The secret of children’s happiness? Church charity cites everything from iPods to designer trainers… but not a single word about marriage

By
Steve Doughty

Last updated at 3:24 AM on 12th January 2012

Over 64 pages, it sets out to provide a detailed analysis of what makes children in modern Britain happy.

Yet the traditional family unit is given such little importance in the report by the Children’s Society that the word ‘marriage’ does not merit even a single mention.     

The charity insists it is the quality of the relationships within a family, rather than its structure, which has the biggest impact on a child’s well-being.

Material desires: iPods or personal music players were listed as one of the items on the 'charity-centred material well-being index'

Material desires: iPods or personal music players were listed as one of the items on the ‘charity-centred material well-being index’

But last night family campaigners
expressed dismay that the importance of marriage could be so casually
dismissed by an organisation with close links to the Church.

The report – called Good Childhood –
studied 6,000 youngsters aged eight to 15 to provide a snapshot of
modern childhood and suggest how their life prospects could be improved.

Worryingly, it concluded that at any
one time one in every 11 – equating to half a million across the country
– were unhappy with their lives.

The research, endorsed by the
Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu, one of the charity’s presidents,
states the roots of happiness lie in stability and calm at home.

But it also said material possessions
have a significant impact, with iPods, designer trainers, satellite TV
and ‘the right clothes’ regarded as vital elements of a child’s
well-being. 

The findings run counter to its
previous studies. Three years ago the Children’s Society published a
report in which it said children do best when brought up by two parents
with a long-term commitment to each other, and warned that co-habiting
relationships were more likely to break up and damage children.

Yesterday’s report, however, said it was not important that children lived with their birth parents.


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p4 The ups and downs of being young.jpg

It declared: ‘It is not the structure, but the relationships within a family that children care about. Loving relationships between a child and their family are ten times more powerful than family structure in increasing well-being.

‘Our research shows that the quality of children’s relationships with their families is far more important than the particular structure of the family that they live in.’ But it continued: ‘Stability is important. Children who experience a change in family members they are living with are twice as likely to experience low well-being.

‘In general, children living with both
birth parents in the same house have higher levels of well-being than
children living in other family arrangements. However this is not
necessarily comparing like with like.

‘Children
not living with both birth parents are also much more likely to have
experienced recent family change, which is also an important factor
associated with levels of well-being.’

The
report also found material factors were of deep importance. ‘Children
in families who have experienced a reduction in income are more likely
to have low well-being,’ it said.

‘Children who do not have clothes to “fit in” with peers are more than three times as likely to be unhappy with their appearance. Around a third say they often worry about the way they look.’

The society produced an ‘index of material well-being’ to measure ‘items and experiences which children feel are important for them to have a “normal” childhood’. The list included designer trainers and cable or satellite TV at home.

Family holidays were also listed on the well-being index as one of the things children need to consider themselves happy

Family holidays were also listed on the well-being index as one of the things children need to consider themselves happy

Launching the report yesterday, Dr Sentamu said: ‘We should see this report not as simply an interesting piece of research but an urgent clarion call to action. Can we move beyond narrow measures of human success such as health and financial security to ask harder questions about personal fulfilment or what is known as subjective well-being – in other words people’s contentment with their life as a whole?’

But there was criticism from campaigners for family life.

Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust, said: ‘It is disturbing that a report published by a charity dedicated to encouraging policies that promote the welfare of children should have nothing to say about the positive and protective value of marriage.

‘There is a mountain of evidence that demonstrates that children living with their own married parents tend to have fewer emotional and behavioural problems, enjoy better health, do better academically, and have lower levels of stress, depression and anxiety.

‘Since subjective well-being is notoriously difficult to define and even harder to measure, there is no basis for asserting on the basis of a study of this nature that family structure has little or no effect on a child’s well-being.’

Researcher and author Jill Kirby said: ‘The best guardian of stability for children is having two married parents. The Children’s Society is ignoring that in favour of a materialistic disposable society.’ 

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have not been moderated.

cheer up kids. Trust me it only gets worse!

, kids want stability and love from both parents and to be part of a loving community , at christmas time toys lie unused until they have another person to play with . i wonder which cloud these people live on

Teenagers have always been ‘Drama Queens’ – full of angst and erratic hormones. Everything is a crisis, but they do grow out of it.
And, today’s bunch are no different, other than theu spend too much time loafing about on gadgets, instead of working part time in shops, as previous generations had to.
They should wait until they are grown ups, with all the usual problems, and then they will really have something to whinge about.

Bonie, not sure if the word married is the most important thing, I think it is about children being raised by their birth parents, their mother and father.

Children aren’t happy unless they have an iPod?? What kind of shallow report is this? What about the children who really do have something to be unhappy about? There are probably quite a few who fall into this category but the rest are saying they are unhappy because they don’t have what they want not because they can’t have what they need.
Advertising, consequent greed, lack of good parenting and a rather mis-conceived survey would seem to account for most of this so-called unhappiness!

Im under 18, but over 15 and the reason why us lot are so unhappy cause this world is turning into rubbish. All lies half of us know that we haven’t got a future in this world

The church is increasingly being infested by socialist ideals. Ironically, socialist principles were developed as a counter to the teachings of the church. We now have Christians promoting those very things which undermine Christian principles and which lead to poorer lifestyles for Christians and wider society.

“but not a single word about marriage” … though even in your quotes, plenty about the importance of relationships and stability. “The quality if children’s relationships with their families is far more important than the particular structure of the family they live in”. Who would envy children growing up with married but warring parents?

Why be so surprised about the word marriage missing?
The article says itself: “The quality if children’s relationships with their families is far more important than the particular structure of the family they live in.”

You would prefer that they alter their findings to suit your agenda? My parents have never married, they are rock solid and raised two happy kids in a very loving family are helping to raise two lovely grandchildren- who’ve never once even asked if their grandparents are married.

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