Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Dr Zoi Nikiforidou delivered a guest lecture at the University of Bielefeld Winter school, discussing the wellbeing of children across the globe.
In his lecture, ‘Measuring children’s wellbeing: The case of Greece’, Dr Nikiforidou explored aspects of the complexity and multidimensionality in defining children’s wellbeing and quality of life.
He said: “Children’s wellbeing is one of the priorities in policy and practice globally. However, when measuring wellbeing there is usually a tendency to focus on adults' views and decisions without considering children’s own opinions and perspectives. The meaning of a ‘good life’ is socio-culturally and personally constructed and, thus, has both objective and subjective applications.”
These tensions were discussed and the talk also unpicked challenges and implications on identifying international indicators of measuring young children’s wellbeing, under the domains of housing, money and possessions, relationships with friends and other people, school, health, time management and leisure and self.
At the end, the example of Greece and children’s current experiences was discussed.
If you are interested in this particular theme or any other Childhood Research Forum (CRF) activities, please contact Dr Zoi Nikiforidou, nikifoz@hope.ac.uk.