England ranks 13th out of 16 countries in survey, with body image and school among areas of concern among eight-year-olds

Eight-year-olds in England are less happy than those in Estonia, Poland and Turkey, a survey suggests, with body image and school identified as areas they are particularly troubled by.

England ranked 13th out of 16 countries when it came to children’s life satisfaction, according to the international survey. Only South Korea, Nepal and Ethiopia fared worse overall.

Romania, notorious for the terrible state of its orphanages 25 years ago, now ranks top of the league in eight-year-olds’ self-reported life satisfaction, according to the research by Children’s Worlds. Colombia, a country riven by decades of civil war, came third, while Poland was second.

Jonathan Bradshaw, professor of social policy at the University of York, who co-edited the report, said the findings were shocking. He said: “You will see that we come bottom of the league table on quite a lot of things – very unhappy with the way you look and your own body; relationships with teachers are poor; dissatisfaction with school performance; dissatisfaction with the area in which you live; quite dissatisfied with family life, although not so much the people you live with and the house you live in.”

Coordinated in England by York’s Social Policy Research Unit, the study asked children to rate how they felt about key aspects of their lives. Questions touched on family and home life, friendships, money and possessions, school life, local area, time use, personal wellbeing, views on children’s rights, and overall happiness.

Most respondents were happy with their lives as a whole, with only about 6% across the various nations reporting low wellbeing – the figure ranged from below 3% in Colombia and Romania to over 9% in Ethiopia, South Korea and England.

The 990 English children questioned ranked no higher than eighth for any of the survey’s happiness measures, with feelings about relationships with teachers, enjoyment of outdoor areas, their own bodies and the way they look ranking particularly badly.

They were most positive about their health and their relationships with other people in general, but still ranked only eighth – around the middle of the table – in those areas overall when compared to other countries in the study.

When it came to material possessions, almost all English respondents said they had access to good clothes, compared with 85% in Ethiopia, and 88% of British children indicated they had access to the internet, compared with just 6% in Nepal.

Asked about bullying at school, a fifth of children in England said they had been hit by fellow pupils more than three times in the past month, compared with almost a quarter in Estonia and just 6% in South Korea.

Looking at issues around how young people see themselves, children in England came in the bottom five when asked about their appearance and body. Colombia and Romania came top.

Bradshaw pointed out that there seemed to be little relationship between a country’s prosperity and the happiness of its children, all but ruling out affluenza as a cause of relative dissatisfaction with life.

“There is something going on in the UK and it seems to be focused on self-esteem and confidence,” he said. “It’s very difficult to prescribe what to do about it, but I think one thing that we certainly ought to do is make more effort to manage bullying.

“I think schools in Britain really need to be friendlier places, more concerned with social relationships and less focused on attainment.”

He added: “It’s interesting that Norwegians are much happier at school than we are. They don’t do so well in the educational attainment league table. I think their schools are happier places, but they are perhaps not as successful in achieving attainment outcomes – there’s a bit of a trade-off there. We perhaps haven’t got the balance right.”

Gwyther Rees, Bradshaw’s colleague at the Social Policy Research Unit, who wrote the report, said: “There are some quite troubling messages from England and the picture is quite similar to what we found with older age groups.

“Children are happy at home and with friends but less happy at school where there seems to be an issue around bullying and being left out.”

Simon Sommer, head of research at the Jacobs Foundation, which funded the work, described the project as groundbreaking, revealing information from eight-year-olds’ own perspectives.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “All children have the right to be taught in a happy, safe and supportive environment, where they have the opportunity to fulfil their potential. Bullying of any kind is unacceptable and all schools must have measures in place to tackle it. That is why we are providing more than £7m to help schools tackle bullying head on.

“We are also promoting greater use of counselling in schools, improving teaching about mental health, and supporting joint working between mental health services and schools. This will ensure that children can thrive both inside and out the classroom.”