This book explores the broad view on child well-being and the quality of life research. It starts with a discussion of the origin of the social indicator movement and a review of literature on the concepts of quality of life, (subjective) well-being and resilience. It then discusses the force of culture on child development, and shows how two prototypical environments favor either the independent or interdependent self-model. After an exploration of the shifts and changes in the child well-being indicator movement and trends of child well-being measurements, the book turns to research on Tsunami-affected children. The first part of the study gives these children and their caregivers a voice, formulating in their words what constitutes child well-being for them in the given circumstances. The concepts provided are processed in detail, contrasted, and then made into indicators. The second part of the study describes the introduction of a child well-being index based on these indicators. The book ends with four main conclusions reflected in a theoretical model of contextualized child well-being indicators.

Autorentext

Silvia Exenberger is Dr. rer. nat. in Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Clinical and health psychologist. She is presently employed as external lecturer at the Department of Psychology and Research and Development advisor at SOS Children's Villages International. She was previously awarded with a funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme, Marie Curie Actions, International Outgoing Fellowships where she held a post-doctoral position. For two years she lived in India where she carried out a research project on long-term effects of trauma in children after the Indian Ocean Tsunami and the children's well-being. Her research interests are in the field of clinical psychology with a focus on traumatology, and positive psychology focusing on (child) well-being, quality of life and resilience.

Barbara Juen is Ao. Professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Clinical and health psychologist, Head of Psychosocial Services at the Austrian Red Cross, Scientific Advisor of the European Network for Psychosocial Support and the IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support. Her research interests are acute traumatization and psychotraumatology. Her work focus is clinical psychology, emergency psychology and crisis intervention.

Inhalt

Introduction.- Chapter 1: Social Indicators and the Concepts of Quality of Life, Subjective Well-Being and Resilience.- Chapter 2: Culture and Child Well-Being.- Chapter 3: Child Well-Being.- Chapter 4: Development of Child Well-Being Indicators Four Years after the Tsunami Disaster.- Chapter 5: Children's Voices on Their Well-Being: A Child Well-Being Index.- Conclusions.- References.