Subjective Well-being Of Children Research Articles

Hope, Material Resources, and Subjective Well-Being of 8- to 12-Year-Old Children in Israel.

Few studies have examined the links among hope, material resources, and subjective well-being (SWB) of children from their own perspectives. The article examines lack of material resources as a risk factor, hope as a human strength, and a possible moderator regarding children's SWB. The study employed a nationally representative sample of 2,977 Jewish and Arab Israeli children (ages 8-12). As predicted, there was a significant positive relation between hope and SWB, and a negative relation between lack of material resources and SWB. Hope was found to moderate the relation between lack of material resources and SWB. Furthermore, for 10- and 12-year olds, differences were found regarding the strength of the relations of the variables, suggesting a possible developmental trend.

A systematic review of factors related to children's quality of life and mental health after brain tumor

Brain tumor has been found to have a major impact on children's quality of life (QOL); yet, the subjective impact of the illness is still not well understood. This review aimed to investigate factors related to children's subjective well-being (SWB), or self-reported QOL and mental health after brain tumor. A further aim was to determine the consistency between child and parent-proxy ratings of children's SWB and common factors associated with both child and parent-proxy ratings. A systematic search of PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Embase, and Scopus was conducted from 1980 to May 2018 to identify eligible studies. Methodological quality of these studies was assessed by 2 independent reviewers. Twenty studies investigated factors related to children's self-reported mental health or QOL. Fourteen studies examined these factors from the perspectives of both children and their parents. Overall, risk factors for poor QOL included infratentorial tumors, radiation, hydrocephalus, lower IQ, and behavioral problems. Only 5 studies examined mental health outcomes, the findings of which were mixed. Relatively few studies examined psychosocial variables related to children's SWB. Although several risk factors for poor QOL were identified, further research investigating mental health outcomes and the influence of psychosocial factors on children's SWB is needed to guide support interventions for pediatric brain tumor.

Introduction to the Special Sectionon Children's Subjective Well-Being.

A notable increase in scientific publications on children's subjective well-being has been observed since the beginning of the 21st century. Different factors have contributed to this phenomenon, one of the most relevant being the concurrence of macrolevel (at the population level) and microlevel (at the individual level) perspectives in research on child well-being.

Ferran Casas: a Pioneer in Child and Adolescent Subjective Wellbeing

Ferran Casas: a Pioneer in Child and Adolescent Subjective Wellbeing

The Contributions of Self-Esteem, Loneliness, and Friendship to Children’s Happiness: The Roles of Gender and Age

Although literature on happiness has focused largely on adults and adolescents, research interest on subjective well-being in children has increasingly grown in recent years. We investigated the contributions of the self-esteem, loneliness, and friendship variables to children’s happiness after taking into account the moderating effects of gender and age. The children responded to questionnaires evaluating their happiness, friendship variables, social self-efficacy, loneliness, and self-esteem whereas the parents reported the children’s behavioral problems and prosocial behavior. The participants were 1363 Italian children aged 7–14 (Mage = 11.12; 52% females) and at least one of their parents (74% mothers). A hierarchical multiple regression showed that higher scores of happiness were associated with younger age, higher socioeconomic status, having a mutual friend, lower levels of loneliness, and higher levels of self-esteem. We found two-way interactions between age and loneliness and between gender and social self-efficacy; simple slope analyses indicated that older children and females scored lower on happiness, compared to younger children and males, when they felt lonely or when they reported low social self-efficacy, respectively. The three-way interactions among age, gender, and self-esteem and among age, gender, and prosocial behavior suggested that older female children with lower self-esteem or those with lower levels of prosocial behavior were less happy than younger females and males were. These results point to the necessity of social policies and school programs that take gender and age differences into account to increase the knowledge of happiness in children. We discuss the research implications and limitations.

