Abstract
This paper uses a large, nationally representative microdata survey to conduct a multivariate analysis of the correlates of self-assessed happiness for Canadian 12 to 15 year olds living in two-parent families. We ask whether the same factors matter for the happiness of young teens as for adults. And, we ask whether the correlates of being at the bottom of the young teen happiness distribution are the same as the correlates of being at the top. Results suggest that the level of family income correlates with the probability of being at the bottom of the young teen happiness distribution but not with the probability of being at the top. Relative socioeconomic position and peer social relationships, on the other hand, correlate with being at the top but not at the bottom of the young teen happiness distribution. Relationships involving significant adults (parents, teachers) are the most important correlates of young teen happiness.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Dockery (2005) studies the self-assessed happiness of Australian youth during their late teen years (older than our sample), with a particular emphasis on the role of unemployment experienced during their initial phase of labour market participation.
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) sampling frame is used by Statistics Canada to select respondents for many population-based Canadian surveys. It is a cross-sectional survey carried out each month and used to calculate unemployment rates; participation is mandatory for Canadians. The LFS is representative of the non-institutionalized Canadian population aged 15+ living in the ten Canadian provinces. Excluded from coverage are individuals living on reserves or in Aboriginal settlements, individuals living in institutions or members of the Armed Forces. This excludes only 2 percent of the Canadian population. Households with children aged 0 to 11 were identified from the Labour Force Survey.
We also ran these models for all young teens in this age range, regardless of family structure (results available upon request). Qualitatively, there is little difference from the results reported here.
We tried separate runs for a sub-sample of young teens who had always lived with the same lone mother but sample size was insufficient for analysis.
To preserve confidentiality, Statistics Canada does not provide cluster i.d.s.
According to Statistics Canada, 87.5 percent of youth responded to this question (Statistics Canada 2007). Many past papers studying the subjective well-being of young teens have used multi-question indices of adolescent well-being such as the Student Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS) proposed by Huebner 1991. However, Huebner (2004) reports a high correlation between the SLSS and a single-question measure of global well-being. Use of a single-item question is consistent with the economics literature on adult subjective well-being.
We have also estimated three-category ‘ordered probit’ models. Results closely resemble those obtained for the probit models of ‘being at the top,’ presumably because the vast majority of observations are located in the top two categories. Thus, an advantage of focusing on the two separate probit models is that smaller number of observations at the bottom are not overwhelmed by the majority.
We could also deal with the issue of potential ‘spurious correlation’ by estimating ‘fixed effects’ models. However, while we do have longitudinal data available, we are limited in our ability to carry out ‘fixed effects’ estimation by the fact that we are restricted to 12 to 15 year olds. Although we could, for example, consider changes between age 12/13 and age 14/15, sample sizes are too small, for example, to estimate conditional logit models of the probability of moving into or out of the bottom category.
We attempted disaggregating by gender, but sample sizes for our longitudinal samples were insufficient to obtain reasonable results (standard errors became quite large in our bootstrapped regressions). In future work, we plan to explore avenues for expanding sample size enough to allow comparisons of results for boys and girls.
Mothers are asked “What is your best estimate of your total household income from all sources in the past 12 months, that is the total income from all household members, before taxes and deductions?”
Mean income is quite high for this sub-sample of families with a 12 to 15 year olds where parents have been continuously married for the past 10 years.
We also ran a generalized quadratic specification that distinguished mother’s paid hours from father’s paid hours to allow for differentiated parenting roles. However, likelihood ratio tests could not reject the restrictions required to sum mother and father hours together. As with income, we tried controlling for long-run average hours, recent changes in hours, etc. None of these ‘historical’ or ‘change’ measures was statistically associated with youth happiness.
We investigated the possibility of using ‘school’ as perhaps an even more relevant reference category for young teens. Unfortunately, we had insufficient observations per school in the NLSCY to make this feasible. Choice of the appropriate reference group is critical to analyses of relative income and happiness. Other options that appear in the literature include: national average income, regional average income, average income for others with the same level of education (D’Ambrosio and Frick 2007); individuals with the same age group, in the same region and with similar education (Ferrer-i-Carbonell 2005). Luttmer (2005) also uses a neighbourhood income reference group constructed from U.S. census data.
A caveat would thus be that relative incomes of neighbourhoods may have changed somewhat in the three years since the last census.
