Variations in Children’s Well-Being Within Countries

Abstract

This chapter focuses on variations in individual children’s subjective well-being within countries and looks at some factors that might potentially explain them. It takes a comparative approach through looking at similarities and differences in patterns of associations across countries. One source of potential variation is demographic characteristics such as age and gender. Variations according to children’s age group and gender have already been discussed in Chaps. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. A brief synthesis of the findings is presented. The chapter then goes on to look at two factors that are potentially amenable to change through policy or practice interventions – material deprivation and negative peer experiences. These are both factors that have been found to be associated with children’s overall sense of well-being in some studies in specific countries. The analysis presented shows that the strength of association between these factors and children’s life satisfaction varies from country to country. The chapter concludes with a brief look at the subjective well-being of children in specific circumstances – children not born in the country of the survey and children not living with their family – analysis of this kind may highlight particular sub-groups of the child population where targeted interventions could help to improve children’s experienced quality of life.