In addition, six national case studies are being commissioned in an attempt to give more detail to the patterns, which emerge across the original ten papers. By drawing together results from these analyses, Furstenberg and his colleagues hope to be able to identify distinct regimes of adolescence across countries, and to relate those regimes to positive and negative outcomes in early adulthood. The last decade has produced exciting new data sources that can support international comparative research on children, including the development of new well-being indicators. The project led by Dr. Furstenberg is an exciting example of what is possible using existing data. In the decade to come, this field of research can be most effectively advanced by a strategy, which includes the careful exploitation of existing data resources and the development of new measures and new data resources.
Early adolescence is an area in which there is considerable data available for such work.
The development of new measures which could later be incorporated into existing international surveys or into new surveys will also require the coordinated work of scholars from different countries. One could imagine researchers in half a dozen countries developing survey questions in areas like positive family functioning and positive youth development, and testing these measures in small pilot surveys in each country. Both of these efforts require that researchers from different countries regularly interact to form common research agendas and the funding to support them. Child Research Net is one of the few places where this sort of interaction can and does take place. As a Board Member, it is my hope that the CRN web site will continue to attract the active participation of more international scholars, and that networks of scholars will develop to pursue new research on international indicators of child well-being such as those described above.