Worst place to be a Child?
Is the UK a raw deal for children?
There is a suspicion that adults in the UK are placing their priorities over that of children. As the BBC puts it Selfish adults ‘damage childhood’ .The good childhood inquiry by the Children's society puts most of the problems of children down to the individualism of the adults or as the Telegraph puts it "Childhood ruined by ‘me-first’ society, landmark report claims ." The Guardian head line puts it this way "Children paying price for adults' pursuit of success, says report." Does the UK give children a raw deal?
Bottom of the league again
In a league table of 21 rich nations the UK came 21st, but this time it was not for football but children's well-being. In a nation that has the Royal Society for the Provention of Cruelty to Animals(RSPCA) but only a National Society for the Provention of Cruelty to Children(NSPCC), perhaps we should not be surprised.
The chart was produced from data taken from a report published on 14th February 2007 by United Nations Children's Fund(UNICEF) called "An Overview of child well-being." It ranks the well-being of children in the 21 of the richest(OECD) countries in the world and it places the UK 21st out of 21. This average ranking is based on an average of 6 rankings for material and social needs. In all it draws on 40 separate indicators relevant to children's lives.
Overall child well-being
Source: UNICEF An Overview of child well-being
Breakdown of the UK's performance
The second chart beaks down the UK's performance on child well-being into what the report calls dimensions:
- Material well-being
- Health and safety
- Educational well-being
- Family and peer relationships
- Behaviours and risks
- Subjective well-being
In all but one of these dimensions the UK is in the bottom quartile and comes last in three of the six dimensions. A lamentable performance across the board, with no redeeming features.
Dimensions of UK child well-being
Source: UNICEF An Overview of child well-being
Subjective - well-being
This is a measure of what children think about themselves and we look at it in two respects, health and satisfaction with life. For health children of 11, 13 and 15 were asked to rate their health and the percentage is for those that rated their health as fair or poor. For well being the percentage quoted is for those with scores below the middle of the life satisfaction score. In both these categories the UK does quite poorly, which shows that children in the UK are aware that things for them are not so good.
What teens think about themselves
Source: UNICEF An Overview of child well-being
Risk behaviours
A group of indicators that measure the risk levels for young people across the countries involved in the report and a dimension that the UK does very poorly in.
Underage binge drinking and sex
The underage drinking is for young people (11,13,15 years) who have been drunk more than two times in the last 12 months. The results for the UK come out very close to those in the ESPAD report quoted on the article Boozed up Britain. The underage sex refers to people of 15 who have had sex. At 30.8% and 38.1% British teenagers are well above those of any other country in the report. There are some countries that did not report on the underage sex, and this may be because their results were much worse.
Under age binge drinking and sex
Source: UNICEF An Overview of child well-being
Somehow this comes as no surprise, but it should. The fact is that children in the UK have to grow up too fast and this puts them under more stress than their counterparts in other countries.
Teenage pregnancy rate
In an age when many couples are leaving starting their families until their 30's another group is having their children in their teens(15-19). Once again the UK achieves the second highest score, and more teenage pregnancies than anywhere else in Europe. Starting families young and often as single parents is not the best situation for a child to find it's self in. This has a strong link into other dimensions such as material and educational well-being.
Teenage pregnancy rates
Source: UNICEF An Overview of child well-being
Poor family relationships
Looking at the cause for the poor relationships affecting children, we plot two of the underlying indicators. These show for children aged 11, 13, and 15 the percentage of single parent families and the percentage of split families. With 16.9% and 14.5% the UK is second highest in both split and single parent families. This figure was for the year 2001 and from our look at the trends in UK families we know that the number of single parent families is showing strong growth that started in the 1970's. While many parents will strive to overcome their family circumstances, the implication of these statistics is that split and single families have a negative impact on child well-being.
Family Relationships
Source: UNICEF An Overview of child well-being
What the statistics on split and single families are saying is that for many people in the UK family relationships do not last or in despair have been abandoned altogether. Todays vision of a good life, as serial polygamy or else despair of any long term relationships, seems a bleak one. As Christians when we invite Christ into our lives we not only get to know the Son of God but are invited to call God the Father our Father. So when we receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit we enjoy relationships with each part of the Trinity and we experience something of that eternal unity which is both the model for Christian marriage and our vision for relationships in general.
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Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church
Author: Don Carson
ISBN: 978-0-310-25947-3
A penetrating analysis by a renowned theologian and author of books on postmodernism. He picks up the strengths and weaknesses in the emerging Church, and his reviews of "A Generous Orthodoxy" by Brian McLaren and "The Lost Message of Jesus" by Steve Chalk finds faults in their theology.
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