Multidimensional Poverty Assessment among Adolescent Children in the Mouhoun Region of Burkina Faso, West Africa

Poverty is complex and multidimensional and particularly pronounced in children living in semi-arid West Africa. Unfortunately, few studies have addressed multidimensional child poverty in this region. Using novel data generated from 431 randomly selected households in the Boucle du Mouhoun region in Burkina Faso, the Alkire–Foster methodology was applied to estimate and decompose multidimensional poverty among adolescent children. Ten dimensions guided by the child poverty literature, data availability and the country’s SDGs were used. While deprivations in water and sanitation (89%), health (75%), nutrition (82%), and child labour (48.7%) were found to be more prevalent in the rural areas, child subjective well-being (73%) and child protection (61%) were more pronounced in the urban areas. Analysis of multiple overlaps in dimensions shows that all of the children suffer from deprivations in three or more dimensions simultaneously. Furthermore, when the poverty cut-off values were set at k = 20% (“Vulnerable to Poverty”), k = 30% (“Multidimensionally Poor”) and k = 50% (“Poverty Severity”), close to 95% of children are categorized as being in “Severe Poverty”, 68% as “Multidimensionally Poor”, and 38% as being “Vulnerable to Poverty”. Using binary logistic regressions, household size, age and marital status of household head, locality of child, income source, debt status, education, number of siblings, gender of child, adults and maternal health condition were found to be significantly correlated to poverty vulnerability, multidimensionally poor and poverty severity in the region. The implications of these findings for multidimensional child poverty targeted policies and interventions are discussed.

Money Matters: a Nuanced Approach to Understanding the Relationship between Household Income and Child Subjective Well-Being

This paper examines the links between household income and child subjective well-being. Previous studies produce contradictory findings: qualitative investigations indicate a strong relationship which is elusive in quantitative studies. I hypothesise that the reason for this discrepancy is that household-level measures of child poverty do not adequately capture children’s active roles in forming views on their material needs, assessing their comparative socio-economic status, and contributing to processes and outcomes of intra-household resource sharing. Thus a relationship between household income and subjective well-being is hypothesised to exist, but to be mediated by factors including (among others) material deprivation, perceptions of fairness in the processes and outcomes of intra-household allocation, and subjective material well-being. Drawing on survey data from a sample of 1010 parent-child (aged 10–16) pairs in England, structural equation modelling is used to examine these potential mediating effects. Findings indicate that income has a complex role to play in child subjective well-being, with significant direct and indirect associations. Income, deprivation, perceptions of the fairness of intra-household allocation processes and outcomes, and subjective material well-being are all significantly interrelated and are all predictors of subjective well-being. The complex nature of these relationships illustrates the multi-dimensional nature of child poverty and its impacts. Household income is an important factor; but alone it cannot capture children’s active roles in assessing their needs and material living conditions. This confirms the importance of considering children’s agency in understandings of child poverty and material well-being, and including their reports in studies of child poverty and intra-household allocation.

Leisure, Free Time and Well-Being of 10 Years Old Children Living in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

The study of subjective well-being in children and adolescents has had different focuses and orientations; this research paper’s approach on that theme lies in conceiving children as active agents, as the protagonists of the aforementioned research (Sen 2000), focusing on their own outlook and using their own words (Ben-Arieh et al. 2013; Benatuil and Laurito 2016; Mieles and Tonon 2015). Leisure during childhood is highly relevant to children’s development (Fattore et al. 2017; Leyra Fatou and Barcenas Vinas 2014; Penalba 1999) and may be considered as a fundamental right, vital to children’s development process (Lasen Diaz 2000). Thus, the study of leisure is relevant, since it promotes higher satisfaction and well-being (Schutz and Stum 2017). This article analyzed the use of free time, free-time activities and children’s well-being in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Moreover, this paper formed part of the international research network The Children’s Worlds, through the project Estudiar la calidad de vida y el bienestar de ninos y ninas en la provincia de Buenos Aires (The Study of quality of life and well-being of boys and girls in Buenos Aires Province), conducted by the UNI-COM team of Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora (UNLZ) and supported by LOMASCyT Program-UNLZ. The total sampling consisted of 1062 children, in this article it is considered a number of 373 ten-year old children, studying at public and private institutions. The instrument used was the ISCWeB. The results show that children are highly satisfied with the use of their free time. Regarding the activities they indulge in, watching television is the most frequent; while reading for pleasure and studying with friends are the least frequent. Also the link between subjective well-being and the use of free time was verified.

