In a recent study by the UK-based charity, Children’s Society Organization, Macedonian children are ranked as the happiest children in the world. Following closely behind is The Netherlands, Armenia, Greenland, and Iceland. Russia came in 19th while Turkey, the United States, Canada, Italy, and Poland were last on the list and thus among the saddest (respectively).
The report titled “The Good Childhood Report 2014” is based on over 50,000 children in 39 countries and was conducted in collaboration with the University of York. The document reports that the research has become one of the most extensive global programmes on children’s well-being. The children were asked to evaluate their well-being based on family, money/possessions, future, health, friends, appearance, and school.
The report proved that children’s happiness vary with age; 13% of 10-13 year olds are unhappy with the way they look with girls faring much worse than boys. Regularly active children, and children who have access to computers and Internet have a higher well-being, than those who are inactive and deprived of technology. Children who felt poorer were twice as likely to say they were unhappy and almost three times more likely to say they had low life satisfaction. Boys tend to be happier than girls.
Parents’ hands-on involvement positively impacts a child’s well-being. The report found that emotional support, physical care, educational support, and supervision show a strong correlation to children’s sense of happiness and satisfaction.
