Monitoring, protecting and promoting ‘well-being’ are central to realisation of children’s rights. Yet definitions of the concept are both variable and can appear conceptually confused. Competing research paradigms engage with the concept and its measurement, while applications of well-being in policy are equally contested. This paper outlines some of the major debates, as a starting point for reviewing three contrasting approaches to well-being: indicator-based, participatory and longitudinal research.

This Technical Note focuses on the methods, tools, and instruments that may be useful for research with children in the second and subsequent phases of data collection in the Young Lives study. Specifically, it addresses methods for investigating the following two lines of enquiry:

Children face many important changes in the first eight years of life, including different learning centres, social groups, roles and expectations. Their ability to adapt to such a dynamic and evolving environment directly affects their sense of identity and status within their community over the short and long term. In particular, the key turning points in children's lives - such as graduating from kindergarten to primary school or going through a culturally specific rite of passage - provide challenges and opportunities for learning and growth on multiple levels.