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Child Hunger in Africa - Copyright Sipa Press / REX
UK News

Children's Society report reveals British children are 'worse off' than those in developing countries.

Findings from the Children's Society report found that, although most children in the UK were generally happy, around half a million reported 'very low' levels of wellbeing.

In some cases this was much lower than children of a similar age in countries such as Romania or Algeria, which are considered developing countries.

Some of the key factors which negatively impacted the wellbeing of young people were things like financial instability, levels of family debt and stress over things like appearance.

Children's Society Chief Executive, Matthew Reed, explains that economic influencers are hugely complicated, and it's not simply a case of 'poorer' children being unhappier:

"In societies where there is a greater disparity between the richest and the poorest, that causes lower levels of economic wellbeing amongst the whole childhood population, both those on lower incomes and those on higher incomes.

"Children in the UK are also reporting much higher levels of stress around how they're expected to look.

"There's also a huge gap between how boys and girls report this: What the data shows is that the girls are feeling under even more pressure, and that's something that we should be aware of in the UK."

He had this advice for adults in the UK who want to support young people to have better wellbeing:

"Being listened to, first of all, is a really key thing [for young people] and of course we can all play a role in that: as parents, as friends, as uncles, aunts, teachers and other professionals.

"Whatever role we play in society, listening authentically and genuinely to children, first of all, is very important."

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