Title

Multilevel Analysis of Child and Adolescent Subjective Well‐Being Across 14 Countries: Child‐ and Country‐Level Predictors

Journal Title

Child Development

Publication Date

2019

Abstract

This study tests an ecological, relationship-based model of children's subjective well-being with 9- to 14-year-old children (n = 25,906) from 14 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. Children completed the Children's Worlds survey, a self-report measure of contextual and well-being indicators. Multilevel modeling was used to predict children's well-being (life satisfaction and self-image) at two levels, child (age, gender, home context, family relationships, peer relationships, school context, teacher relationships, and neighborhood quality), and country (gross domestic product and income inequality). Findings indicated that intercepts varied significantly across countries. The majority of variance in children's well-being was attributed to child-level rather than country-level factors. Country-level factors did not strongly predict well-being but marginally improved model fit.

Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences | Social Work

Volume

90

Issue

2

DOI

10.1111/cdev.13134

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