Promoting children’s well-being at school and at home: Methodological considerations

Abstract

This study conducted research on children’s well-being from their perspective, respecting theirsubjective experiences and viewpoints. The aim of the article is twofold: to discuss about how toresearch children’s well-being and describe their well-being at home and school. In 2011, the data wasgathered in two phases in the Finnish comprehensive schools of Päijät-Häme region. First, informationabout the children’s knowledge of well-being was collected using interviews and workshops. Second,this data was used to develop an e-questionnaire, which was delivered to all the second to sixth graders(8–12 years old) in the region’s schools (N=3731). In this article the focus is in the questionnaire, thedata was analyzed using mainly descriptive methods. The analysis revealed that the adults in theschools, teachers and support personnel, as well as parents, are needed to foster the children’s wellbeing. These contexts should be researched simultaneously, not as separate domains. The positiveattitudes of school personnel towards pupils, and parents’ positive, authoritative childrearing practicescontribute to the children’s feeling of well-being.

Walking and talking with girls in their urban environments: A methodological meandering

“…The concept of child wellbeing is a contentious one with much attention coming from a negative or deficit point of view (Bradshaw et al 2011). For example, using an adult-centred research orientation (Karlsson 2010;Poikolainen 2013;Honkanen et al, 2018) and identifying a set of idealised individual child behaviours around diet and exercise within an increasingly individualised, consumerist and self-responsibilising society (Barnes et al, 2013). However, the child's perspective in research has increased in recent decades (Karlsson, 2010) with a growing interest in children's knowledge and subjective accounts of wellbeing (Author et al, 2017).…”