US & UK are worst places for childrens' well-being

[Aliantha]

Well I want to know why Australia isn't on the list! Why don't we ever get counted???!!!!

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

Well I want to know why Australia isn't on the list! Why don't we ever get counted???!!!!

Australia is included, but not enough data was present in every category.

Although I think it's an interesting study, I'm not going to be sucked into the UK media's breast-beating "we're failing our children!" self pity.

Many of the answers are opinions asked of children/ teenagers at the most turbulent time of their lives. Cultural weighting does not seem to have been taken into consideration, for example the US scored highest on % of 15 year olds who expect to be in a skilled job by the time they are 30. Good for them - that simply shows good self esteem not educational achievement.

The UK scored worst for children's opinion of their own health - to me it sounds more likely that the British kids were simply aware of what could be wrong with them, as opposed to really being a sickly bunch.

30% of Japanese children answered that they were lonely - the report muses that perhaps there was a translation problem, or a cultural issue. Right. Shows how difficult it is to compare teenagers' opinions about their lives across the world.

I think the most positive thing we can do is make time for children, let them know they're loved and stay out of their way as much as possible when puberty turns them into monsters. And not worrying too much about multiple choice quizzes whether they're in magazines or from Unicef.

[xoxoxoBruce]

It's the damn TV commercials convincing kids their not living well. They're missing out on the good life where there are no zits, perfect test scores, fancy cars and beautiful rock star friends. Shows about Biafra's kids eating pebbles should get equal time.