Happiness study raises fears over children’s mental health

Children’s sense of overall happiness is at its lowest level for a decade, leaving them at risk of mental ill health, according to major charity analysis. The Children’s Society’s annual Good Childhood report looks at a raft of data surveying children’s views and rates their overall happiness out of a scale of one to 10. For the first time in 10 years this score has fallen below the eight out of 10 mark when children were asked about their happiness with “life as a whole”. While in 2009/10 the score was 8.17 out of 10, by 2016/17, the latest year where results are available, this had fallen to 7.89 out of 10. Its survey of children also asked what worries them most about the future. It found that almost one in five (17 per cent) are worried about their mental health, with those living in poverty likely to be most worried about their mental wellbeing. Read more.