How is the YMI different?
Current indices and surveys focused on children and youth generally measure factors that are objective to young people such as access to basic knowledge, health, and wellness; access to information and communications; and environmental quality. Oftentimes, children and youth are not directly involved in the study.
Meanwhile, indices and surveys that do involve young people, tend to focus on measuring concepts such as happiness.
The YMI differs from other indices because:
Our research focuses solely on understanding the subjective experiences of children and youth.
Instead of focusing on emotions such as happiness, the YMI is interested in exploring how young people experience meaning in their lives.
The YMI gives a voice to the youth.
A strong focus of the YMI is to ensure that we are giving a voice to children and adolescents in all aspects of the project.
This is how:
The YMI project has a Youth Advisory Council
In Phase I we made sure that we directly asked children and adolescents what is meaningful to them.
In Phase II we are collecting data directly on children and adolescents to measure how much meaning they are experiencing in their lives.
