Children with homeostatically maintained and homeostatically defeated subjective well-being in Indonesia

Abstract

The aims of this study are twofold. First, to explore the characteristics of children with homeostatically maintained and homeostatically defeated (as defined by Cummins 2003; Tomyn et al., 2015) subjective well-being (SWB) in Indonesia, including sociodemographic variables. Second, to investigate variables contributing to the subjective well-being (SWB) each of these two groups of Indonesian children. Homeostatically defeated children were identified based on their SWB scores are 50 or below 50 on a 0-100 scale, following Cummins’ theory of SWB homeostasis, while homeostatically maintained children were identified based on their SWB scores above 50. Participants of this study (N = 14,576; 50.64% girls and 49.36% boys; 96.15% were homeostatically maintained children and 3.85% were homeostatically defeated children) were children 10 and 12-year-olds. A representative sample of the Children’s Worlds survey in West Java Province, Indonesia, collected in October 2017 was used for the analysis here presented. The five items version of the Children’s Worlds Subjective Well-Being Scale (CW-SWBS5) was used as SWB indicator, together with several items to evaluate other SWB aspects (family, friends, school climate, living area, bullying, material deprivation, family economic status, and satisfaction with several other life domains). Cummins’ theory of SWB homeostasis was used to discuss the results. Results showed different contribution of some of the variables on the SWB of children depending if it appeared to be homeostatically maintained or homeostatically defeated. However, satisfaction with safety showed positive contribution to SWB of both homeostatically maintained and homeostatically defeated children. Implication for parents, teachers, government, and policy makers are discussed to assist these children to improve their SWB.