2. PEER GROUP
FAMILY
PARENT - CHILD
INDIVIDUAL
NEIGHBOURHOOD
SCHOOL
MESOSYSTEM
EXOSYSTEM
CHRONOSYSTEM
MACROSYSTEM
Created based on Bronfenbrenner (1998)
Indirect influences
of economic, social,
education,legal,
political systems
Shared valuesor
belief systemsof
a group
Eventsor
experiencesover
the life course
3. Childrenare …
… developing.
… dependenton caretakers (micro).
… dependenton politics,economy(exo/macro).
Ben-Arieh et al. (2014):
“Children’swell-being is rootedin the interplayof a series of
factorson the micro level,framed by the social structures of the
wider society.”
▪ Child and adult subjective wellbeing are relatively
independent
▪ What influences adult subjective wellbeing is different from
what influences children’s subjective wellbeing (Rees, 2017)
4. Subjective
wellbeing (SWB)
Hedonic tradition
Cognitive A B
Emotional
Psychological
wellbeing (PWB)
Eudaimonic tradition
1
1. Life satisfaction 2. Positive affects
3. Negative affects
Good fit of tripartite and quadripartite model
Remarks:
▪ Research mainly used life satisfaction as sole
indicator (Rees et al., 2020)
▪ Affect is not appropriately included: focus on
positive affect (Savahl et al., 2021)
▪ Use single-item scales, despite psychometric
superiority multi-item scales
Overview mainly based on:
Savahl, Casas, & Adams (2021)
Moreta-Herrera et al. (2023)
Ryff, Morozink Boylan, Kirsch (2021)
a) Overall life satisfaction
b) Satisfactionin different
life domains
Autonomy
Self-acceptance
Mastery
Positive relations
Purpose in life
Personal growth
4
2 5
3 6
Researchin childrenisscarce
▪ Children’sSociety,UK
▪ International Survey of Children’s
Wellbeing(CW-PSWBS scale)
Remarks:
▪ Similar structure within countries
▪ Cross-country comparisons not possible
▪ Need for further research
▪ Need for further scale development
▪ Firstattempts
(Strelhow et al., 2020;
Moreta-Herrera et al.,
2023)
▪ Support foran
integrative model
in adolescents
Integrativeview
5. ▪ Increase in SWBbetween6-10 years
▪ Decline from 10years
▪ Resultsvary acrossscales
▪ Differentdomainsof SWB
(Casas & González-Carrasco, 2018; Aymerich et al., 2021)
▪ Girlshave loweroverall SWB, but
findingsvary across domains
▪ Relative importance of domainsfor SWB
variesacross sex (Kaye-Tzadok, Kim, & Main
(2017)
▪ Evidence forinteractionwithage: higher
life satisfactioningirlsin childhood,but
lowerin adolescence (Aymerich et al., 2021)
▪ Limited evidence of associations between SWB and country-level macro indicators
▪ Variation across countries (Bradshaw & Rees, 2017)
▪ Variation across SWB components (affective component, certain life satisfaction domains) (Casas et al. 2022)
▪ Family relationships
▪ Parental wellbeing
▪ Bullyingvictimisation
▪ Social exclusion
Child > parent-reported
6. Sabrina Twilhaar, PhD
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions/UKRI Fellow
University of Warwick, UK
sabrina.twilhaar@warwick.ac.uk
