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Understanding the Well-Being of Children and Adolescents Through Homeostatic Theory

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Handbook of Child Well-Being

Abstract

This chapter concerns the subjective well-being (SWB) of children and adolescents (hereafter “children”) within the context of SWB homeostasis. This is an overarching theory which attempts to explain and predict how SWB interacts with other variables. The theory was developed in relation to adult well-being, so whether its tenants apply to children is a major test of validity. The theory’s claims apply to SWB in general, so the empirical support cannot be age specific, with the caveat of maturational adequacy in relation to some cognitive processes. The idea of homeostasis is proposed as a way of understanding mood happiness, so all relevant findings from the adult literature must also apply to children. This chapter first introduces the adult concept of SWB homeostasis and then reviews the relevant data generated from children. It is concluded that there is a reasonable match between such data and theoretical prediction. Thus, SWB homeostasis appears to be an applicable conceptual framework to understand mood happiness in children.

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Acknowledgment

I thank Ann-Marie James for her assistance in the preparation of this chapter.

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  1. School of Psychology, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Hwy, 3125, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Robert A. Cummins

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  1. Robert A. Cummins
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  1. Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Asher Ben-Arieh

  2. Research Institute of Quality of Life, University of Girona, Girona, Spain

    Ferran Casas

  3. Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Ivar Frønes

  4. Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Jill E. Korbin

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Cummins, R.A. (2014). Understanding the Well-Being of Children and Adolescents Through Homeostatic Theory. In: Ben-Arieh, A., Casas, F., Frønes, I., Korbin, J. (eds) Handbook of Child Well-Being. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9063-8_152

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9063-8_152

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-9062-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-90-481-9063-8

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