Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Children’s Multidimensional Subjective Well-Being in OECD and Non-OECD Countries: Is Cross-Country Comparison Possible?

  • Published:
Child Indicators Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Child well-being is regarded a key concept in research initiatives designed to assess children’s status globally. In recent years, research on the relatively new aspect of child subjective well-being (SWB) has been growing, and evidence associates low SWB with various negative life conditions. Thus, international comparisons of child SWB can serve as an important tool for countries that wish to improve the lives of children. Validating tools used to evaluate child SWB and prove them reliable for cross-country comparisons in different samples of countries and contexts is essential for that purpose. This study utilized a representative sample of the ISCWeB Children’s Worlds survey, which included 21,508 12-year-olds in 18 countries, to determine whether the General Domain Satisfaction Index (GDSI) – a multidimensional measure of child SWB is valid for cross-country comparisons in two sub-samples: OECD and non-OECD member states. After preliminary results had shown a significant difference in GDSI scores between the two sub-samples, a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis revealed that in both sub-samples, it was possible to compare regression weights and correlations, but not means. Limitations and future directions for research in the child SWB field are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ben-Arieh, A. (2005). Where are the children? Children’s role in measuring and monitoring their well-being. Social Indicators Research, 74(3), 573–596.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ben-Arieh, A. (2008). The child indicators movement: Past, present, and future. Child Indicators Research, 1(1), 3–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ben-Arieh, A., & Tarshish, N. (2016). Children’s rights and well-being). In M. D. Ruck, M. Peterson-Badali, & M. Freeman (Eds.), Handbook of children's rights: Global and multidisciplinary perspectives (pp. 68–77). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ben-Arieh, A., McDonell, J., & Attar-Schwartz, S. (2009). Safety and home–school relations as indicators of children well being: Whose perspective counts? Social Indicators Research, 90(3), 339–349.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ben-Arieh, A., Casas, F., Frønes, I., & Korbin, J. E. (2014). Multifaceted concept of child well-being. In A. Ben-Arieh et al. (Eds.), Handbook of child well-being (pp. 1–27). Netherlands: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw, J., Martorano, B., Natali, L., & de Neubourg, C. (2013). Children’s subjective well-being in rich countries. Child Indicators Research, 6(4), 619–635.

    Google Scholar 

  • Byrne, B. M. (2010). Structural equation modelling with AMOS: Basic concepts, applications and programming. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, A., Converse, P. E., & Rodgers, W. L. (1976). The quality of American life: Perceptions, evaluations, and satisfactions. New York: Russell Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casas, F. (2011). Subjective social indicators and child and adolescent well-being. Child Indicators Research, 4(4), 555–575.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casas, F. (2017). Analysing the comparability of 3 multi-item subjective well-being psychometric scales among 15 countries using samples of 10 and 12-year-olds. Child Indicators Research, 10(2), 297–330.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casas, F., & Rees, G. (2015). Measures of children’s subjective well-being: Analysis of the potential for cross-national comparisons. Child Indicators Research, 8(1), 49–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casas, F., Sarriera, J. C., Abs, D., Coenders, G., Alfaro, J., Saforcada, E., & Tonon, G. (2012). Subjective indicators of personal well-being among adolescents. Performance and results for different scales in Latin-language speaking countries: A contribution to the international debate. Child Indicators Research, 5(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-011-9119-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casas, F., Bello, A., González, M., & Aligué, M. (2013a). Children’s subjective well-being measured using a composite index: What impacts Spanish first-year secondary education students’ subjective well-being? Child Indicators Research, 6(3), 433–460.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casas, F., Tiliouine, H., & Figuer, C. (2013b). The subjective well-being of adolescents from two different cultures: Applying three versions of the PWI in Algeria and Spain. Social Indicators Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0229-z.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casas, F., Sarriera, J. C., Alfaro, J., González, M., Bedin, L., Abs, D., Valdenegro, B. (2014). Reconsidering life domains that contribute to subjective well-being among adolescents with data from three countries. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16, 491–513.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clair, A. (2014). The effects of schooling and education policy on the subjective well-being of children: A comparative study (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of York.

  • Cummins, R. A. (1995). On the trail of the gold standard for subjective well-being. Social Indicators Research, 35(2), 179–200.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cummins, R. A., & Gullone, E. (2000). Why we should not use 5-point Likert scales: The case for subjective quality of life measurement. Proceedings of the second international conference on quality of life in cities (pp. 74–93). Singapore: National University of Singapore.

  • Cummins, R., & Lau, A. (2005). Personal wellbeing index–school children. Victoria: Australian Centre on Quality of Life, School of Psychology, Deakin University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95(3), 542–575.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125(2), 276.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Scollon, C. N. (2006). Beyond the hedonic treadmill: Revising the adaptation theory of well-being. American Psychologist, 61,305–314.

