Abstract
Despite the increased interest in recent decades in the study of children’s subjective well-being (SWB), much too little is known about the factors that contribute to their SWB, especially with regards to socio-demographic characteristics. In addition, only handful of studies has made a comparison between countries and was based on large samples. The present study is a first of its kind. Utilizing the International Study of Children’s Well-Being first wave data set with questionnaires from over 34,500 children from 14 different countries to explore the characteristics of children’s SWB and the relations between an array of socio-demographic variables and children’s SWB. SWB was measured using three scales—overall life satisfaction, overall satisfaction in specific domains and overall SWB that was measured using agreement items. The socio-demographic variables were composed of demographic characteristics (e.g. gender and age), self-reported socio-economic items and the children’s country of residence. Findings show that children’s SWB in all countries is relatively high, although some variation can be found between the three SWB scales. Differences were found between the three measurements of SWB in regard to the explained variance, nevertheless the socio-demographic characteristics explain relatively low amount of the variance in SWB (10.9–20.2 %). The demographic variables have the lowest contribution, followed by the socio-economic items, while countries have the highest contribution. Thus one of our main conclusions is that the answer for understanding children’s SWB does not lay in the socio-demographic characteristics. The implications of these findings for further research of children’s SWB are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abdul-Rida, C., & Nauck, B. (2014). Migration and child well-being. In A. Ben-Arieh, F. Casas, I. Frones, & J. E. Korbin (Eds.), Handbook of child well-being (pp. 3101–3142). Dordrecht: Springer.
Axford, N., Jodrell, D., & Hobbs, T. (2014). Objective or subjective well-being. In A. Ben-Arieh, F. Casas, I. Frones, & J. E. Korbin (Eds.), Handbook of child well-being (pp. 2699–2738). Dordrecht: Springer.
Ben-Arieh, A., Casas, F., Frones, I., & Korbin, J. E. (2014). Multifaceted concept of child well-being. In A. Ben-Arieh, F. Casas, I. Frones, & J. E. Korbin (Eds.), Handbook of child well-being (pp. 1–27). Dordrecht: Springer.
Ben-Arieh, A., & Shimoni, E. (2014). Subjective well-being and perceptions of safety among Jewish and Arab children in Israel. Children and Youth Services Review, 44, 100–107.
Bradshaw, J. (2002). Child poverty and child outcomes. Children and Society, 16(2), 131–140.
Bradshaw, J. (2014). Subjective well-being and social policy: Can nations make their children happier? Child Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s12187-014-9283-1.
Bradshaw, J., Keung, A., Rees, G., & Goswami, H. (2011). Children’s subjective well-being: International comparative perspectives. Children and Youth Services Review, 33, 548–556.
Campbell, A., Converse, P. E., & Rodgers, W. L. (1976). The quality of American life: Perceptions, evaluations, and satisfactions. New-York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Casas, F. (2011). Subjective social indicators and child and adolescent well-being. Child Indicators Research, 4(4), 555–575.
Casas, F., Bello, A., González, M., & Aligue, M. (2013). Children’s subjective well-being measured using a composite index: What impacts Spanish first-year secondary education students’ subjective well-being? Child Indicators Research, 6(3), 433–460.
Casas, F., & Rees, G. (2015). Measures of children’s subjective well-being: Analysis of the potential for cross-national comparisons. Child Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s12187-014-9293-z.
Cummins, R. A. (2014). Understanding the well-being of children and adolescents through homeostatic theory. In A. Ben-Arieh, F. Casas, I. Frones, & J. E. Korbin (Eds.), Handbook of child well-being (pp. 635–661). Dordrecht: Springer.
Cummins, R. A., & Lau, A. L. D. (2005). Personal well-being index—School children (PWI-SC) (3rd ed.). Melbourne: School of psychology, Deakin University.
Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95(3), 542–575.
Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125(2), 276–302.
Dinisman, T., & Rees G. (2014). The International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB): Findings from the first wave of data collection. Retrieved from http://www.isciweb.org/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/FirstWaveReport_FINAL(2).pdf
Gilman, R., & Huebner, S. (2003). A review of life satisfaction research with children and adolescents. School Psychology Quarterly, 18(2), 192–205.
Grigoras, B. A. (2013). The Subjective well-being of children. Doctoral dissertation, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work: Babeş Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca.
Gross-Manos, D. (2014). Material deprivation and social exclusion of children: Lessons from measurement attempts among children in Israel. Journal of Social Policy. doi:10.1017/S0047279414000646. Available on CJO 2014.
Huebner, E. S., Casas, S. P., Hills, K. J., Lewis, A. D., & Saha, R. (2011). Stability and predictive validity of the brief multidimensional students’ life satisfaction scale. Child Indicators Research, 4(1), 161–168.
Huebner, E. S., Hills, K. J., Jiang, X., Long, R. F., Kelly, R., & Lyons, M. D. (2014). Schooling and children’s subjective well-being. In A. Ben-Arieh, F. Casas, I. Frones, & J. E. Korbin (Eds.), Handbook of child well-being (pp. 797–819). Dordrecht: Springer.
Huebner, E. S., Seligson, J. L., Valois, R. F., & Suldo, S. M. (2006). A review of the brief multidimensional students’ life satisfaction scale. Social Indicators Research, 79(3), 477–484.
Klocke, A., Clair, A., & Bradshaw, J. (2014). International variation in child subjective well-being. Child Indicators Research, 7, 1–20.
Knies, G. (2011). Life satisfaction and material well-being of young people in the UK. In S. L. McFall & C. Garrington (Eds.), Early findings from the first wave of the UK’s household longitudinal study. Institute for Social and Economic Research: Colchester.
Lee, B. J., & Yoo, M. S. (2014). Family, school, and community correlates of children’s subjective well-being: An international comparative study. Child Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s12187-014-9285-z.
Main, G. (2014). Child poverty and children’s subjective well-Being. Child Indicators Research, 7, 451–472.
Main, G., & Bradshaw, J. (2012). A child material deprivation index. Child Indicators Research, 5(3), 503–521.
Myers, D. G., & Diener, E. (1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science, 6, 10–19.
Park, N. (2004). The role of subjective well-being in positive youth development. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 591(1), 25–39.
Pople, L., Raws, P., Mueller, D., Mahony, S., Rees, G., Bradshaw, J., et al. (2014). The good childhood report 2014. London: The Children Society.
Proctor, C. L., Linley, P. A., & Maltby, J. (2009). Youth life satisfaction: A review of the literature. Journal of Happiness Studies, 10(5), 583–630.
Rees, G., Bradshaw, J., Goswami, H., & Keung, A. (2010). Understanding children’s well-being: A national survey of young people’s well-being. London: The Children’s Society.
Rees, G., & Dinisman, T. (2014). Comparing children’s experiences and evaluations of their lives in 11 different countries. Child Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s12187-014-9291-1.
Rees, G., Goswami, H., Pople, L., Bradshaw, J., Keung, A., & Main, G. (2012). The good childhood report 2012: A review of our children’s well-being. London: The Children Society.
Ridge, T. (2002). Child poverty and social exclusion. Bristol: Policy Press.
Seligson, J. L., Huebner, E. S., & Valois, R. F. (2003). Preliminary validation of the brief multidimensional students’ life satisfaction scale (BMSLSS). Social Indicators Research, 61(2), 121–145.
United Nations General Assembly. (1989). Convention on the rights of the child. New York: Author. Retrieved from http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dinisman, T., Ben-Arieh, A. The Characteristics of Children’s Subjective Well-Being. Soc Indic Res 126, 555–569 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-0921-x
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-0921-x