The Flourishing Child: Understanding how Adults and Children Perceive Flourishing from the Start of Life

The current narrative surrounding children’s health and wellbeing often focuses on adversity and dysregulation with a lack of positive messaging. However, promoting protective and buffering factors may be as important as reducing adverse exposures. While the concept of flourishing is commonly applied in the context of adults, defining what flourishing means for children in current academic literature remains unclear. Our study addressed this gap by undertaking a grounded theory approach and consulting extensively with consumers and key stakeholders, both adults and children. This enabled us to elucidate a conceptual framework and identify determinants, as well as to examine perceived barriers and enablers to early childhood flourishing. Triangulating our data revealed that key domains related to childhood flourishing were physical safety, love and family, positive lifestyle, physical and mental health, and fun and happiness. Parents with limited time was a key barrier, while ready access to supports was identified as a key enabler. This conceptualisation of flourishing within the early years lays a theoretical and community informed framework necessary for developing practical tools that will enable parents and carers to assess a child’s capacity to flourish into adolescence and adulthood, thus reinforcing the importance of a healthy start to life.