Index of Child Wellbeing study: 89% of children trust the people they live with
The pilot study covered almost 25 thousand children from the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug.
17/12/2021
92% of children said they are loved and cared for. 91% regularly spend time with their parents. 89% trust the people they live with. 85% reported that adult family members listen to them.
As they grow older, more children begin to feel lonely from time to time: 38% at 10 years old and 62% at 17 years old (while girls are almost one and a half times more likely to feel lonely).
As they grow up, children are 12% less likely to attend extra classes and to enjoy learning less. Though, on average, 55% to 62% of children enjoy going to school. 65% have not seen or experienced bullying at school in the past month.
Older children are less proud of their success: about 40% at 17 years old versus 60% at 10 years old. In contrast, parents become more likely to believe that their children have accomplishments to be proud of.
Research methodology and purpose
With the help of the index indicators, the authorities will be able to make more balanced and well-grounded decisions in the formation of social policy. Foundations and state institutions will be able to plan, to prioritise programmes to support children and families with children, and evaluate their effectiveness.
Children 10-17 years old and adults who have children in this age group completed online questionnaires. In total, they collected 53,500 fully completed questionnaires, of which 24,700 were completed by children. The parents’ opinions were considered for verification purposes.
The questions concerned six spheres (domains) of child well-being: education, health, material well-being, safety, subjective well-being and self-realisation, and social relations. There were 46 measured indicators within the domains.
Children were asked how their family and classmates relate to them, whether they feel lonely, whether they have travelled outside the region, whether they have been to a children’s or sports camp, whether they have books other than textbooks – in a word, about what would help to see the child behind the numbers … The purpose of the index is to identify the most problematic points in the way children see the world and themselves in it, and to help them cope with them.
The Child Welfare Index was developed by the Timchenko Foundation together with RANEPA with the support of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives and the expert community. The prototype of the index is based on UNICEF methodology and is built on a survey of children and parents, coupled with statistics.
In addition to the Timchenko Foundation, developments in assessing child well-being were presented by the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow State University, Tyumen State University, the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, as well as experts from Israel, Great Britain, Finland and Kazakhstan.
