Well-being and children in a consumer society

Abstract

This chapter understands children's well-being as multidimensional, ranging from material living standards and health to happiness and capacityfor development. This is in correspondence with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which underscores thechild's right to a good life in the present as well as the future realization of his or her potential.The chapter focuses on societies in which consumption is part of the culture of everyday life. In such societies, consumption and the well-being of children are tightly interwoven through a series of products that shape children's lives in the present as well as their capacities for future development. The chapter concludes that different markets produce different consequences related to the various dimensions of well-being, as well as related to different groups of children. This chapter does not cover children's media consumption, which is the topic of other chapters in the handbook.