Children with ADHD draw-and-tell about what makes their life really good.

The purpose of this study was to engage children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a developmentally sensitive way to explore the children's subjective well-being. Explicitly, their life satisfaction, or what makes their life "really good." To date, little is known about the subjective life experience of children with ADHD or how incorporating children's views separate from the purview of adults and pathology might enhance our understanding or change our approach to evaluation and/or intervention. A parallel convergent mixed-methods design was used to collect data from a convenience sample of children with ADHD (N=20) ages 7 to 11years old. This article focuses solely on the qualitative data obtained through semi-structured interviews using the art-based approach draw-and-tell conversation (DTC). The DTC data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. In addition, each parent (N=20) independently completed demographic and health-related forms to provide descriptive and contextual variables. Three themes were discerned in the DTC analysis-activity, nature, and connections. Most children (90%) described engaging in some form of activity, often outdoors, and with others; though the focus of activity was varied. Nature was evidenced directly and indirectly in many of the children's (85%) stories. Over half (65%) of the children described some variation in relational connection across a continuum that contributed to, or detracted from, their sense of well-being/life satisfaction. Children shared that doing things, outdoors, with others, [emphasis added] made their life "really good". Children's stories yielded insightful and actionable information that is relevant to each individual child/family, and to nursing assessment, intervention, and advocacy. These child-granted insights also extend our attention beyond pharmacological and behavioral focused interventions, to include the children's own innate health promoting interests that help to make their life really good.

A Study of Subjective Well-Being and Life Satisfaction in Italy: how are Children doing at 8 years of Age?

The paper presents a portion of the first findings of the International Survey of Children’s Well-being (ISCWeB) study, which was performed in Italy. The primary purpose of the ISCWeB project was to consider the subjective well-being of children and to achieve a comprehensive understanding of their lives, focusing on their own perceptions and evaluations. This work aimed to learn more about the subjective well-being of 8-year-old Italian children. A total of 1145 children participated in the study and completed the ISCWeB questionnaire. Several psychometric scales were used: the single-item Overall Life Satisfaction (OLS) scale, the five-item Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS-5), the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS), and the Personal Well-being Index - School Children (PWI4). In addition, the satisfaction in different life domains was measured and several group comparisons were performed to analyze gender and contextual differences. Adopting gender comparisons, family and school contexts were explored more in deep through selected items of the ISCWeB questionnaire. It was also considered the role of gender as individual variable capable of influencing the relations between family and school satisfaction and subjective well-being. Overall, a high degree of children’s subjective well-being emerged. No differences were found between males and females on overall subjective well-being, while gender statistically significant differences were found in the life domains of family and school. Moreover, the results revealed the contribute of gender in moderating the relation between school satisfaction and subjective well-being, finding that higher satisfaction with school life leads to higher subjective well-being for males but not for females. Theoretical, practical and policy implications were discussed.

Structural Equation Modelling for Determining Subjective Well-Being Factors of the Poor Children in Bad Environment

Children’s subjective well-being from poor families is an important policy issue because it will bring them to a positive adaptation, able to cope with stress, have a vision, good self-esteem and self-concept. This study aims to determine the factors thought to influence the children’s subjective well-being: family’s socio-economic conditions and children’s social emotional health based on structural. Equation modelling. Family’s socio-economic condition was thought to affect children’s social emotional health. The analytical method is Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The sample in this study was 203 poor children who live in bad environment in Kampung Pulo Villages, East Jakarta. Results of SEM analysis showed that family’s socio-economic conditions variable has a positive direct effect and significant to the social emotional health variable, as well as social emotional health variable has a positive direct effect and significant impact on the subjective well-being of children. Family’s socio-economic conditions variable has indirect effect on subjective well-being through social emotional health variable. The implication of this study is the importance of considering social emotional health as a leverage factors, so that children can have a positive mental attitude.

