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Comparative international studies on children's happiness and life satisfaction using child-centric measures are gathering much interest. The aim of this exploratory study is to expand the literature in this area by examining the typologies of children's well-being across various domains of their lives. The present study utilizes data from ten countries that participated in the first wave of the International Survey of Child Well-Being (ISCWeB). Latent Profile Analysis was utilized to identify the latent classes extracted from the Personal Well-being Index—School Children (PWI-SC). We then examined how children's overall life satisfaction and happiness differ across classes using ANOVA. We found the 6-class model to be the best fitting model. Children were identified to be in classes entitled, “high satisfaction overall,” “high overall satisfaction but low satisfaction for outside activity” “medium satisfaction overall,” “low satisfaction with health and safety,” “high satisfaction with health and low satisfaction with safety and ability,” and “low overall satisfaction.” Findings from ANOVA analysis suggest that classes significantly differ in terms of their overall life satisfaction and happiness. The implications of the study findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined subjective well-being of 10- to 12-year-old children from rural South Korea ( n = 489) and rural United States ( n = 1286) using the Children's Worlds Survey within the framework of the ecological, relationship-based model of children's subjective well-being. Applying Structural Equation Modeling to the analysis, a large proportion of the variance was explained and children's subjective well-being was predicted in both countries by microsystem factors of family relationships, parent involvement, and school quality, and individual factors of age (younger), and gender (male). Additional microsystem factors predicting subjective well-being were neighborhood quality in South Korea, and peer relationships in the United States, which may reflect contextual influences of collectivistic (South Korea) and individualistic (United States) macrosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study examines whether the US public health insurance program Medicaid suppresses racial disparities in parental identification of service needs of their children with special health care needs (CSHCN). We analyze data from the 2001 US National Survey of CSHCN (n = 14,167 children). We examine three outcomes which were parental identification of (a) the child''s need for professional care coordination, (b) the child''s need for mental health services, and (c) the family''s need for mental health services. A suppression analysis, which is a form of mediation analysis, was conducted. Our results show a disparity, reflected in a negative direct effect of race for all three outcomes: Black parents of CSHCN are less likely to report a need for services than White parents of CSHCN and Medicaid coverage was associated with reduced racial disparities in reporting the need for services. These analyses suggest receipt of Medicaid is associated with a suppression of racial disparities in reported need for services. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This analysis examines whether young children''s (N =494) general physical health is associated with parental employment, welfare receipt, and health care access within a low-income population transitioning from welfare to work. A latent physical health measure derived from survey and medical chart data is used to capture children''s poor health, and parental ratings of child health are used to identify excellent health. Controlling for a host of factors associated with children''s health outcomes, results show that children of caregivers who are unemployed and off welfare have better health than children of caregivers who are working and off welfare. Children whose caregivers are unemployed and on welfare, or combining work and welfare, have health outcomes similar to children of caregivers who are working and off welfare. Health care access characteristics, such as gaps in health insurance coverage, source of primary care setting, and type of health insurance are associated with children''s general physical health. Implications of these results for state TANF programs are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Growing evidence supports the hypothesis that income inequality within a nation influences health outcomes net of the effect of any given household’s absolute income. We tested the hypothesis that state-level income inequality in the United States is associated with increased family burden for care and health-related expenditures for low-income families of children with special health care needs. We analyzed the 2005–06 wave of the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs, a probability sample of approximately 750 children with special health care needs in each state and the District of Columbia in the US Our measure of state-level income inequality was the Gini coefficient. Dependent measures of family caregiving burden included whether the parent received help arranging or coordinating the child’s care and whether the parent stopped working due to the child’s health. Dependent measures of family financial burden included absolute burden (spending in past 12 months for child’s health care needs) and relative burden (spending as a proportion of total family income). After controlling for a host of child, family, and state factors, including family income and measures of the severity of a child’s impairments, state-level income inequality has a significant and independent association with family burden related to the health care of their children with special health care needs. Families of children with special health care needs living in states with greater levels of income inequality report higher rates of absolute and relative financial burden. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This analysis summarizes trends in family economic well-being from five non-experimental, longitudinal welfare-to-work studies launched following the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). The studies include a sizable group of parents and other caregivers who received TANF at the point of sample selection or shortly thereafter, and share a wide range of similar measures of economic well-being. This analysis provides descriptive information on how these families are faring over time. Our results confirm what has been found by previous studies. Many families remain dependent on public benefits, and are either poor or near-poor, despite gains in some indicators of economic well-being. We caution that these aggregate statistics may mask important heterogeneity among families. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]