Multi-national study of children’s subjective well-being: learning from the pilot work in England...

Multi-national study of children’s subjective well-being: learning from the pilot work in England

Larissa Pople, The Children’s Society

International Society for Child Indicators Conference, 29th July 2011

The pilot work in England


Objectives of the pilot work

• To examine the questionnaire and its utility for the entire population

• To test children’s understanding of the questionnaire by age and culture

• To compare within and between countries


Learning from previous research


• The Children’s Society’s experience of carrying out research on children’s SWB has taught us that UK children understand the wording ‘happy with’ better than ‘satisfied with’.

• Since our surveys have focused on SWB rather than behaviour, we have not included questions about time use.

• We also know that absolute necessities are almost universal in the UK (we are developing a child-centred list of socially perceived necessities with the University of York)

Learning from cognitive testing interviews


In August 2010, we carried out cognitive testing interviews with 6 boys and 3 girls aged 8 and 9. Key findings include:

• This age group tends to give very high ratings for SWB, although sometimes their comments suggest that a lower rating would have been justified, like in this comment

“I wasn’t sure whether to write 10 or 9 [she put 10], because some of them I really like, and some I less like. Like the [teacher that she’d described earlier], she just told off people for no reason like if they were just out of their seats sharpening their pencils, she would be like ‘Go back to your seat!’…” 8-year-old girl



• Comparisons may not work as intended with this age group:

‘Compared to other children you know, how well off (rich/wealthy) do you think your family is?’

‘Compared to other families in your area, how well off (rich/wealthy) do you think your family is?’

Children tended to think about people that they know in response to both questions.



• Health and appearance

This age group seems to understand ‘health’ primarily in terms of healthy eating and keeping fit, and not about being free from illness. We therefore made some changes in wording e.g. How happy are you with…

‘your health’ – added (feeling well or unwell)

[we added a question about ‘the food you eat’]

‘your body’ – dropped

‘the amount of exercise you do’ – kept the same

‘your appearance’ – added (the way that you look)



• Certain forms of wording didn’t work well for this age group, including ‘How happy are you with…’

‘your relationships with your school mates’ – changed to ‘the children in your class’

‘what may happen to you later on in life’ – added (in the future)

‘the groups of people you belong to’ – dropped

‘the things you have achieved in life’ - dropped

‘your self’ - dropped

‘your religion (or spirituality)’ - dropped



• Other questions that didn’t work well for this age group include:

‘On average how much money of your own do you have to spend each week?’ – changed to ‘pocket money’. Also changed free text box to tick box categories

‘Where do you live’ (city/town/village/countryside) - dropped

Learning from focus group research


In July/Sept 2010, we carried out focus groups with 26 children aged 8-11. Key findings include the importance of:

• Events and celebrations e.g. birthdays and Christmas

• The unkind/upsetting behaviour of friends, peers and siblings e.g. teasing, arguing, unkindness etc

• The local area e.g. a pleasant environment & things to do - we also asked about ‘the groups that you belong to’

• Freedom and choice

• National/international issues e.g. poverty, homelessness, crime

Learning from the pilot surveys


In July & October 2010, we carried out 2 pilot surveys with 75 and 346 children aged 8 and 9. Key findings include high levels of missing data for certain questions:

Changes in children’s lives

• ‘Did you live in the same local area a year ago as you do now?’ (31%)

• ‘Were you living with the same adults this time last year?’ (20%)

• ‘Have you moved house in the past year?’ (12%)

• ‘Have you changed school in the past year?’ (8%)



• ‘What would you say is your religion?’ (19%)

• ‘Do you have difficulties with learning?’ (16%)

• ‘How many adults that you live with have a paid job?’ (15%)

• ‘Which of the following best describes the home you live in?’ (9%)

• I live with my family

• I live in a children's home

• I live in another type of home

• ‘Which people do you live with?’ (changed ‘mother’s partner / father’s partner’ to ‘stepfather / stepmother’)

• Pocket money


Material items or ‘socially perceived necessities’.

• A games console like an Xbox, PS3, DS or Wii (6%)

• Money to buy treats like sweets, chocolate, crisps, pizza or chips once a week (16%)

• Your own mobile phone (16%)

• At least one holiday away from home each year (21%)

• A garden or somewhere nearby where you can play out (10%)

Response options: ‘I have this’, ‘I don’t have this but I would like it’, ‘I don’t have this and I don’t want or need it’, ‘Don’t’ know’.




0-10 ‘happiness with…’ scales

N Mean Std. Deviation

% unhappy

% 10 out of 10

Home* 334 8.87 2.239 4% 74%

Local area 336 8.43 2.525 6% 74%

Family* 327 8.97 2.292 6% 74%

School* 321 8.92 2.314 7% 73%

Money/Possessions* 334 9.08 1.96 3% 72%

Friends* 337 9.04 2.058 3% 72%

Health* 326 8.56 2.44 5% 72%

Safety 326 8.95 2.163 6% 72%

Teachers 339 8.86 2.429 7% 71%

Enjoying self 332 9 2.123 4% 70%

Learning from the pilot survey


0-10 ‘happiness with…’ scales

N Mean Std. Deviation

% unhappy

% 10 out of 10

Time use* 330 8.7 2.224 5% 63%

Appearance* 331 8.54 2.63 10% 63%

Choice* 330 8.55 2.478 7% 63%

School work 337 8.71 2.286 5% 62%

Exercise 328 8.45 2.529 7% 62%

Food 330 9.07 2.018 7% 60%

Confidence 331 8.48 2.381 7% 57%

Class mates 342 8.53 2.317 4% 56%

Listened to 329 8.38 2.492 6% 54%

Future* 325 8.17 2.694 9% 52%



Overall well-being:

• Huebner scale

• My life is going well

• My life is just right

• I wish I had a different kind of life

• I have a good life

• I have what I want in life

• Good reliability, stability and single construct for 10 to 15-year-olds

• Not so good for 8 and 9-year-olds, and high % missing values

Learning from the mainstage survey


1. Here is a picture of a ladder. The top of the ladder ‘10’ is the best possible life for you and the bottom ‘0’ is the worst possible life for you. I n general, where on the ladder do you feel you stand at the moment? Tick the box next to the number that best describes where you stand.

c 10 Best possible life

c 9

c 8

c 7

c 6

c 5

c 4

c 3

c 2

c 1

c 0 Worst possible life

Conclusions


‘To test children’s understanding of the questionnaire by age and culture’

• We carried out cognitive testing, focus groups, two pilot surveys and a mainstage survey with 8 and 9-year-olds in England

• Certain forms of wording do not work for this age group

• High levels of missing data for certain questions

• Heavily skewed distributions with majority scoring 10/10

• Overall well-being questions worked differently for this age group, Cantril’s ladder appears to work best

Multi-national study of children’s subjective well-being: learning from the pilot work in England

Larissa Pople, The Children’s Society


Multi-national study of children’s subjective well-being: learning from the pilot work in England...

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