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Life satisfaction and material well-being of children in the UK

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  • Knies, Gundi

Abstract

Life satisfaction is increasingly recognised as a desirable individual outcome. Policy attention with respect to child well-being has focused on improving the financial position of families with children. Using Understanding Society I show that child life satisfaction is not associated with household income (poverty), or with a set of new material deprivation measures of child poverty, introduced to help target effective policies that make a real difference to children‟s lives. Those interested in maximizing society‟s welfare should shift their attention from an emphasis on increasing consumption opportunities for families with children to an emphasis on increasing social contacts.

Suggested Citation

  • Knies, Gundi, 2012. "Life satisfaction and material well-being of children in the UK," ISER Working Paper Series 2012-15, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2012-15
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    File URL: https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/working-papers/iser/2012-15.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Andrew E. Clark & Ed Diener & Yannis Georgellis & Richard E. Lucas, 2008. "Lags And Leads in Life Satisfaction: a Test of the Baseline Hypothesis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(529), pages 222-243, June.
    2. Nattavudh Powdthavee & Anna Vignoles, 2008. "Mental Health of Parents and Life Satisfaction of Children: A Within-Family Analysis of Intergenerational Transmission of Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 397-422, September.
    3. Bruno S. Frey, 2018. "Economics of Happiness," SpringerBriefs in Economics, Springer, number 978-3-319-75807-7, June.
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    5. Frick, Joachim R. & Goebel, Jan & Schechtman, Edna & Wagner, Gert G. & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 2004. "Using Analysis of Gini (ANoGi) for Detecting Whether Two Sub-Samples Represent the Same Universe: The SOEP Experience," IZA Discussion Papers 1049, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada, 2005. "Income and well-being: an empirical analysis of the comparison income effect," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 997-1019, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Leonardo Becchetti & Fabio Pisani, 2014. "Family Economic Well-Being, and (Class) Relative Wealth: An Empirical Analysis of Life Satisfaction of Secondary School Students in Three Italian Cities," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 503-525, June.
    2. Genevieve Gariepy & Frank J Elgar & Mariane Sentenac & Christopher Barrington-Leigh, 2017. "Early-life family income and subjective well-being in adolescents," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-11, July.
    3. Main, Gill, 2019. "Child poverty and subjective well-being: The impact of children's perceptions of fairness and involvement in intra-household sharing," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 49-58.
    4. Gerry Redmond & Jasmine Huynh & Vanessa Maurici, 2018. "How Big is the Gap in Wellbeing between Marginalised and Non-Marginalised Young People as They Approach Adolescence? Evidence from a National Survey of 9–14 Year Old Australians," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(2), pages 459-485, April.
    5. Smyth, Emer, 2016. "Wellbeing and School Experiences among 9- and 13-Year-Olds: Insights from the Growing Up in Ireland Study," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT291.
    6. 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.
    7. Chengedzai Mafini, 2017. "Economic Factors and Life Satisfaction: Trends from South African Communities," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 13(3), pages 155-168, JUNE.
    8. Leena Haanpää & Mirka Kuula & Mia Hakovirta, 2019. "Social Relationships, Child Poverty, and Children’s Life Satisfaction," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-13, January.
    9. Melissa Lopez Reyes, 2019. "Cultural Moderators of the Influence of Environmental Affordances and Provisions on Children’s Subjective Well-Being," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(1), pages 71-98, February.
    10. Joan P. Yoo & Changyong Choi, 2016. "How do Family Economic Contexts Affect Children’s Subjective Well-Being? A Study of South Korea," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 9(4), pages 949-970, December.
    11. Esther Yin-Nei Cho, 2018. "Links between Poverty and Children’s Subjective Wellbeing: Examining the Mediating and Moderating Role of Relationships," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(2), pages 585-607, April.

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