The Transfer of Religiousness in the Family from Parents to Children: An Analytical Review of Studies

The growing interest towards studying the impact of religion on various spheres of social life is reflected in quite large corpus of academic publications. Yet, the reproduction of religious identity on the level of individuals and small social groups is not much covered by Russian sociology of religion. The matter of the connection between religion and parenthood in Russian society becomes urgent due to the current transformations in Post-Soviet society: the first generation of believers is added and gradually being substituted by the second and third generations of believers. The representatives of these generations differ as it comes to the character of religious socialization that it is linked either to individual conversion or reproduction of religiosity. The given article represents the review of modern empirical studies of transmission of religion from parents to children. In our analysis we mostly refer to the results of foreign studies and are focused on the description of the results of reproduction of religiosity in family regardless of religious or confessional belonging. The analysis has indicated that family serves as one of the key agents of religious socialization of children and teenagers along with their peers and school. The review also focuses on the description of the factors that determine religiosity of children whose parents are believers. The authors also note the differences between religious and non-religious families are characterized relations between spouses and children, subjective wellbeing of children and styles of parenting. Attention is also paid to external factors determining family religiosity: cultural context, place and role of religion in society.

Children's subjective well-being in rural communities of South Korea and the United States

The study examined subjective well-being of 10- to 12-year-old children from rural South Korea (n=489) and rural United States (n=1286) using the Children's Worlds Survey within the framework of the ecological, relationship-based model of children's subjective well-being. Applying Structural Equation Modeling to the analysis, a large proportion of the variance was explained and children's subjective well-being was predicted in both countries by microsystem factors of family relationships, parent involvement, and school quality, and individual factors of age (younger), and gender (male). Additional microsystem factors predicting subjective well-being were neighborhood quality in South Korea, and peer relationships in the United States, which may reflect contextual influences of collectivistic (South Korea) and individualistic (United States) macrosystems.

Involvement in care in pediatric cancer patients: implications for treatment compliance, mental health and health-related quality of life.

The present study developed a new measure of involvement in care of pediatric oncology patients termed the Child Involvement in Care Scale (CICS), and empirically examined the mental health consequences of involvement in care for children with cancer. The CICS was administered to 236 children with cancer aged 8-12 who were recruited from three large hospitals in Israel. The children also completed questionnaires on their mental-health symptoms and emotional well-being. The children's parents completed measures on their child's compliance with treatment and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a 2-factor structure (knowledge and participation), representing different aspects of involvement in care. Compliance with treatment served as a mediator for the relationships between involvement in care and health-related outcomes. Involvement in care was positively associated with higher treatment compliance. In addition, treatment compliance was positively associated with HRQOL and positive emotions but negatively associated with psychiatric symptoms. Pediatric cancer patients' involvement in the process of care is linked to better treatment compliance and mental health outcomes. Additional research is needed to examine the specific conditions and contexts in which involvement in care contributes to mental health and subjective well-being of children with cancer.

Positive Education for Young Children: Effects of a Positive Psychology Intervention for Preschool Children on Subjective Well Being and Learning Behaviors.

