children are shaped and in many cases badly damaged by the self-indulgent behaviour of their parents. Quite early on it states that “the style of parenting that is loving and yet firm - now known in the jargon as authoritative - is the most effective in terms of children's outcomes and wellbeing”. And to be fair to the authors, there is some research that seems to suggest that this is, indeed, the case.
There is, however, a problem with this research. In fact, two big problems. The first is simple - genes. We all know - and even if we didn't, studies have shown beyond doubt - that we don't just inherit our nose and our mouth from our parents. We also inherit many of the ways in which we behave. Naturally, it isn't true that we all behave exactly like our parents in every respect. I am not going anywhere near as far as that. But we are certainly born with a vastly increased tendency to behave in certain ways, as a result of the genes passed on to us.
So if parents are loving and firm and have children with better “outcomes” (to use the inquiry's phrase) it may not be the loving and firm parenting style that causes the better outcome. It may just be that people who themselves have a tendency to parent in a sensible, mature fashion tend to produce children with genes that help them to be sensible and mature."
So... what was your take on it all? Did you recognise your children, your neighbour's or relative's or friend's children, or the children at school in this report, and if so, what is the solution?
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| The Good Childhood Inquiry was a huge undertaking with over 30,000 submissions and 11 experts processing the data. Children, parents and professional were all asked for opinions in an open format. Most social science attempts to shape information through questionnaires so that the researchers can compare and contrats responses. A cynic might say that the findings of the Good Childhood Report closely resemble the initial letter published over 2 years ago by a group of concerned professional and academics which started the whole thing off. Is that a coincidence?
Methodology aside we should all be concerned when international surveys find British children falling behind other nations and there have been several of those beside this one.
My concern is that individual parents are being held responsible for social changes beyond their control. Previous generations of parents could call upon relatives and friends living nearby. Grandparents had a huge role in helping as did sisters and sisters in law. Now it is not unusual for families to live at some distance and for parents to travel to work reducing the time they have at home. This is not a judgement on character or committment to our children and the charge of individualism is misplaced.
Putting a roof over your head is expensive and few houses for rent are available at a reasonable price and on a reliable long term let. In contrast fewer than 20% of Germans own their own homes and rents remain reasonable. The cost of housing is one factor demanding long working hours.
I would like to see more practical support available to parents so that any concerns they may have can be aired. It could be social networks such as Funky Angel which are best placed to offer shared support at the early stages. Professional support could be explored later if needed.
Forums such as this seem a good starting point. What do people think?
Happy2Learn
Jeni Hooper at Happy2Learn |
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| I am not one to read lots of reports and statistic just not my thing. After many years in the police I realised that you make statistics say anything you want. However for me it is clear that our young people are not happy, don’t eat well and don’t get enough exercise.
I personally believe that the only way forward is to stop measuring our children and stop trying to control them to do what we want so our lives become easier. We just need to start treating them like human begins in my eyes and less like commodities.
It is simply about been there for them truly listening to them and encouraging healthy habits.
We should stop placing blame worrying what is wrong and get together with our children and just do something about it.
Reports are only useful if they effect change in the average home and my fear is that this is just another report that will have no real effect. Parents just take this on yourself it will take so long for the government to do anything about our unhappy children.
Here endeth the soap box speech :-)
Sarah Newton http://www.theteencoachblog.com
None statistic and report reader 
Sarah Newton
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