Children's subjective well-being: International comparative perspectives

We are enjoined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to take account of the views of children. One way this can be done is by asking children about their lives in sample surveys. This paper is a comparison of the results obtained to sample survey questions on subjective well-being of children at two contrasting levels of analysis—international macro (European Union 29) and national level micro (England). At both levels, children's well-being is accessed in terms of three subjective domains: (1) personal well-being, (2) relational well-being, and (3) well-being at school. At the micro level we also explore neighbourhood well-being.The results show that at the macro level personal well-being is associated with the material and housing circumstances but not family relationships or family structure. Well-being at school is not associated with any variable. Subjective health is only associated with family structure. At the micro level, although many of the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of children are found to be associated with their well-being in the four domains, these factors explain only a small amount of the variation in these well-being domains.     

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.     

Religion and subjective well-being among the elderly in China

Evidence from developed and developing countries alike demonstrates a strongly positive relationship between religiosity and happiness, particularly for women and particularly among the elderly. Using survey data from the oldest old in China, we find a strong negative relationship between religious participation and subjective well-being in a rich multivariate logistic framework that controls for demographics, health and disabilities, living arrangements, wealth and income, lifestyle and social networks, and location. In contrast to other studies, we also find that religion has a larger effect on subjective well-being on men than women.     

Dimensions of social capital and subjective well-being: evidence from Italy

The concept of social capital was investigated as an explanatory variable of a number of significant socio-economic phenomena, such as economic development, the well-functioning of institutions, and school performance. This study proposes an analysis of the relation between social capital and well-being. The two concepts have been interpreted by social sciences in many different ways. In particular, as a result of its recent success, social capital has been the object of a great deal of interpretations. Social scientists have considered it either as a collective resource (macro social capital), or as an available resource amongst members of specific groups (friends, associations, local communities, etc.; i.e. meso social capital), or as a resource that individuals can achieve through their personal networks (micro social capital). Using data from a representative sample of Italian citizens (25–80 years old), this work investigates which dimension (micro, meso, or macro) of social capital has (if any) a major influence on subjective well-being. Data show some interdependence only with the macro social capital, and suggest that it is just the symbolic and cognitive qualities of the social capital, rather than its structural dimension, that could be associated with subjective well-being in a significant way.     

Ignorance is not bliss: On the role of education in subjective well-being

This study estimates the impact of education on self-reported happiness across 50 American states using the recently available Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (WBI). A 3SLS model is used to estimate the simultaneous impact of education, income, and health on aggregated subjective well-being (SWB) as measured by state-level WBI. Over 80% of the variation in SWB across states can be explained by differences in education, income, health, age, trust, stress, temperature, religion, and rainfall. Higher education (college degree) has a relatively strong positive effect on SWB, but secondary education (high school) does not. We find no statistically significant educational spillover on SWB across state borders, which suggests that the positive effect of higher education on SWB is mostly due to private non-monetary benefits rather than positive externalities.     

Understanding the etiology of child abuse: A preliminary typology of cases

This paper examines various conceptual approaches to the etiology of child abuse and reports the results of an original study. Data on 99 families with children who were court adjudicated as having suffered non-accidental trauma were analyzed by means of a cluster analysis (hierarchical nearest-neighbor clustering). Four empirically-derived clusters of family/case attributes are described and then discussed as representing separate etiologies of child abuse. The implications of this typology are also discussed as they relate to clinical practice and social policy.     

Personal networks typologies: A structural approach

Building typologies allows to compare networks on multiple dimensions, and to approach a generalization grounded on empirical data. In this article, we present a typology of personal networks only based on indicators related to the structure of relations between alters. It is designed from very detailed data on young French people who were involved in a longitudinal study. Our typology mobilizes a small number of indicators to discriminate the types that compose it. In so doing, we intend to make it applicable to various surveys.     

Competitive compensation and subjective well-being: The effect of culture and gender

This paper uses a controlled experiment to investigate how subjects exposed to competition in the workplace react in terms of well-being, and how this translates into productivity. The experiment was performed in Korea, a country with an interdependent culture, and France, a country with an independent culture. Exposure to the tournament slightly improves well-being in the Korean sample and decreases it in France. This different response is driven primarily by the opposite response of female subjects, with Korean women liking and French women disliking to compete. Finally, an improvement in well-being is associated with ex-post higher productivity in France, and this positive effect is most salient in the French male population; in Korea, a similar positive effect can be observed only in the female population.     

Disability-based inequity in youth subjective well-being: current findings and future directions

This selective, critical literature review synthesizes recent research exploring disability-based disparities in the subjective well-being and living conditions of youth in high-income countries. Compared with their non-disabled peers, disabled youth report lower levels of happiness, lower global life satisfaction and higher rates of suicidal ideation. Emerging evidence suggests that the relatively poor subjective well-being of disabled youth reflects, at least in part, differential access to material and social resources rather than the presence of chronic conditions or impairment per se. These findings indicate that disability-based disparities in youth subjective well-being are socially patterned and preventable.     