  • Dinisman, T., & Ben-Arieh, A. (2016). The characteristics of children’s subjective well-being. Social Indicators Research, 126(2), 555–569.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dinisman, T., Fernandes, L., & Main, G. (2015). Findings from the first wave of the ISCWeB project: International perspectives on child subjective well-being. Child Indicators Research, 8(1), 1–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilman, R., & Huebner, S. (2003). A review of life satisfaction research with children and adolescents. School Psychology Quarterly, 18(2), 192–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Headey, B. (2010). The set point theory of well-being has serious flaws: on the eve of a scientific revolution?. Social Indicators Research, 97(1), 7-21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Headey, B., & Wearing, A. (1989). Personality, life events, and subjective well-being: Toward a dynamic equilibrium model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(4), 731–739.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helliwell, J. F., Layard, R., & Sachs, J. (2013). World happiness report. New York: The Earth Institute, Columbia University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2–3), 61–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huebner, E. S. (1991). Further validation of the students’ life satisfaction scale: The independence of satisfaction and affect ratings. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 9(4), 363–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huebner, E. S. (2004). Research on assessment of life satisfaction of children and adolescents. Social Indicators Research, 66(1–2), 3–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huebner, E. S., Seligson, J. L., Valois, R. F., & Suldo, S. M. (2006). A review of the brief multidimensional students’ life satisfaction scale. Social Indicators Research, 79(3), 477–484.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huebner, E. S., Antaramian, S. P., Hills, K. J., Lewis, A. D., & Saha, R. (2011). Stability and predictive validity of the brief multidimensional students’ life satisfaction scale. Child Indicators Research, 4(1), 161–168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D., & Krueger, A. B. (2006). Developments in the measurement of subjective well-being. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(1), 3–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenny, D. A. (2011). Measuring model fit. Retrieved from http://davidakenny.net/

    Google Scholar 

  • Klocke, A., Clair, A., & Bradshaw, J. (2014). International variation in child subjective well-being. Child Indicators Research, 7(1), 1–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kosher, H., & Ben-Arieh, A. (2017). What children think about their rights and their well-being: A cross-national comparison. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 87(3), 256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, B. J., & Yoo, M. S. (2015). Family, school, and community correlates of children’s subjective well-being: An international comparative study. Child Indicators Research, 8(1), 151–175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, B. J., & Yoo, M. S. (2017). What accounts for the variations in children's subjective well-being across nations? A decomposition method study. Children and Youth Services Review, 80, 15–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melton, G., & Limber, S. (1992). What children’s rights mean to children: Children’s own views. In M. Freeman & P. Veerman (Eds.), The ideologies of children’s rights (pp. 167–187). Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff.

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD. (2013). OECD guidelines on measuring subjective well-being. OECD publishing: Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264191655-en.

  • OECD. (2017a). How's life? 2017: Measuring well-being. Paris: OECD Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD. (2017b). OECD work on health. Paris: OECD Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD. (n.d.). About the OECD. Retrieved from: https://www.oecd.org/about/.

  • Raghavan, R., & Alexandrova, A. (2015). Toward a theory of child well-being. Social Indicators Research, 121(3), 887–902.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rees, G., & Dinisman, T. (2015). Comparing children’s experiences and evaluations of their lives in 11 different countries. Child Indicators Research, 8(1), 5–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rees, G., & Main, G. (Eds.) (2015). Children's views on their lives and well-being in 15 countries: A report on the Children's worlds survey, 2013-14. York: Children's Worlds Project (ISCWeB).

  • Rees, G., Goswami, H., & Bradshaw, J. (2010). Developing an index of children’s subjective well-being in England. London: The Children’s Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rees, G., Andresen, S. & Bradshaw, J. (eds) (2016) Children’s views on their lives and well-being in 16 countries: A report on the Children’s Worlds survey of children aged eight years old, 2013-15. York, UK: Children’s Worlds Project (ISCWeB).

  • Seligson, J. L., Huebner, E. S., & Valois, R. F. (2003). Preliminary validation of the brief multidimensional Students' life satisfaction scale (BMSLSS). Social Indicators Research, 61(2), 121–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiglitz, J., Sen, A., & Fitoussi, J. P. (2009). The measurement of economic performance and social progress revisited. Commission on the measurement of economic performance and social Progress, Paris.

  • Tomyn, A. J., & Cummins, R. A. (2011). The subjective wellbeing of high-school students: Validating the personal wellbeing index-school children. Social Indicators Research, 101(3), 405–418.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations. (1989). Convention on the rights of the child. New York: Author.

  • Vittersø, J., Biswas-Diener, R., & Diener, E. (2005). The divergent meanings of life satisfaction: Item response modeling of the satisfaction with life scale in Greenland and Norway. Social Indicators Research, 74(2), 327–348.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt Scopus, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel

    Noam Tarshish

Authors
  1. Noam Tarshish
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Noam Tarshish.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tarshish, N. Children’s Multidimensional Subjective Well-Being in OECD and Non-OECD Countries: Is Cross-Country Comparison Possible?. Child Ind Res 13, 51–66 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-019-09651-5

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-019-09651-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation