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Child Well-Being in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

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Abstract

This is the first attempt to produce a multidimensional index of the well-being of children in the CEE/CIS countries. It follows the methods employed in similar indices produced by the same authors for EU and OECD countries. Indicators are derived from existing survey and administrative sources, they are combined into components and the components are combined into seven domains of well-being. There is considerable variation in the performance of different countries in different domains. The domains are combined into a single index: Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia and Serbia are at the top of the index. Azerbaijan, Albania, Tajikistan and Moldova are at the bottom of the index. The article describes how the index was put together, explores its sensitivity and shortcomings. The level of wealth in GDP per capita explains only about a third of the variation of children’s well-being in this region.

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Notes

  1. For further information on the Young Voices survey in the CEE CIS region see http://www.unicef.org/polls/cee/index.html

  2. For this reasons Bulgaria’s particularly high result should be interpreted with caution.

  3. The exact question is: thinking about your life in the future and comparing it to your parent’s life now, do you believe your life will be... much better, better, about the same, worse or much worse (Young Voices, children’s questionnaire - question 60 page 12).

  4. Bulgaria and Azerbaijan have both had negative outliers removed from the calculation of this dimension, which if deemed comparable would have lowered their overall performance. Results for Bulgaria and Azerbaijan need to be read with caution.

  5. Residential cared for children are “children in infant homes, in orphanages, in boarding homes and schools for children without parental care or poor children, disabled children in boarding schools and homes, family-type homes, SOS villages, etc. Children in punitive institutions are normally excluded” (TransMONEE 2007 database definition).

  6. Serbia and Montenegro data is for 2001 for the foster/residential care ratio and 2003 for Georgia. Bosnian Herzegovina data for residential care and infant homes is for 1999, and Turkmenistan data is for 2004.

  7. Except Georgia (2004), Macedonia (2000), Croatia (1999) Turkmenistan (1997).

  8. Analysis, interpretations and conclusions drawn from the use of the WHO mortality data are those of the authors and not of the World Health Organisation.

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Acknowledgement

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Office for the CEE/CIS region in Geneva supported this work but the opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the policies or views of UNICEF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, York, England, UK

    Dominic Richardson

  2. UNICEF Regional Office for CEE/CIS, Geneva, Switzerland

    Petra Hoelscher

  3. Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK

    Jonathan Bradshaw

Authors
  1. Dominic Richardson
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  2. Petra Hoelscher
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  3. Jonathan Bradshaw
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Correspondence to Jonathan Bradshaw.

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Richardson, D., Hoelscher, P. & Bradshaw, J. Child Well-Being in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Child Ind Res 1, 211–250 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-008-9020-8

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