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What accounts for the variations in children's subjective well-being across nations?: A decomposition method study

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  • Lee, Bong Joo
  • Yoo, Min Sang

Abstract

Studies have shown that there are important differences in children's subjective well-being across nations. However, it has been difficult to explain why this level is lower or higher in certain countries. Using data from the Children's Worlds project, this study examines how much of the country-level children's subjective well-being can be explained by various social and cultural contextual factors. More specifically, we decompose the levels of children's overall subjective well-being to seven factors that are known to be important for children's well-being including leisure, environment, learning, money, relationship, freedom to choose, and self. After the decomposition, the unexplained part (intercept and residual) for each country is considered to represent cultural reporting bias. We found that cultural reporting bias cannot explain all of the variances in children's subjective well-being across nations. Rather, we found that the freedom to choose and self are the two most important factors that explain vast share of the variances in the overall levels of children's subjective well-being across nations. The paper also provides social policy implications of the study results.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, Bong Joo & Yoo, Min Sang, 2017. "What accounts for the variations in children's subjective well-being across nations?: A decomposition method study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 15-21.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:80:y:2017:i:c:p:15-21
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.06.065
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    Cited by:

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    3. Yipeng Tang, 2019. "Immigration Status and Adolescent Life Satisfaction: An International Comparative Analysis Based on PISA 2015," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(5), pages 1499-1518, June.
    4. Kyoungmi Park & Shun Wang, 2019. "Youth Activities and Children’s Subjective Well-Being in Korea," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(7), pages 2351-2365, October.
    5. Almudena Moreno Mínguez, 2020. "Children’s Relationships and Happiness: The Role of Family, Friends and the School in Four European Countries," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(5), pages 1859-1878, June.
    6. Corominas, Mari & González-Carrasco, Mònica & Casas, Ferran, 2021. "Analyzing factors for an optimum play environment through children’s subjective well-being indicators," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    7. Huang, Liang, 2021. "Bullying victimization, self-efficacy, fear of failure, and adolescents’ subjective well-being in China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    8. Noam Tarshish, 2020. "Children’s Multidimensional Subjective Well-Being in OECD and Non-OECD Countries: Is Cross-Country Comparison Possible?," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(1), pages 51-66, February.
    9. 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.
    10. Simon Matthew Herd, 2022. "Synthesising Hedonic and Eudaimonic Approaches: A Culturally Responsive Four-Factor Model of Aggregate Subjective Well-Being for Hong Kong Children," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(3), pages 1103-1129, June.

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