Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The 2008 survey was the first in the series. It was conducted as part of a collaborative project by The Children's Society and the University of York. Data were gathered from just under 7,000 children aged 10-15, in school years 6, 8 and 10, via surveys conducted in schools in England. The survey was part of an ongoing research programme, the aims of which were (a) to develop a better understanding of the concept of well-being as it relates to children, taking full account of the perspectives of children themselves; (b) to develop and validate self-report measures of children's well-being; and (c) to use these measures to identify the reasons for variations in children's subjective well-being and to monitor trends over time. The survey was used to compile the Children's Society's first 'Good Childhood' report. Further surveys were conducted in 2010 (see SN 7899) and 2013-2014 (SN 7910).

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The survey questionnaires included three measures of overall well-being and 21 single-item measures asking about satisfaction with particular aspects of life. The survey also covered a range of factors that had been identified by children in previous research as being important to them in terms of their well-being. It should be noted that children aged 10-11 did not complete the complete the entire set of questions, and that there were two phases of the survey, each with a slightly different mix of questions. The phase in which each child participated is indicated within the data.

Two-stage cluster sample

Self-completion