Children photographing well-being: Facilitating participation in research

Children aged 8-12 years took 723 photographs representing well-being. Another group of children categorised the photographs, identified what was missing and discussed their inter-relationships. The largest categories were 'people I love the most (friends)' (23.2%), 'activities' (18%), 'food and drink' (17.2%) and 'animals/pets' (12.8%). Children reported that the categories were all related and could be subsumed into the general category 'the way I live', reflecting their holistic integrationist perspective on well-being which in turn mirrors the whole child perspective of the Irish National Children's Strategy. The usefulness and limitations of this approach to working with children are discussed.