Despite the flourishing in recent years in applications of positive psychology in the field of education, there is a paucity of research investigating positive psychology interventions for preschool children. The present study examined the effects of a positive psychology-based intervention conducted in Israel on children’s subjective well-being, mental health and learning behaviors. Twelve preschool classrooms of 3–6.5 year-olds were randomly assigned to a positive psychology intervention condition or a wait-list control condition. In the intervention condition, during one school year, 160 children experienced eight modules of basic concepts in positive psychology that were adapted to the developmental characteristics of young children and were compared to 155 children in demographically similar control classrooms. Children were administered a pre-test and post-test of subjective well-being measures. In addition, children’s mental health and emotional well-being were measured by parental questionnaires. Preschool teachers completed questionnaires concerning children’s learning behaviors. The findings showed significant increases in subjective well-being and positive learning behaviors among the intervention participants, with no significant changes in the control group. The results highlight the potential of positive psychology interventions for increasing subjective well-being and a positive approach to learning at young ages.

¿Cómo influye el sistema de protección en el bienestar subjetivo de los adolescentes que acoge?

El bienestar subjetivo es un componente esencial de la calidad de vida. Conocemos muy poco sobre el bienestar subjetivo de los niños y niñas, y menos aún de los adolescentes de colectivos vulnerables como los que están acogidos por el sistema de protección. El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar cómo influye el sistema de protección en el bienestar subjetivo de los adolescentes que acoge a partir de sus propias percepciones, evaluaciones y satisfacciones. Es un estudio transversal realizado en Cataluña. La población de estudio fueron los adolescentes entre 12 y 14 años acogidos en centro residencial (n=379) y familia extensa (n=219). Se administró el cuestionario International Survey of Children’s Well-Being que incluía tres escalas psicométricas: Overall Live Satisfaction (OLS), Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS) y la Personal Well-Being Index (PWI) utilizadas cómo indicadores de bienestar subjetivo. La mayoría de los adolescentes acogidos en familia extensa están satisfechos con el tipo de acogimiento por solo la mitad de los que están acogidos en centro. Los adolescentes que llevan más tiempo en el mismo tipo de acogimiento, los adolescentes que viven en centros de menor tamaño, así como aquellos adolescentes que manifiestan estar satisfechos con sus acogedores, educadores y compañeros de centro, muestran medias de bienestar subjetivo más altas. Es muy importante tener en cuenta la opinión de los adolescentes acogidos por el sistema de protección si se pretende mejorar su bienestar subjetivo. La estabilidad y el vínculo afectivo con acogedores y educadores es clave en su bienestar.

Material well-being and social exclusion association with children's subjective Well-being: Cross-national analysis of 14 countries

The relationship between material situation and happiness is hardly examined among children, perhaps because of the almost exclusive use of household income as a proxy for material situation. This article aims to fill this gap by examining the link between material situation and subjective well-being (SWB) from children's perspectives, cross-nationally. Two preliminary measures that reflect children's material situation were developed: Material Resources State (MRS) measure and Social Exclusion measure. They were found to be valid in 13 countries out of the 14 tested, using the 12-year-olds' sample in the second wave of the Children's Worlds survey (N=16,967). These measures' association with affective and cognitive SWB was then tested, cross-nationally. Findings show both lower MRS and higher social exclusion are associated with lower SWB. However, regression models showed that Social Exclusion has a much greater ability to explain the variance in children's SWB, even after controlling for demographic variables and countries' economic indices, and in the vast majority of the countries. The prominent place of social exclusion was even more salient compared to economic indices (such as GDP and Gini) that showed only very low ability to explain children's SWB; the association between MRS and Social Exclusion with SWB was not found to be stronger in countries with lower GDP and higher inequality as suggested by some of the literature. The findings are discussed in the context of the general debate of the relation between material situation and happiness, bringing also some possible implications for social policy.

