Good Childhoods, Well-Being Research, Reading and Creativity Libraries – Reading – Culture – Creativity ASCEL conference, Nov. 2014 Dr Dorothea Mueller 03 December 2018

Overview Introduction: The Children’s Society and Well-being research Ways to wellbeing for children: Reading and Creativity What else do we know about the wellbeing of children and young people? What does this mean for libraries? 03 December 2018

1. Introduction: The Children’s Society and the Wellbeing of Children and Young People 03 December 2018

The Children’s Society Founded in 1881 - over 130 years supporting the most disadvantaged children and families Strategy focuses on children living in poverty and teenagers suffering from, or at risk of, neglect – well-being research underpins both areas National network of nearly 100 programmes - including drop-in services for runaways, children’s centres and support for young carers Aim to transform the lives of many more children by pressurising government and local authorities to change policy and practice to protect them, and challenging the negative attitudes that perpetuate harm and injustice 03 December 2018

Children’s Well-being Research Started in 2005 – Good Childhood Inquiry Positive model of children and young people Local and national data, and impact Child-centred 03 December 2018

What is well-being? How people feel, function and evaluate their lives Feel: Amount of positive and negative emotion in your life Evaluate: whole life, and domains (home, family, friends, school,…) Function: “Optimal psychological experience & functioning” (Deci & Ryan, 2006) 03 December 2018

What do we know about children’s wellbeing in the UK? (1) 03 December 2018

What do we know about children’s wellbeing in the UK? (2) International comparison (from a pilot study) Briefly explain that these are only the core messages and that there’s much more to it – GCR 2014 and exec summary are both available Mean life satisfaction among 12-year-olds in 11 countries 03 December 2018

What do we know about children’s wellbeing in the UK? (3) 03 December 2018

What do we know about children’s wellbeing in the UK? (4) 03 December 2018

What do we know about children’s wellbeing in the UK? (5) 03 December 2018

2. Ways to wellbeing for children and young people: Reading and creativity 03 December 2018

What do we know about improving wellbeing? 03 December 2018

Finding the ways to wellbeing for children How often do you spend time out of school… …playing sports on a team? …learning new things for fun (like music, languages, art or drama)? …reading for fun? …teaching yourself new things? …helping our around the house? …volunteering or helping out in your community? …seeing friends? 03 December 2018

Ways to wellbeing for children and young people Connect Be active Take notice Give Keep learning Be creative/play Autonomy, agency, independence, choice 03 December 2018

Well-being and reading ‘I really like reading my own books that are not fiction books, you can experiment with them, like I’m trying to make something at the moment with battery acid, trying to make that out of some stuff I’ve got around the house’ 03 December 2018

Well-being and creativity ‘If you get to use your imagination, it makes you happy’ ‘When you’re doing something where you can use your own imagination and you can do your own thing, like write (…) a short fairy tale (…), anything can happen in there and that makes you more excited about what you’re doing’ 03 December 2018

3. What does this mean for libraries? 03 December 2018

Ways to wellbeing in libraries Keep learning Connect Give Be active Take notice Be creative/play 03 December 2018

Other ideas of improving well-being for children and young people through libraries Books Space Audience Identity, Appearance, Gender, Cultural Norms of learning, escape, creativity, safety to be and connect Well-being and age Representation Inclusivity Accessibility 03 December 2018