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Bridging the Gap: Conceptual and Empirical Dimensions of Child Wellbeing in Rural Mexico

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An Erratum to this article was published on 23 March 2013

Abstract

While conceptualizations of child wellbeing usually include multiple dimensions and complex notions, measurements of child wellbeing often tend to be simpler. This mismatch between concepts and measurements is often rooted in a limitation in the instruments that were originally conceived to assess child wellbeing. This paper aims to help in closing this gap by proposing a model that measures child wellbeing in a multi-dimensional way. With the aid of structural equation modeling (SEM), the model examines the physical health, cognitive ability, motor co-ordination, and emotional competence of around 2,000 children aged four to 6 years in poor rural communities in Mexico. Data is extracted from the Household Evaluation Survey-2003 (Encuesta de Evaluación de Hogares, ENCEL-2003). This paper concludes that further investments in the measurement of child wellbeing are needed, particularly in relation to subjective wellbeing, time use, and the role of children within the household and in society. Nevertheless, while more data is collected, this paper also concludes that SEM appears to be a great aid in exploring multiple dimensions of child wellbeing simultaneously.

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Notes

  1. A new wave was conducted in 2007 but it does not contain information that would serve the purposes of this study.

  2. There does not seem to be a strict guideline for what values of Chi Square would be adequate. Common practice indicates that “the lower the better”. Nevertheless, values of Chi Square should be read conjointly with the other tests while assessing the robustness of a model.

  3. The norms for these tests are available for month-specific age-groups. For example, 48, 50, 52, 54(…) 72 months of age and not only 4, 5, or 6 years.

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Acknowledgments

Research has been conducted with funding from CONACYT and data from Oportunidades. Eternal gratitude to Robert Walker and Mark Tomlinson for their permanent support and fruitful discussions. Special thanks to the anonymous reviewers whose attention to detail and comments have enriched this paper. Content and veracity remain the sole responsibility of the author.

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  1. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Laura J. Valadez Martinez

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Correspondence to Laura J. Valadez Martinez.

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Software utilized: AnthroPlus v1.0.2; MPlus version 5.21; SPSS version 16.0; WJ III NU Compuscores and Profiles Program version 3.1.

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Valadez Martinez, L.J. Bridging the Gap: Conceptual and Empirical Dimensions of Child Wellbeing in Rural Mexico. Soc Indic Res 116, 567–591 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0289-8

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