Children, Adolescents and Quality of Life: The Social Sciences Perspective Over Two Decades

Children's Experiences of Bullying Victimization and the Influence on Their Subjective Well‐Being: A Multinational Comparison

“…SEM usually proceeds with the testing of the measurement model using Confirmatory Factory Analysis. The measurement model (SLSS) has previously shown good fit statistics with multinational samples (see Casas, ; Casas & Rees, ; Savahl et al., ). In the current study, the measurement model (SLSS), with the overall pooled sample, presented with an adequate fit which improved considerably with the inclusion of one error covariance between Items 4 and 5.…”

“…For the independent variables (the two items on bullying), listwise deletion was used, an appropriate method when the data are MCAR as it will not produce bias in the parameter estimates (Allison, ; Nakai & Ke, ). For the SLSS, the recommendation of Casas () was followed—cases with three or more missing items were deleted ( n = 2,256) and those with two or less were imputed by regression ( n = 1,860). After data cleaning and depuration of the data sets, the overall sample of the Children's Worlds Study of 53,164 was reduced by 6,135 missing cases to yield a final sample for the current study of 47,029 across the three age groups and regions.…”

The Children's Delphi: considerations for developing a programme for promoting children's self‐concept and well‐being

“…According to Hasson, Keeney, & McKenna (), the participants should be selected purposively to form a panel of informed experts who have knowledge of the subject or problem under investigation. While the Delphi panel traditionally consists of adult experts who are perceived to be the experts in their professional field related to the Delphi aim, current research supports the importance of children as key informants and competent informers around issues related to their lives (Casas, ).…”

“…However, there remains a gap in the literature with regard to children's own perceptions and understandings of the nature and content of intervention programmes aimed to improve children's self‐concept and well‐being. The inclusion of children's perspectives on issues related to their well‐being is increasingly supported by current child research, as stated by Casas ():

Children are slowly being recognized as key informants and competent informers on their own lives. Consequently, their voices, their evaluations and their points of view are increasingly more accepted as key sources of information in scientific research (p. 9).

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Introduction to the Special Section on Children's Subjective Well‐Being

“…A different tradition based on social sciences, has been most frequently dedicated to macrolevel research, receiving contributions from many disciplines, including the sociological tradition studying childhood as a social phenomenon (Qvortrup, ), and the tradition of the social indicators movement (Bauer, ; Casas, ), frequently aiming to monitor the “state of children” in large populations. According to Ben‐Arieh (), this confluence of social disciplines have given birth to what is currently known as “the child indicators movement.” The same author points to five major global trends that have contributed to this movement: The recognition of children's rights at international level, particularly after the adoption of the United Nations Convention. The “new” sociology of childhood (Gaitán, ). The ecology of child development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, ). New methodological perspectives in child studies: valuing the subjective viewpoints of child participants, accepting children as a unit of observation, and systematically collecting child statistics in certain countries. The desire to improve policy decisions by collecting and disseminating better data on all areas of child and adolescent life. …”