Cross-Cultural children’s Subjective Perceptions of Well-Being: Insights from Focus Group Discussions with Children Aged under 9 years in Spain, South Korea and Mexico

Abstract

By building upon previous studies, the current study explores Cross-cultural children’s subjective perceptions of well-being. Specifically, using visually-oriented focus groups this study explore their satisfaction and evaluations of different dimensions in the lives of children under 9 years old in South Korea, Mexico and Spain, with a special focus on the importance of information and communication technologies and reading practices for their lives. The relevance of negative relationships as bullying and cyberbullying are also explored. Subjective perceptions of well-being are explored through 9 focus groups (three groups in each country: a male only group, a female only group and a mixed group) and collecting drawings from the participants in each country. Our main contribution is twofold: to include children’s voice from three different countries on what they prioritize for their own well-being, and analyzing emergent themes related with the Internet galaxy. This is an important contribution to the study of well-being literature that come from qualitative studies that include the perspective of children from different countries.