Cultural Moderators of the Influence of Environmental Affordances and Provisions on Children’s Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

Children’s subjective well-being is determined not only by what are, in themselves, satisfying; it is also determined by affordances and provisions that facilitate the attainment of capabilities for them to later on pursue their goals. Country and culture context, however, may influence how strongly affordances and provisions contribute to children’s subjective well-being. As children are socialized in their culture’s endorsed goals and understanding of a good life, their subjective well-being becomes linked to factors that help develop capabilities consistent with these goals. Data from the eight-year-old sample (Wave 2) of Children’s Worlds: International Survey of Children’s Well-Being were used in multilevel analyses to test interactions between hypothesized individual-level predictors and country-level moderators. Results show that children who have more material resources and move about in safer and more adequate spaces have higher levels of multidimensional life satisfaction (MLS) and subjective material well-being (SMWB); children who more frequently engage in worthwhile out-of-school activities have higher levels of MLS but not of SMWB. Both MLS and SMWB are more strongly predicted by safe, adequate living spaces in countries with high inequality-adjusted human development index (InHDI) or with collectivist cultures; these are also more strongly predicted by material resources in countries with restraint cultures. Moreover, SMWB (but not MLS) is more strongly predicted by material resources in countries with low InHDI or with individualist cultures. Results of the current study are generally consistent with the view of well-being as a psychological construct that changes with children’s material and cultural milieu.