Measuring and monitoring children's well-being across the world

Abstract

An international initiative to measure and monitor the status of children beyond survival is an effort to use tools of the information age to promote understanding of children's life perspectives and an action to improve their condition. An interdisciplinary group proposes widespread consensus on the selection and monitoring of cross-cultural indicators to cover the following children's life domains: social connectedness, civil life skills, personal life skills that enable children to contribute to their own well-being, safety and physical status, and children's subculture. Social workers can contribute substantially to the design, collection, interpretation, and use of indicators in various arenas ranging from local to global levels.