The chronic condition flag is derived from mother’s responses to a series of questions about health conditions diagnosed by a health professional and having lasted or being expected to last at least 6 months. These include both very serious chronic conditions (e.g., epilepsy, cerebral palsy) and relatively minor conditions (eczema, mild asthma).
Although we have the mother’s report of child’s frequency of religious attendance, it seems harder to equate attendance with belief for 12 to 15 year olds, some of whom may be dragged to services by their parents while others are genuinely devout. Moreover, in extended specifications, we control for the child’s self-reported participation in church groups.
The question asks the youth to respond in categories: never, less than 1 day, 2 to 3, 4 to 5, 6 to 7 days per week. We use category mid-points to construct a ‘pseudo-continuous’ variable.
These are reported by category: 0, less than 1 h, 1 or 2, 3 or 4, 5 or 6, 7 or more. We re-code at category mid-point and include a single continuous measure in the regressions.
In 2004, the Canadian unemployment rate was 7.2 percent (CANSIM II, Table 109–5304).. Unemployment rates for continuously-married parents of 12 to 15-year old children were even lower—numbers reporting unemployment in our sample were too small to be useful.
Gilman (2001) finds a stronger relationship between adolescent participation in extracurricular activities and satisfaction with school than with global satisfaction.
It could, of course, be the case that neighbourhoods vary in unobservable ways that are correlated with average income and which generate happiness for young teens (e.g., quality of schools, availability of recreational facilities), but as Luttmer (2005) points out, one would then expect the opposite sign on estimated neighbourhood income. Another potential criticism levied against similar regressions estimated for adult happiness (see Luttmer 2005) is that individuals self select into neighbourhoods, but 12 to 15 year olds presumably rarely choose the neighbourhood in which they live.
References
Ash, C., & Huebner, E. S. (2001). Environmental events and life satisfaction reports of adolescents: A test of cognitive mediation. School Psychology International, 22, 320–336.
Ben-Arieh, A., & Goerge, R. M. (2006). Indicators of children’s well-being: Understanding their role, usage and policy influence. Social Indicators Research Series, 27. Dordrecht: Springer.
Burton, P., & Phipps, S. (2007). Income and the self-assessed happiness of Canadian 12 to 15 year olds. Paper presented at the Ottawa meetings of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Social Interactions, Identity and Well-being Group, September 21, 2007.
Canada Post (2001). Canada postal guide. Forward sortation maps. Available online at: http://www.canadapost.ca/business/tools/pg/fsamaps/default-e.asp (accessed August 15, 2007).
Casas, F., Figuer, C., Gonzalez, M., Malo, S., Alsinet, C., & Subarroca, S. (2007). The well-being of 12- to 16-year-old adolescents and their parents: Results from 1999 to 2003 samples. Social Indicators Research, 83, 87–115.
Clark, A. E., & Oswald, A. J. (1996). Unhappiness and unemployment. The Economic Journal, 104(424), 648–659.
Clark, A. E., & Oswald, A. J. (1996). Satisfaction and comparison income. Journal of Public Economics, 61, 359–381.
D’Ambrosio, C., & Frick, J. R. (2007). Individual well-being in a dynamic perspective. IZA Discussion Paper Series No. 2618.
D’Ambrosio, C., & Frick, J. R. (2004). Subjective well-being and relative deprivation: An empirical link. IZA Discussion Paper No. 1351.
Dew, T., & Hueber, E. S. (1994). Adolescents’ perceived quality of life: An exploratory investigation. Journal of School Psychology, 32, 185–199.
Di Tella, R., Haisken-De New, J., & MacCulloch, R. (2007). Happiness adaptation to income and to status in an individual panel. Paper presented at CIFAR, Montreal, September, 2007.
Dockery, A. M. (2005). The happiness of young Australians: Empirical evidence on the role of labour market experience. The Economic Record, 81(255), 322–335.
Duesenberry, J. S. (1949). Happiness in Economics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar
Easterlin, R. A. (2001). Income and happiness: Towards a unified theory. The Economic Journal, 111, 465–484 (July).
Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. (2005). Income and well-being: an empirical analysis of the comparison income effect. Journal of Public Economics, 89, 997–1019.
Frey, B. S., & Stutzer, A. (2002). Happiness and economics: How the economy and institutions affect human well-being. Princeton: University Press.