Children's subjective well-being in Africa: A comparative analysis across three countries

Recent trends in child well-being research have shown a substantial advancement in studies investigating children's subjective well-being (SWB). This advancement has raised questions concerning the measurement of SWB and the extent to which various measures can be compared across countries and diverse cultures. With a dearth of empirical data on cross-cultural comparisons, the validation of existing measures and cross-cultural comparisons and adaptations, have been identified as a critical course of action. The current study contributes to this process – it aims to report on children's SWB in three African countries (Algeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa), using two multiple item measures of SWB (the context-free Students' Life Satisfaction Scale and the domain-specific Personal Well-Being Index-School Children). Within this process the study further aims to test the structural validity of these measures and to ascertain its cross-country comparability. Data from the second wave of the Children's Worlds survey were used; and includes a randomly selected sample of 3394 children between the ages of 11–12 from Algeria (Provinces of El Bayedh, Oran, and Tlemcen), Ethiopia and South Africa (Western Cape Province). Located within the goodness of fit theoretical framework, confirmatory factor analysis and Structural Equation Modelling were used to test the overall fit structure, while multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to test measurement invariance. The results show appropriate fit structure for the individual models, with metric and scalar factor invariance tenable across the three countries for the Students' Life Satisfaction Scale and partial scalar invariance obtained for four items on the Personal Well-Being Index-School Children. The Algerian sample scored significantly higher than Ethiopia and South Africa on both SWB measures. Appropriate fit structure was obtained for the combined model and for the structural model, indicating adequate convergent validity with the single item Overall Life Satisfaction. Metric and partial scalar invariance was tenable for the structural model, suggesting cross-country comparability for correlations, regressions and means. The overall findings suggest that the two measures are appropriate for use with children from the three countries and that meaningful comparisons can be made between the three countries.

Exploring national variations in child subjective well-being

This paper explores variation in national levels of subjective well-being (using mean SLSS scores) for children aged 10 and 12 participating in the Children's Worlds survey. We have found it difficult to explain much of the variation in subjective well-being using indicators of the economic, social, political or cultural characteristics of the country. This may be because of the limited number of countries and the fact that Romania is a high outlier and S. Korea a low outlier. However as with the World Happiness Report we did find an association between child SLSS scores and social support as reported by adults in the World Values Survey. Like the World Happiness Report for adults we also found some strong associations between child SLSS scores and other indicators in the Children's Worlds survey, particularly friendliness and choice about time use. We developed explanatory models of SLSS using the Good Childhood framework based on domain satisfaction questions which explained 57% of the variation in SLSS scores of the whole sample. In this model satisfaction with freedom was most salient and satisfaction with home and friends least important. However when the model was applied country by country the proportion of variance explained varied from 36% to 76% and the relative importance of the different explanatory factors also varied. It is probable that multi-level modelling will conclude that most variation in subjective well-being occurs, and can be explained best, at the national level.

Family structure and family relationship from the child well-being perspective: Findings from comparative analysis

Relationships within the family are important for the development of children's well-being, as well as for their evaluations of their family and their overall life satisfaction. Nevertheless, little is known about differences in family relationships, family subjective well-being (SWB) and overall SWB of children from different groups, especially those who are living in diverse family structures. The purpose of this study is to explore differences in family relationships, family SWB and overall SWB between children living in three different living arrangements – a two-parent family, a single-parent family and a separated family. The study used data from the second wave of data collection of the Children's Worlds project, a large international study of children's well-being. 20,343 children aged 10–12 from 10 countries constitute the final sample of the current sample. Several agreement, satisfaction and time use questions were applied to measure the children's family relationships and family SWB. Two psychometric scales were used to explore the children's overall SWB. In addition, differences in socio-economic characteristics were also explored. Children living with both parents were found to evaluate their family relationships and family SWB higher than children living in a single parent family and in separated families. Similar results were also found in respect to overall SWB. Not many differences were found between the last two groups, namely these children are quite similar in their perceptions and evaluations of their families and their overall SWB. However, children living in separated families tend to be less satisfied with the people they live with and their family life. This trend was found in all participant countries, although it was less prevalent in Israel and Algeria. The discussion offers several possible explanations to the findings, and emphasizes that the source of the differences may be complex and may include macro and micro explanations.