The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. INTERNATIONAL VARIATION IN CHILD SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING Andreas Klocke, Amy Clair and Jonathan BradshawAbstract Does the subjective well-being of children vary between countries? How does it vary? What explains that variation? In the past the subjective well-being of children has been compared at country level using published data derived from comparable international surveys, most commonly the Health Behaviour of School-aged Children survey. The league tables of child well-being produced in this way are fairly consistent. Thus for example the Netherlands consistently comes top of the rankings of OECD countries. Why is this? How does the Netherlands achieve this? In seeking to explain these national rankings we tend to explore associations with other national league tables. Thus in the UNICEF Report Card 11 (RC11), country ranking on subjective well-being were compared with country rankings on more objective domains of well-being -material, health, education, housing and so on, all at a macro level. In this paper we explore international variations in subjective well-being using micro data from the HBSC 2009-10 survey. We use the same indicators of subjective wellbeing as were used in RC11. We establish that the components form a reliable index. The ranking of countries is very similar to that obtained at a macro level. We also explore the distribution of subjective well-being. We then control for a number of factors associated with variations in subjective well-being at a micro level and, using linear regression with a country fixed effects model, establish whether national differences in subjective well-being are still sustained having taken into account of these independent factors. There are some changes in the ranking of countries having taken account of, particularly, behavioural indicators such as bullying. A multilevel model, taking into account country and school level effects, shows that that the effects of child characteristics on subjective well-being vary across countries.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of sin-gle-parent families on the health of young peo-ple. Database is the 2010 HBSC survey as well as the 2002 and 2006 data for trend analysis. Findings show that there is a weak but significant effect of single-parent families on the health and health-behaviour of young people. There has been little change in the findings between 2002 and 2010.

No abstract

The aim of the HBSC-Study is to collect data on the physical and mental health and health behaviour of children and adolescents and to gain a deeper insight into their situation and the specific environment they grow up in. The HBSC-study is an international school-based cross-sectional survey conducted in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). The survey takes place every 4 years since 1982 and is based on a standardised protocol. In Germany the survey was first conducted in 1994 as a pilot study in North Rhine-Westphalia. The German sample is based on a random sample of classes in all public schools in Germany. 11-, 13-, and 15-year-old pupils are surveyed by means of a paper and pencil questionnaire. The questionnaire comprises a broad selection of -topics, including sociodemographics, health and risk behaviours, family, school and peers. The reported trends in the supplement are based on the data from surveys in 2002 (N=5.650), 2006 (N=7.274) and 2010 (N=5.005). The representative samples for each of the survey years are defined as follows: in 2002 the data is based on information collected in 4 Federal States (Berlin, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony); in 2006 5 states define the German data file (Berlin, Hamburg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony). The data from the 2010 survey comprises data from 15 Federal States. The HBSC-data contributes towards a better understanding of the relationship between health and living conditions of young people. The papers in this supplement deliver important insights into the living context of young people and in doing this they provide important information about their health and the long-term effectiveness of public-health-measures.

No abstract

Social capital addresses networks and ties, which deliver support, information and trust for the members of these networks. Being a member of such a network is your social capital, which in turn might improve your quality of life. This paper investigates the impact of social capital on the health and health behaviour of children in their growing up process. Therefore, the panel design employed includes 10 to 12year-old school children, followed up for three annual waves. The data used is from the German survey of Health Behaviour and Injuries in School-Age-A Panel Study 2013-2020 (N ≈ 10.000 per wave). We took a longitudinal perspective to estimate the impact of changes in the social capital's volume on health-related variables by relying on fixed effects models. Furthermore, we analysed whether the effect of social capital differs between certain socio-demographic groups, e. g. between children from high-and lowprivileged households. The findings suggested a causal influence of social capital on their health and health behaviour. Intrapersonal changes in social capital significantly affected an individual's health and health behaviour. Moreover, this effect was evenly distributed among all the socio-demographic groups, meaning that all children benefit from an increase in social capital in the same way. This suggested that for the health development of all children and adolescents, it is of foremost importance to build and stimulate social networks and resources (social capital) rather than concentrating solely on the financial aid.

Today, children and young people represent the age group that is most frequently threatened by poverty in Germany. Poverty during childhood means a bad start to life and often has long-term effects on an adolescent's social and health development. Health problems are more frequent among preschool-age children from socially disadvantaged families. They are also more often affected by accidents and dental problems. In adolescence, links can be established between the social situation and psychosocial well-being, pain incidence and health behaviour. However, poverty does not inevitably go hand-in-hand with health problems. A stable and supporting social environment -- particularly in families, peer groups and schools -- promotes the development of a positive self-image and social skills, thus empowering the child to deal with demanding living conditions. Measures of social and health policy aimed at lessening the effects of poverty on health must start here.

No abstract