It’s yet another Monday on time’s endlessly turning wheel, and this week, our question focuses on a startling new piece of research carried out by the LSE.
A team headed by one of the UK’s foremost ‘Happiness Experts’, Professor Layard has been studying which factors in a person’s life might best predict whether they will lead satisfied lives, and the results are now in.
According to this latest research, and contrary to popular conception, it is not money in adulthood or academic success when young which are most important when examining satisfaction levels, but emotional health in childhood.
The authors evaluated the quality of a child’s emotional health by looking at factors such as whether they endured unhappiness, sleeplessness, eating disorders, bedwetting, fearfulness or tiredness during early life.
The Guardian tells us:
“The study claims to challenge “the basic assumption of educational policy in recent years – that academic achievement matters more than anything else”. This claim appears to be an implicit criticism of former education secretary Michael Gove, who instructed schools not to focus on “peripheral” issues such as children’s moral, social and cultural development in favour of academic excellence.”
Our question then, is just this: do you agree that emotional wellbeing is the most important determinant of satisfaction and indeed perceived success?
Researching Reform 
Having brought up two children, I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that a child’s emotional health is the most important part of their upbringing and if they feel that love, warmth and security they can build the foundations of their future on it. Academia can only be achieved if a child has no emotional worries.
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Dear Mehrnaz, thank you for your comment, which I agree with save for the last part about academia. I think a lot of children can excel at school if they are pushed or if they are trying to escape their home life (and in so doing bury themselves in school work) but I also think this research is less about the causes of success and more about the definition of it. Ultimately, as you say, emotional well being in childhood creates a content adult.
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Happiness is subjective and immeasurable so I find it hard to believe that it’s all down to childhood emotional health. They seem to have forgotten happiness can come and go at different ages depending on personal experiences.
It would be nice to think that if a child had an emotionally perfect childhood it would set them up for life regardless of what they did but I don’t think that its possible nor do I think its desirable. A little adversity in childhood helps you cope with adversity throughout your life. Anyone remember the story of the Princess and the pea?
This kind of research is the kind that changes government policy so it will justify kids being taken into care for their emotional health, despite the act itself causing trauma! It will allow kids in care to continue to get bad grades! That has a follow on with unaffordable housing and low prospects in the job markets! I don’t think that will help with emotional wellbeing!
Of course this study did not focus on just kids in care but if they are truly advocating emotional health, the government should leave the kids with their own families and if the child really cannot stay, they still need contact with their family. That child needs family to feel grounded not a substitute, unless absolutely necessary! By denying access to their family they are inflicting emotional pain on the child who would feel helpless! To paraphase a children charity, Children SILENTLY Screaming to be heard!
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Research also by the LSE. ‘How mental illness loses out in the NHS’ shows how impossible it is to attain emotional well being unless more is done for the mental health of children and adults. The foundation blocks of wellness, mental and psyical need to be put in place first, funded by the government , before you can build in it!
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I think the report is rubbish ! In general you are happy in life if you can firstly decide what you really want in life (whether it is to help the poor in Africa,be a Professional sportsman, or become a capitalist billionaire) and then achieve it !
For most I reckon a congenial family life with enough cash to get by does the trick ….
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I’m not sure if I think the report is rubbish, or whether this is the London School of Economics publishing it: is it? I always thought that they just did economics! I was never an academic person but I have had a very happy and full life. I don’t think the current emphasis on children achieving high grades is rounded enough but schools are there to educate and the emotional wellbeing and happiness of children is primarily the concern of the parents. Some children will be happy achieving good grades, others (like me) have achieved a happy life without them. Achieving your goals certainly is a help, and surely everyone is happier in having a sense of purpose, an aim in life which has the possibility of being achieved.
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http://www.Oprah.com/spirit/Why-We-Stay-Sad-Deepak-Chopra-Advice
Number 2 ….!
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