Abstract
Child subjective well-being is determined by various personal, social, and contextual factors. Few studies have found reliable differences in the prediction power of these factors; however, the results vary especially when it comes to sociodemographic factors, such as the effect of child’s socioeconomic background on life satisfaction. This paper examines how poverty and social relationships affect the perceived life satisfaction of Finnish schoolchildren. Drawing on survey data of Finnish schoolchildren, from grades 5, 7, and 9 (n = 1793), linear regression was used to test how life satisfaction would be associated with socio-demographic variables, poverty, and child–parent and peer relationships. The results emphasize the complex nature of the determinants of children’s life satisfaction. The greatest unique contribution for change of life satisfaction was made by the time spent with mother (β(p) = 0.189). Overall, the model showed a good fit (R2 19.9). These findings have important implications for family policies and services that promote good parenting and positive parent–child relationships. Furthermore, this study highlights relational well-being as a key determinant of children’s life satisfaction.
Highlights
The importance of children’s subjective well-being is increasingly being recognized, for society as a whole and especially for children (Bradshaw et al 2011; Casas et al 2013; Diener et al 1999; Dinisman and Ben-Arieh 2015)
The results of the relationship between child poverty and subjective well-being of children are mixed depending on the approaches of how to measure child poverty
Studies have revealed that children’s perceptions of material deprivation are related with subjective well-being (Bradshaw et al 2017; Bárcena-Martín et al 2017; Main 2018), suggesting that the child-centric method is more effective than the adult-centric method in predicting subjective well-being of children
Summary
The importance of children’s subjective well-being is increasingly being recognized, for society as a whole and especially for children (Bradshaw et al 2011; Casas et al 2013; Diener et al 1999; Dinisman and Ben-Arieh 2015). We are especially interested in how subjective poverty (make ends meet), material deprivation, and children’s social relationships affect their life. Research on the connections between children’s economic resources and social relationships is surprisingly scarce, but some earlier studies have revealed economic resources can affect children’s social relationships as poor children have fewer friends at school and they feel isolated more often (Hjalmarsson and Mood 2015). Compared to many other countries, Finnish children tend to live in families with good material conditions (OECD 2011). Many factors might determine Finnish children’s life satisfaction; there was a need for further research
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