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

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  • Gross-Manos, Daphna

Abstract

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.

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  • Gross-Manos, Daphna, 2017. "Material well-being and social exclusion association with children's subjective Well-being: Cross-national analysis of 14 countries," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 116-128.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:80:y:2017:i:c:p:116-128
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.06.048
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    9. Hui Wang & Yuke Xiong & Xia Liu, 2023. "How are Family Resources and School Resources Related to Low-Income Adolescents’ Psychological Adjustment? The Moderating Role of Belief in a Just World," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(2), pages 655-670, April.
    10. Bíró, Éva & Dezső, Dóra & Sándor, János & Ádány, Róza, 2018. "Inequalities in Hungarian adolescents' health, health behaviour and well-being, based upon the results of a cross-sectional survey at settlement level, using the Health Behaviour in School-aged Childr," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 15-20.
    11. Mari Corominas & Mònica González-Carrasco & Ferran Casas, 2020. "The Importance of Feeling Adequately Heard by Adults and Enjoying Time with Family in Relation to Children’s Subjective Well-Being," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(1), pages 193-214, February.
    12. Li, Chunkai & Jiang, Shan, 2018. "Social exclusion, sense of school belonging and mental health of migrant children in China: A structural equation modeling analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 6-12.
    13. Shan Jiang & Lin Wang & Yuhang Cheng, 2023. "Unrevealing the Mediating Mechanisms Between Material Deprivation and Children’s Life Satisfaction: Empirical Evidence from the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 893-914, April.
    14. Daphna Gross-Manos & Jonathan Bradshaw, 2022. "The Association Between the Material Well-Being and the Subjective Well-Being of Children in 35 Countries," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(1), pages 1-33, February.
    15. Ana Loreto Ditzel & María Josefina Chuecas & Lívia Maria Bedin & Javier Torres-Vallejos & Alejandra Villarroel & Mariavictoria Benavente & Jaime Alfaro & Jorge Castellá Sarriera & Joel Juarros-Basterr, 2022. "Access to material resources and the subjective well-being of children in Brazil and Chile," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(2), pages 447-465, April.

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