| Abstract: |
The presentation outlines the results of fieldwork in Latvia that has been
done in the EU FP7 project „Measuring Youth Well Being” (MYWEB, grant
agreement no.613368) which takes a balanced approach to assessing the
feasibility of a European Longitudinal Study for Children and Young People
through prioritising both scientific and policy imperatives. The fieldwork was
undertaken with the goal of finding out the meaning and significance that
children and young people allocate to well-being. Individual and focus group
interviews provided an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the method
for obtaining the data and to find out potential difficulties in undertaking
longitudinal research. To develop the instruments to measure children’s and
young people’s well-being, their own views and opinions about what they’d like
the researchers to ask them had to be taken into account, as well as the way
in which the survey should be conducted. The presentation will discuss the
main domains of well-being and how they are related to happiness,
life-satisfaction and psychological well-being of children and young people.
The results of the fieldwork undertaken in three months (October – December
2014) show that the respondents’ general understanding of well-being was to a
large degree very specific. Children tend to have problems understanding the
concept and for all ages, respondents are more comfortable with
experience-centred questions. For children, these were connected with certain
elements of their lives and the degree to which their parents, other family
members and their teachers felt good. In defining the term well-being, the
majority of the young people associated this with external and internal
conditions. In their opinions, the main elements which create external
well-being are connected with good living conditions, evidence of which is
clothing, one’s appearance and behaviour. The fieldwork highlighted that the
borders between satisfaction, happiness and psychological well-being are not
always clear for the respondents. Research on young people’s well-being was
recognized as one of the most effective methods, which could help young people
to express their opinion and to be heard in society. According to the thinking
of the respondents, such research should include in-depth interviews and
questionnaires and observation of what should happen, not only at school, but
also on the streets, in interest groups and NGOs. |