IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v21y2020i5d10.1007_s10902-019-00160-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Children’s Relationships and Happiness: The Role of Family, Friends and the School in Four European Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Almudena Moreno Mínguez

    (Universidad de Valladolid)

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to explore how contextual factors are related to children’s subjective well-being in a group of children from 9 to 12 years of age in four European countries with different welfare systems. The main aim of this study is to examine how type of family, friends, and school relationships, as well as the environment, are related to children’s subjective well-being (SWB). We use data from the International Survey of Children’s well-being for the analysis, which explores well-being through the perceptions and responses of children. We have performed bivariate analyses and applied multiple linear regression to examine the relational and contextual dimensions (family, friends, school and neighborhood) of children’s subjective well-being. We have taken the scale used by Russell as a measure of children’s subjective well-being since we consider it to be the most appropriate for comparing the satisfaction and happiness of children in different cultural contexts. The results show that gender, family structure, social relationships (family, friends and teachers) and neighborhood safety are significant correlates and predictors of SWB. The findings also show the relationship between variables such as friends, school, violence and SWB in the different countries, which could be related to the educational and welfare policies implemented by the different welfare states.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:21:y:2020:i:5:d:10.1007_s10902-019-00160-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-019-00160-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10902-019-00160-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-019-00160-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. E. Huebner & Julie Seligson & Robert Valois & Shannon Suldo, 2006. "A Review of the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 79(3), pages 477-484, December.
    2. Amanda Nickerson & Richard Nagle, 2004. "The Influence of Parent and Peer Attachments on Life Satisfaction in Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 35-60, April.
    3. Bruno Martorano & Luisa Natali & Chris De Neubourg & Jonathan Bradshaw, 2013. "Children’s Subjective Well-being in Rich Countries," Papers inwopa686, Innocenti Working Papers.
    4. Kaye-Tzadok, Avital & Kim, Sun Suk & Main, Gill, 2017. "Children's subjective well-being in relation to gender — What can we learn from dissatisfied children?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 96-104.
    5. Ed Diener & Robert Biswas-Diener, 2002. "Will Money Increase Subjective Well-Being?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 119-169, February.
    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. Esping-Andersen, Gosta, 1999. "Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198742005.
    8. Juho Härkönen & Fabrizio Bernardi & Diederik Boertien, 2017. "Family Dynamics and Child Outcomes: An Overview of Research and Open Questions," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(2), pages 163-184, May.
    9. Dinisman, Tamar & Andresen, Sabine & Montserrat, Carme & Strózik, Dorota & Strózik, Tomasz, 2017. "Family structure and family relationship from the child well-being perspective: Findings from comparative analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 105-115.
    10. James McDonell, 2007. "Neighborhood Characteristics, Parenting, and Children’s Safety," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 83(1), pages 177-199, August.
    11. repec:cai:poeine:pope_203_0447 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Claudia Coulton & Jill Korbin, 2007. "Indicators of child well-being through a neighborhood lens," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 84(3), pages 349-361, December.
    13. Sonja Lyubomirsky & Chris Tkach & M. DiMatteo, 2006. "What are the Differences between Happiness and Self-Esteem," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 78(3), pages 363-404, September.
    14. Yoo, Joan P. & Ahn, Jaejin, 2017. "Understanding the typologies of child subjective well-being: A cross-country comparison," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 22-30.
    15. Elizabeth Pollard & Patrice Lee, 2003. "Child Well-being: A Systematic Review of the Literature," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 59-78, January.
    16. Mark Holder & Ben Coleman, 2009. "The Contribution of Social Relationships to Children’s Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 329-349, June.
    17. Sandra Hofferth, 2006. "Residential father family type and child well-being: Investment versus selection," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 43(1), pages 53-77, February.
    18. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cho, Esther Yin-Nei & Yu, Fuk-Yuen, 2020. "A review of measurement tools for child wellbeing," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Almudena Moreno Mínguez, 2017. "The Role of Family Policy in Explaining the International Variation in Child Subjective Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 1173-1194, December.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Loreto Ditzel & Ferran Casas & Javier Torres-Vallejos & Alejandra Villarroel, 2022. "The Subjective Well-Being of Chilean Children Living in Conditions of High Social Vulnerability," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(3), pages 1639-1660, June.
    9. Shazly Savahl & Sabirah Adams & Ferran Casas & Maria Florence, 2023. "Children’s Interactions with Family and Friends in Constrained Contexts: Considerations for Children’s Subjective Well-Being," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(1), pages 321-339, February.
    10. Janka Goldan & Lena Nusser & Michael Gebel, 2022. "School-related Subjective Well-being of Children with and without Special Educational Needs in Inclusive Classrooms," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(4), pages 1313-1337, August.
    11. Sabolova, Klara & Birdsey, Nicola & Stuart-Hamilton, Ian & Cousins, Alecia L., 2020. "A cross-cultural exploration of children’s perceptions of wellbeing: Understanding protective and risk factors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    12. 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.
    13. Ditzel, Loreto & Casas, Ferran & Torres-Vallejos, Javier & Reyes, Fernando & Alfaro, Jaime, 2022. "Children participating in after-school programs in Chile: Subjective well-being, satisfaction with free time use and satisfaction with the program," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    14. Sunsuk Kim & Jaejin Ahn & Bong Joo Lee, 2019. "Why Do Children Become Unhappier as They Get Older? Comparing Key Dimensions of Children’s Subjective Well-Being Between 8- and 12-Year-Old Groups in South Korea," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(1), pages 9-27, February.
    15. L. Migliorini & T. Tassara & N. Rania, 2019. "A Study of Subjective Well-Being and Life Satisfaction in Italy: how are Children doing at 8 years of Age?," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(1), pages 49-69, February.
    16. Yochay Nadan & Avital Kaye-Tzadok, 2019. "The Virtual Arena: A Call for a New Domain of Child Subjective Well-Being," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(2), pages 461-477, April.
    17. De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel & Oswald, Andrew J., 2012. "Estimating the influence of life satisfaction and positive affect on later income using sibling fixed-effects," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51523, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Clemens Tesch-Römer & Andreas Motel-Klingebiel & Martin Tomasik, 2008. "Gender Differences in Subjective Well-Being: Comparing Societies with Respect to Gender Equality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 85(2), pages 329-349, January.
    19. Irina V. Leto & Svetlana V. Loginova & Aleksandra Varshal & Helena R. Slobodskaya, 2021. "Interactions between Family Environment and Personality in the Prediction of Child Life Satisfaction," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(4), pages 1345-1363, August.
    20. Maria Aymerich & Ramon Cladellas & Antoni Castelló & Ferran Casas & Mònica Cunill, 2021. "The Evolution of Life Satisfaction Throughout Childhood and Adolescence: Differences in Young People’s Evaluations According to Age and Gender," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(6), pages 2347-2369, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:21:y:2020:i:5:d:10.1007_s10902-019-00160-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.