Subjective Social Indicators and Child and Adolescent Well-being

Abstract

This paper reflects on the opportunity to take steps in the direction of proposing international systems of subjective social indicators of children's and adolescents' well-being. In order to contextualize such a reflection, a brief summary of the historical and epistemological foundations of the concept of social indicators, and of some of the controversies associated with the research results during the first decades of its existence, is made. Such foundations, research results and consequent debates have mostly been developed considering only adult populations, but they are reviewed here to explore research goals in relation to children's and adolescents' well-being and to link these goals to political action and decision making and the evaluation of its impact. The lack of internationaly comparable subjective data on children's and adolescents' well-being at the macro level may be related, among other things, to the lack of political importance given to the younger population's point of view and to the lack of consistent or convincing research at a micro-level indicating what data-collection instruments are appropriate for making cross-national or cross-cultural comparisons. However, at present, research on children's and adolescents' own points of view about their living conditions-although still in its early stages and very heterogeneous-is already showing rapid advances and even provocative and unexpected results, of which a few examples are given. Tested instruments are already available, but systematic data collection is still scarce, and comparable data to be used for international comparisons is infrequent. Systematic data collection of children's and adolescents' perceptions, evaluations and aspirations that can be used as subjective social indicators requires political will, associated with the conviction that such data can be useful for decision-making and for evaluating social change. An increasing international interest in children's rights to social participation seems to be an opportunity to promote links with research on childrens' and adolescents' well-being, both objective and subjective.

Food Indicators and Their Relationship with 10 to 12 Year-olds’ Subjective Well-Being

“…In a previous study (González et al in press) based on a sample of adolescent and young adults (15-24 years old) regarding their personal well-being (using the adult version of the Personal Well-being Index by Cummins and Lau (2006)), differences were found according to The life satisfaction domain to obtain the highest mean from the PWI-SC was -having good relationships with other people‖, which the children displayed a high awareness of, demonstrating the importance of interpersonal relationships and presumably the social support children receive from parents, classmates, teachers and close friends (Demaray & Malecki 2002;Casas, 2010;Goswami, H, 2011).…”

“…The life satisfaction domain to obtain the highest mean from the PWI-SC was -having good relationships with other people‖, which the children displayed a high awareness of, demonstrating the importance of interpersonal relationships and presumably the social support children receive from parents, classmates, teachers and close friends (Demaray & Malecki 2002;Casas, 2010;Goswami 2011).…”

Development of Subjective Well-Being Increasing Strategies Scale for Children (1-5 Ages) Their Mothers Use

“…Children with high levels of subjective well-being have been found associated with showing less psychopathological symptoms, being more resilient and exhibit a positive development patterns (Casas, 2011). These results suggest that the level of subjective well-being of children should be raised.…”

Implicación Escolar De Estudiantes De Secundaria: La Influencia De La Resiliencia, El Autoconcepto Y El Apoyo Social Percibido

“…87-108 ponentes conductual, emocional y cognitivo de la implicación escolar. La opción de considerar simultáneamente distintos elementos se ajusta adecuadamente a las complejas interacciones persona-contexto que facilitan el bienestar del alumnado, siendo este el camino por el que se precisa avanzar para obtener una explicación cabal de la conducta adolescente (Casas, 2011;Rodríguez-Fernández, et al, 2012).…”

“…Pero también se deberían incluir medidas más concretas del apoyo de los amigos o del apoyo de la familia, como por ejemplo el estatus sociométrico del alumno en su grupo de clase o los estilos educativos parentales, de forma que se pueda comprobar si, al incluir estas medidas más exhaustivas de ambos tipos de apoyo, se ayuda a explicar en mayor medida la implicación escolar. Ahora bien, siguiendo la idea planteada al inicio de este apartado de considerar diferentes elementos al mismo tiempo (contextuales, psicológicos y conductuales) que ayuden a dar una explicación más real de la conducta adolescente (Casas, 2011), será arantzazu rodríguez-fernández, estibaliz ramos-díaz, iker ros martínez de lahidalga y ana zuazagoitia rey-baltar implicación escolar de estudiantes de secundaria: la influencia de la resiliencia,...…”