British children "among the unhappiest"

British children are among the unhappiest in Europe, according to a new wellbeing study

High numbers of youngsters in workless families and poor local environments coupled with low numbers in education or training left the UK trailing 24th out of 29 nations. Only Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta fared worse.

It was well below the performance of countries such as Germany (8th) and France (15th) and a very long way behind the continent's best-off children, the Dutch and Scandinavians.

Among other factors which resulted in a low score for the UK were poor immunisation rates, children more likely to report poor or fair health and a relatively poor ability to communicate with parents.

uk.news.yahoo.com