Abstract
The subjective well-being of children in residential care is a relevant issue given the practical implications for improving the lives of these children who live in contexts of vulnerability. The question addressed in this respect was: “How does this well-being change over the years”? Thus, the aim of this study was to compare the subjective well-being displayed by adolescents aged 11–14 in residential care in Catalonia (north-eastern Spain) in 2014 to that displayed by adolescents in residential care in 2020. To this end, 572 responses to a questionnaire adapted from the Children’s Worlds project (364 from 2014 and 208 from 2020) were analysed with respect to the life satisfaction items. In both 2014 and 2020, the questionnaires had the same wording, and data were disaggregated by gender. No significant differences in means were observed between most of the life satisfaction items in 2014 and 2020, with the exception of satisfaction with friends and classmates and the area where you live, with lower means for these items in 2020. There is a discussion of the possible influence of COVID-19 on these results, while the overall stability of these children’s subjective well-being over the years is highlighted.
Highlights
Studies on subjective well-being have increased in recent decades, and, albeit to a lesser extent, this rise has included research on the well-being of vulnerable populations such as children in the care system
We focus on the subjective well-being of children in residential care, comparing the data collection that was performed in 2014 with that of 2020
According to data from the Spanish Childhood Observatory (2020), 55% of children in the Spanish care system are in residential care and 45% in foster care, while among the latter, 65% are in kinship family foster care and 35% are with non-kinship families
Summary
Studies on subjective well-being have increased in recent decades, and, albeit to a lesser extent, this rise has included research on the well-being of vulnerable populations such as children in the care system. The authors understand subjective well-being to be a psychosocial component of quality of life (Casas 2011). The study of well-being focuses on the evaluations that individuals—in these cases, children—make regarding their own lives, both with regard to individual domains and overall. We focus on the subjective well-being of children in residential care, comparing the data collection that was performed in 2014 with that of 2020. The article has three main axes: children in residential care; their subjective well-being; and variations in well-being over time, during the COVID-19 pandemic
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