Social capital and subjective well-being trends: Comparing 11 western European countries

Discovering whether social capital endowments in modern societies have been subjected or not to a process of gradual erosion is one of the most debated topics in recent economic literature. This new stream of research has been inaugurated by Putnam’s pioneering studies about social capital trends in the United States. Recently, a considerable work by Stevenson and Wolfers (2008) put a new emphasis on this topic contending Easterlin’s assessment. Present work is aimed at analyzing the relationship between changes in social capital and subjective well-being in western Europe considering 11 different countries. In particular, I would like to answer questions such as: (1) is social capital in western Europe declining? Is such erosion a general trend of modern societies or is it a characteristic feature of only some of them? (2) social capital trend can help to explain subjective well-being trend? In so doing, my research considers four different set of proxies of social capital controlling for time and socio-demographic aspects in eleven different western European countries using World Values Survey (WVS) data between 1980 and 2000. My results are encouraging, showing evidence of a probable relationship between social capital and happiness. Furthermore, my results show that during last 20 years western European citizens have persistently lost confidence in the judicial system, in the church, in armed forces and the police. Finally, considering single countries, we discover that United Kingdom is the only country, among the investigated ones, with a negative pattern for social capital: the majority of the proxies of social capital in UK declined over the considered period.     

The subjective well-being of young people aging out of care

This study explores the subjective well-being (SWB) of young people aging out of public care in Israel, identifying the individual, social support and institutional characteristics of young people on the verge of leaving care that predict their SWB one year later. The results were obtained from two waves of a longitudinal study with young people who aged out from residential settings in Israel. Shortly before they left care 272 young people completed a self-administered questionnaire and 234 of them were interviewed a year later. Overall, their SWB was fairly positive. Specifically, positive relationship with the mother contributes to a better SWB, and learning difficulties reduced SWB. Gender and country of origin also showed a significant effect. The findings highlight the importance of strengthening the young people's relationships with their biological parents while in care and emphasize the need to provide additional support for those with learning difficulties. The findings also help identify sub-groups of young people in care with greater need for support both while in care and afterwards.     

The subjective well-being of mental patients in nursing homes.

This article reports a survey of self-reports of well-being by chronic mental patients in nursing homes. Patients reported lower levels of well-being than the general population, but not lower than other socially disadvantaged groups including urban renewal blacks. Nursing home mental patients reported levels of well-being that were generally similar to mental patients in other settings, including day hospital patients, participants in an innovative community care program, and patients receiving traditional hospital and follow-up care. These reports were mostly unrelated to levels of symptomatology or social integration, but were strongly related to patient perceptions of the quality of the environment. Results have important implications concerning the justifications for community care goals like noninstitutional care, reduction of symptomatology, and the fostering of social integration.     

Understanding communities of neglectful parents: child caregiving networks and child neglect

This article focuses on family social networks and the community of caregivers of neglected children. If neglect is part of family functioning, who watches over the children? Using a case study approach, this study researched 12 children and their parents. Several concepts, such as multiple caregiving and kin keepers, revealed that study children were cared for by many people. Social network mapping used in this study indicated that families were not isolated from the larger community, had various forms of negative and positive social support, were low income, and were involved in substance abuse and domestic violence. Understanding the patterns that emerge from the complex web of family, friends, social service agencies, and the larger social community in which neglected children live can result in better community building.     

Moonlighting and overtime: A cross-country analysis

I investigate how contractual hours and overtime premiums affect the decision either to moonlight or to work overtime. By reducing the standard workweek, the government or labor unions can affect the likelihood that a worker faces an hour constraint. An underemployed worker can secure additional earnings by working either on a second job or overtime. I model this decision as a bivariate probit. To create variation in the overtime rates, data for nine OECD countries are pooled. I find that decreasing the standard hours of work increases the probability of moonlighting. The overtime premium has an ambiguous effect on the probability of moonlighting, but it has a negative effect on the probability of working overtime. I thank R.L. Oaxaca, R. Stratton, and M. Nelson for their valuable comments and help. Any errors are solely my responsibility.     

A comparison of objective and subjective measures of clinical competence

The purpose of this study was to determine if objective performance measures from a simulated patient practical examination were related to faculty subjective assessments of surgery students' performance. Another purpose was to determine if those students performing well on a simulated patient practical examination were the same students awarded honor ratings by faculty. Faculty ratings of students (n = 72) on history taking ability, physical exam skills, problem identification, use of investigations, problem integration, patient management, and patient relations skills were correlated with objective measures on these same criteria achieved on a practical exam employing three simulated patient cases. Correlations were also calculated to study the relationship between practical exam scores and honor rating recipients. Results indicated significant relationships between faculty subjective ratings and practical exam outcomes on all practical examination skills except physical exam skills and patient management skills. Findings also indicated the performance of honor students on the practical examination was significantly better than non-honor students on two skills: history-taking and patient relations. The implications of these research findings are discussed.     

The poor,the rich and the happy: Exploring the link between income and subjective well-being

The relationship between income and subjective well-being (SWB) is investigated using eight waves of the British Household Panel Survey and an estimation strategy that allows us to relax some assumptions typically made in the literature. First, we use a random effects generalised ordered probit model to investigate whether income effects are heterogeneous across SWB categories, and, second, we discretise (absolute and relative) income variables to allow for the income effects to vary across income groups. We find that higher absolute income increases SWB but up to a certain level, while low income is significantly correlated with low scores in the SWB ladder. Our results are consistent with the Easterlin Paradox that has been reported in the literature. We find that high-income groups are less likely to belong in the highest SWB level, which could be partly explained by the fact that the relative income status (rather than the absolute one) is more important in determining (the highest level of) SWB.     

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.