Native American Children and Youth Well-Being Indicators

increasing the well-being of all children aroundthe world. Some of the areas identified as beingimportant to children are better health services,improved education, protection from child abuseand neglect, and the right to one’s own cultureand religion (Children’s Rights Working Group,1997). Internationally, the trend is a movementaway from the survival indicators and towardmore positive measurements of child well-being.In 1995, an international consortium, with the cosponsorshipof 11 organizations, was involved ina three-year effort involving 80 experts in 27countries to discuss the shifts in thinking aboutwell-being indicators from the basic deficit frameworkto a strengths orientation (Goerge & Lee,2001). Aber and Jones (1995) stated the followingin Bowers-Andrews and Ben-Arieh’s (1999)article on measuring and monitoring children’swell-being across the world:Another trend is the search for positiveindicators of human status and developmentbeyond survival. With regard to children,social indicator research has essentiallyincluded social “problem” indicators.The body of knowledge about children’sproblems and threats to their survival anddevelopment far exceeds what is knownabout children’s strengths, satisfaction,and realization of opportunities. Evenmeasuring the absence of risk factors ornegative behaviors differs from measuringthe presence of protective factors or positivebehaviors. (p. 107)These experts suggest five life domains forascertaining positive strengths-based indicatorsfor children and youth. The five life domains areas follows:1. Social connectedness (family, peer, and communitygroups)2. Civil life skills (learning cooperation and participationin their own environments)3. Personal life skills (capacity to learn and work)4. Safety and physical status (nature and extentof such threats and conditions under whichchildren feel safe)5. Children’s subculture (children’s work, play,creativity, and consumption) (Bowers-Andrews & Ben-Arieh, 1999)Forty-nine indicators, which illustrate how onemight categorize children’s well-being indicatorsfrom a strengths perspective, were developedfrom these five domains.Bowers-Andrews and Ben-Arieh (1999) continuedby stating that “in short, the selection of indicatorsmust be grounded in a vision thatinformed political and social action can supportchildhood as a phase of human life that is uniqueand inherently valuable to the child and all society”(p. 112). The same authors stated, “We determinedthat no single theoretical framework wouldcover all that we felt was needed. In addition, we10