The Well-Being of America's Children: Developing and Improving the Child and Youth Well-Being Index: 6 2012th Edition

From the reviews:

“Chapters are devoted to describing the construction, testing, and use of the instruments; reporting the decades-long results; and discussing how the results could, or should, be used to remedy some of the state and local discrepancies in the well-being of children. … The book will be of particular value to policy makers but will also be of interest to those who wish to have a better understanding of the overall well-being of children and youths in this country.” (David Elkind, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 58 (5), January, 2013)

This volume attests to the evolution of the Child Well-Being Index and asks what it promises for understanding the progress – or lack of progress – in enhancing the life prospects of all American children. Recent research on the general problem of conceptualizing and measuring the well-being of children and young people is covered, as well as the conceptual foundations of the Child Well-Being Index and its methods of construction. Further, the authors assess the methodological issues involved in the construction of composite quality-of-life indices and the question of the extent to which the Child Well-Being Index can be scaled to apply meaningfully to levels of analysis below the national level. In the end, the questions of what this Index tells us about changes in child and youth well-being in the US across recent decades at national, state, and substate regional levels and in international comparisons, and which additional data series need to be developed so that the Index can be improved, is addressed.