Bioecological Approach

According to the Bioecological Model developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner, children are defined by the environmental systems they interact with, starting with the closest social environment, such as family and school. The Bioecological Model visualizes these interactions as concentric circles surrounding the child, comprising the micro, meso, exo, macro, and chronosystems, all influencing each other. Developmental processes occur through the interactions and changes between these various systems. By focusing on the systematic interaction of all five systems and the child’s personal characteristics, the Bioecological Model provides a solid framework for understanding how the child’s well-being is shaped and by which actors.

Capability Approach

The child well-being approach aims to enhance capabilities in areas such as health, material situation, education, housing and environmental conditions, risk and safety, participation, and relationships, which determine quality of life and satisfaction. The capability approach, developed by Amartya Sen in response to the question “equality of what?”, critiques the concepts of resource equality and utilitarian approaches, arguing that what should be equalized are capabilities. This approach is crucial for identifying inequalities when evaluating children’s current and future well-being.

Convention on the Rights of the Child

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is one of the most widely accepted human rights treaties worldwide, protecting children’s rights. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989, the convention defines children as individuals under the age of 18 and guarantees their fundamental rights. Consisting of 54 articles, the convention focuses on children’s rights to life, development, protection, and participation. It covers issues such as children’s right to grow up healthily, receive education, be protected, and express themselves.

Child Labor

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Turkey is a signatory to, defines all individuals under the age of 18 as children. This universally accepted convention states that children must be protected from “economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social development” (CRC, 1989, Art. 32). According to the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) definition, child labor includes any form of work that harms the physical, mental, social, or moral development of a child, prevents healthy development, hinders their participation or continuation in education, distances them from realizing their potential, or diminishes their dignity.

Child Well-Being Approach

The child well-being approach is an analytical and theoretical tool that seeks to holistically reflect a child’s condition through objective and subjective indicators in the areas of “material situation,” “health,” “education,” “risk and safety,” “home and environment,” “participation,” and “relationships.”

The child well-being approach focuses on children expressing their voices as “experts of their own lives,” seeing them as active subjects of their own lives.

Children’s Spatiality

School, neighborhood, and home are the primary spaces where children’s public and private lives are shaped. Studying the spaces where a child builds relationships and attaches meanings is crucial for understanding how childhood is lived.

Children’s spatiality examines how children interact with, perceive, and engage with the spaces they inhabit in their daily lives, as well as the role these spaces play in their socio-cultural, psychological, and physical development.

Child Participation

Child participation is defined as children actively taking part in processes that affect them, expressing their views, being included in decision-making processes, and having those views considered. This concept provides a framework that recognizes children as social actors and requires that they be approached with a rights-based perspective. Child participation is guaranteed by Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which mandates that children’s views and suggestions be taken into account, according to their age, maturity, and individual capacity.

Intersectionality

The concept of intersectionality explains how factors such as gender, class, ethnicity, and disability intersect and influence each other, shaping individuals’ life experiences. The intersectionality approach emphasizes that these experiences make forms of discrimination and exclusion more complex. It highlights that social inequalities and forms of discrimination should not be examined through a single dimension but through the interaction of multiple factors of oppression or advantage.

In this context, when applied to child well-being, the intersectionality approach should consider how various factors such as the child’s gender, ethnicity, class, disability, and family’s social environment affect their experiences and development.

Life Satisfaction

Life satisfaction refers to how content a child feels overall with their life, how happy and balanced they perceive themselves to be. It is a subjective experience where the child evaluates their living conditions, relationships, and opportunities for growth.

Polycrisis

The term polycrisis is used to understand the complex nature of today’s crises. First introduced in Edgar Morin’s (1999) work Homeland Earth: A Manifesto for the New Millennium, the concept refers to the interconnectedness of crises, which, by affecting each other, lead to a much larger impact than a single crisis would. Polycrisis refers to the accumulation and mutual triggering of crises such as the crisis of capitalism, the crisis of liberal democracy, the climate crisis, the global health crisis triggered by the pandemic, the energy crisis, the food crisis, and the crises caused by war and conflict, all of which have negative impacts on the well-being of both human and non-human lives.

Resilience

Resilience refers to a child’s capacity to withstand, adapt to, and even emerge stronger from difficulties, traumas, stressful events, or adverse living conditions. Within the framework of child well-being, resilience encompasses a child’s ability to maintain emotional, mental, social, and physical health and to develop healthy coping strategies in response to challenging situations.

Subjective Well-Being Approach

A child’s subjective well-being reflects their perceptions and satisfaction/dissatisfaction with their own experiences across areas such as “material situation,” “health,” “education,” “risk and safety,” “home and environment,” “participation,” and “relationships.”

A child’s positive or negative feelings, and their sense of happiness or unhappiness, are shaped by relational experiences in these areas and vary depending on personal characteristics and coping mechanisms. Subjective well-being is closely related to the child’s immediate environment, including family, social circles, and school. Collecting information on relevant indicators and fostering institutional collaboration is essential for implementing effective practices.

Vulnerability

Vulnerability refers to an individual’s susceptibility to both external and internal negative influences, leaving them exposed to potential harm. Within the framework of child well-being, vulnerability encompasses a child’s sensitivity to situations that could adversely impact their physical, emotional, mental, and social development. Children are not inherently vulnerable due to their socioeconomic status, gender, or other identities; rather, it is the inaccessibility of societal resources and the weakening of peer and intergenerational relationship networks that create a process of vulnerability for children. The concept of vulnerability helps to understand the societal processes and structural factors that negatively affect children’s well-being. Particularly in times of crisis, vulnerability is a key concept for both understanding the diverse challenges children face and linking these challenges to structural inequalities affecting their overall well-being.