Gilman, R. (2001). The relationship between life satisfaction, social interest, and frequency of extracurricular activities among adolescent students. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 30(6), 749–767.
Gilman, R., & Huebner, E. S. (1997). Children’s reports of their life satisfaction: Convergence across rates, time and response formats. School Psychology International, 18, 229–243.
Haslam, A. (2007). Psychology in organizations: The social identity approach (2nd ed.). London: SAGE Publications.
Helliwell, J. F. (2006). Well-being, social capital and public policy: What’s new. The Economic Journal, 116, C34–C45 (March).
Helliwell, J. F., & Huang, H. (2005). How’s the Job? Well-being and social capital in the workplace. Paper presented at the Canadian Economics Association annual meetings, McMaster University, May.
Helliwell, J. F., & Putnam, R. D. (2004). The social context of well-being. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 359, 1435–1446.
Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B. (1959). The motivation to work. New York: Wiley.
Huebner, E. S. (1991). Initial development of the students’ life satisfaction scale. School Psychology International, 12, 231–240.
Huebner, E. S. (2004). Research on assessment of life satisfaction of children and adolescents. Social Indicators Research, 66, 3–33.
Huebner, E. S., Drane, W., & Valois, R. F. (2000). Levels and demographic correlates of adolescent life satisfaction reports. School Psychology International, 21, 281–292.
Huebner, E. S., Funk, B. A., & Gilman, R. (2000). Cross-sectional and longitudinal psychoosocial correlates of adolescent life satisfaction reports. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 16, 53–64.
Huebner, E. S., Suldo, S. M., Smith, L. C., & McKnight, C. G. (2004). Life satisfaction in children and youth: Empirical foundations and implications for school psychologists. Psychology in the Schools, 41(1), 81–93.
Layard, R. (2005). Happiness: Lessons from a new science. London: Penguin Books.
Luttmer, E. F. P. (2005). Neighhours as negatives: Relative earnings and well-being. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 963–1002, (August).
Ma, C. Q., & Huebner, E. S. (2008). Attachment relationships and adolescents’ life satisfaction: Some relationships matter more to girls than boys. Psychology in the Schools, 45(2), 177–190.
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370–396.
Nickerson, A. B., & Nagle, R. J. (2005). Parent and peer attachment in late childhood and early adolescence. Journal of Early Adolescence, 25(2), 223–249.
Nickerson, A. B., & Nagle, R. J. (2004). The influence of parent and peer attachments on life satisfaction in middle childhood and early adolescence. Social Indicators Research, 66, 35–60.
Picot, G., Zyblock, M., & Pyper, W. (1999). Why do children move into and out of low income? Changing labour market conditions or marriage or divorce? Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch Working Paper.
Reicher, S. D., & Haslam, A. (2006). Rethinking the psychology of tyranny: The BBC prison experiment. British Journal of Social Psychology, 45, 1–40.
Statistics Canada (2001). Census forward sortation area boundary file, reference guide. Catalogue No. 92F0170GIE.
Statistics Canada (2007). National longitudinal survey of children and youth. Cycle 6 Documentation. Master file (Self-Completed). Available online at: http://data.library.ubc.ca/datalib/survey/statscan/kids/cycle6/codebook/NLSCY2004_C6_1017_Codebook.pdf (accessed Aug 2007).
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G., Austin, & S., Worchel (Eds.)The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33–47). Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Acknowledgements
We thank Lihui Zhang for excellent research assistance and both the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding. Extremely insightful suggestions were provided by Cameron Phipps-Burton, aged 12. Earlier versions of the paper were presented at the Ottawa meetings of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Social Interactions, Identity and Well-being Group (September, 2007), at the Research Data Centre annual conference in Halifax (October, 2007) and at seminars at the Departments of Economics and Sociology, Dalhousie University. We thank participants at these venues for extremely useful feed-back; in particular, we thank Alex Haslam and Lori Curtis for their comments. We would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers for very helpful suggestions. This research was carried out in the Atlantic Research Data Centre; we thank Heather Hobson for vetting our output.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Burton, P., Phipps, S. Economic Resources, Relative Socioeconomic Position and Social Relationships: Correlates of the Happiness of Young Canadian Teens. Child Ind Res 1, 350–371 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-008-9014-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-008-9014-6