Child well-being

This is the worst news I have heard for some time.

A UNICEF report shows the UK to at the bottom of a league table for child well-being across 21 industrialised countries. The report looked at things such as poverty, peer and family relationships, and health. The research found British children regard themselves as less happy, and that they drink more alcohol, take more drugs, and have more underage sex than children overseas. They are also more prone to failure at school, to experience violence and bullying while suffering a greater number of unhappy relationships with both their families and peers.

The authors said there was a well-established link between family breakdown, educational failure, poor health and reduced life chances. According to one of the study authors, Professor Jonathan Bradshaw from York University, under-investment and a "dog eat dog" attitude in society were to blame.

That British children were found to have the worst relationships in the developed world with the second highest proportion of single-parent families of the countries examined and the second highest proportion of children living in step-families is is to my mind clearly linked with the finding that they are also the unhappiest. Statistics suggest these factors can lead to a greater risk of dropping out of school, of leaving home early, of poorer health, of low skills and of low pay.

Family life and relationships are clearly central to children's sense of happiness and the health of our society (see my post on Teenage delinquency). It is about time that we, as a society, took the importance of marriage and family life seriously (see Gay adoption).