Measuring Youth Well-being

Professor Gary PollockGary is the Head of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, a post he has held since 2008. He is an expert in both child and youth studies having published in the field of child well-being, the transition from school to work, youth leisure and employment and youth political engagement. Gary led the European Commission funded MYWeB (Measuring Youth Well-Being) project which provides the basis for the present book proposal. This was an investigation into the desirability and feasibility of developing a longitudinal survey of the well-being of children and young people across Europe. Gary co-led the European Commission funded MYPLACE (Memory, Youth, Political Legacy And Civic Engagement) project which studied the political and civic engagement of young people across Europe. He was responsible for the survey elements of this project. Gary's methodological expertise lies in longitudinal survey analysis, in particular using sequence analysis.
Dr Jessica OzanJessica is a Research Associate at the Policy and Evaluation Research unit, Manchester Metropolitan University. She was the lead researcher on the MYWeB (Measuring Youth Well-Being) project and was central to the H2020 InnoSi (Innovative Social Investment: Strengthening communities in Europe) project. Previous to this she was a doctoral fellow at UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, National University of Ireland, Galway. Jessica also worked as part of a team undertaking the Process Evaluation of the Tallaght West Childhood Development Initiative (Dublin, Ireland). This multi-faceted project aimed at improving the health, safety, learning, and overall wellbeing of children in the area.
Dr Haridhan GoswamiHaridhan has expertise in quantitative methods especially in survey design, testing reliability and validity of data collection instruments, multivariate analysis of data, and research with children and young people and their subjective well-being. He has experience of working in the Third Sector for almost 6 years and Higher Education for 9 years. Haridhan is currently working with the Q-Step Team in the Department of Sociology to enhance quantitative skills of undergraduate and postgraduate students under the Q-Step project-a national initiative and investment funded by the Nuffield Foundation, ESRC and HEFCE. He is the Programme Leader for the newly introduced postgraduate programme called MSc in Applied Quantitative Methods. Haridhan has led the curricula development for the MSc and the newly designed BSc in Quantitative Methods in the Department. In addition, he is providing expertise on quantitative methods, research with children and young people, and subjective well-being to two European Commission funded projects: MYPLACE (Memory, Youth, Political Legacy And Civic Engagement) and MYWeB (Measuring Youth Well-Being). Prior to joining MMU, Haridhan worked as a Statistical Researcher in the Research Team of The Children's Society (TCS). Whilst working with TCS, Haridhan led a number of quantitative research projects including two national surveys (2008 and 2010) on children and young people's well-being in England, national survey on adults' attitudes towards children and childhood, evaluation of the national peer-mentoring anti-bullying programme, and survey on professionals' attitudes towards adolescent neglect. Haridhan publishes regularly in international journals and acts as a reviewer for academic journals, publishers, and funding bodies.
Gwyther ReesGwyther is currently Honorary Research Fellow, Social Policy Research Unit, University of York. Prior to this he was Research Director, The Children's Society. Gwyther has a wealth of experience in relation to international surveys of child well-being in particular as a standing member of the central team which manages the International Survey of Children's Well-Being.

Provides first-hand evidence on the feasibility of conducting a European study on the topic of child well-beingPresents empirical evidence on field experiences from a number of European countriesPresents different options to measure well-being of children using a child centric approach

Part 1. The Complex Nature of Well-being: From Academic Definitions to Policy Programmes.- Chapter 1. The Notion of Well-being Across Contexts and Countries (Gary Pollock).- Chapter 2. Child and Youth Well-Being on the European Political Agenda (Britta Busse).- Chapter 3. A Comparative Expert Survey on Measuring and Enhancing Well-being in Europe (Jessica Ozan).- Chapter 4. Conceptions of Well-being and Differences Among Children and Young People in Europe (Alexandros Sakellariou).- Part 2. Measuring Children and Young People's Well-being.- Chapter 5. Strengths and Shortcomings of Survey of Children and Young People Well-being (Haridhan Goswami).- Chapter 6. Longitudinal Research on Children and Young People in Europe and Beyond (Britta Busse).- Chapter 7. Current Attempts to Measure Children and Young People Well-being (Zsuzsa Szántó).- Chapter 8. How to Develop Well-being Survey Questions for Young Children: Lessons Learned from Cross-cultural Cognitive Interviews (Renata Franc).- Part 3. Possibilities for Further Research.- Chapter 9. Challenges in Conducting a New Longitudinal Study on Children and Young People Well-being in European Union (Gary Pollock).- Chapter 10. Strategies and Methodological Challenges for Involving Children and Young People in a Research on Wellbeing (Mariona Ferrer-Fons).- Chapter 11. With a View Towards the Future: Different Options to Measure the Well-being of Children and Young People Across Europe longitudinally (Jessica Ozan).- Chapter 12. The Potential Policy Benefits of Measuring Child Wellbeing Across Europe (Chris O'Leary).