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Constructing a Children’s Subjective Well-Being Index: an Application to Socially Vulnerable Spanish Children

Author

Listed:
  • Aurea Grané

    (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

  • Irene Albarrán

    (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

  • Ana Arribas-Gil

    (UC3M-BS Institute of Big Data)

Abstract

It is well-known that traditional economic measures such as household income appear to play less of a role in explaining children’s subjective well-being than adults’. This paper focuses on the construction of a children’s well-being index taking into account subjective and emotional factors, such as children’s experiences of material deprivation and bullying, the quality of family relationships and with peers, the quality of services in their neighbourhood and personal well-being. The index is constructed from principal component analysis and rescaled to 0-100% for better interpretation. Data comes from a survey run in Spain in 2016 by the largest humanitarian organization involved in social programs in the country, covering socially vulnerable children aged 8-11, with around 2,900 respondents. The main findings are: (i) bullying makes the difference between children being moderate or completely unsatisfied with their lives; (ii) there is no a single Spanish region reaching satisfying well-being levels across all the components of the index. The methodology proposed for the construction of the index is general enough to be applied to general child population, regardless their social vulnerability condition or even country, adapting the questionnaire appropriately.

Suggested Citation

  • Aurea Grané & Irene Albarrán & Ana Arribas-Gil, 2020. "Constructing a Children’s Subjective Well-Being Index: an Application to Socially Vulnerable Spanish Children," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(4), pages 1235-1254, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:chinre:v:13:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s12187-019-09692-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s12187-019-09692-w
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ed Diener, 1994. "Assessing subjective well-being: Progress and opportunities," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 103-157, February.
    2. Gwyther Rees, 2018. "The Association of Childhood Factors with Children’s Subjective Well-Being and Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties at 11 years old," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(4), pages 1107-1129, August.
    3. Gwyther Rees & Jonathan Bradshaw, 2018. "Exploring Low Subjective Well-Being Among Children Aged 11 in the UK: an Analysis Using Data Reported by Parents and by Children," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(1), pages 27-56, February.
    4. Amelia Bastos & Graca Leao Fernandes, & Jose Passos, 2004. "Child income poverty and child deprivation: an essay on measurement," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 31(11/12), pages 1050-1060, October.
    5. Tamar Dinisman & Asher Ben-Arieh, 2016. "The Characteristics of Children’s Subjective Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 126(2), pages 555-569, March.
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