Health research in developing countries has thus far produced few group studies. This is due to the cost and technical challenges of conducting research and limited capacity to implement research-driven recommendations. Measures of poverty are rarely applied in a child-centric fashion and have solely focused on income. Increasingly, however, poverty is being recognised as encompassing low achievement in education and health, vulnerability and exposure to risk. Both subjective and objective measures of well-being need to be used to create a multidimensional picture of childhood poverty. This paper provides a description of the work of Young Lives in its early phases and discusses how Young Lives research is changing the ways we understand the various factors behind childhood poverty.

Keywords: health, well-being, measures, indicators, perceptions of well-being

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