Search

Copyright of Sociedad e Infancias is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Despite the increased interest in recent decades in the study of children's subjective well-being (SWB), studies in this area are still rare, especially cross-national large-scale surveys that study SWB of children from different nations and cultures. Only, few studies addressed the aspect of religion in cross cultural studies on children's SWB. The present study is among the first to investigate how children from different religion groups evaluate their SWB, utilizing the Children's Worlds survey second wave data set with questionnaires from over 38,000 children aged 10–12 from 16 countries around the world. We divided the full sample of children into six religion groups by the dominant religion in each country: Christian from Western countries (including Protestant and Catholic), Eastern Christians (Orthodox Christian), Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Asian-Christians/Buddhists. Our descriptive results indicate significant variations in children's SWB between different religion groups. We found that Jews, Muslims, and Eastern Christian children tend to be more satisfied with life as a whole as well as with different aspects of life (family, friends and self), and that Hindu and Asian-Christian/Buddhist children tend to be less happy and less satisfied. Yet, variations tests as well as regressions analysis indicates that religion explains only very little of the variance. Significant religion differences in the strength of the correlations between children's satisfaction with different life domains and between their satisfactions with their life as a whole were observed as well. Stronger correlations appeared among Asian-Christian/Buddhist children, and the weaker correlations were among Hindu children. Based on these results we conclude that religion structures the context in which children's SWB is formed. And that the SWB of children is being shaped differently in various religion cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses interrelationships among the notions of children's rights, school psychological services, and child well-being assessments. Increasing attention has been paid in recent years to the notions of children's rights, as best expressed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). In the current paper, we discuss the relevance of the emerging conceptions of children's rights to the school context. We argue that given the centrality of schooling to children's lives, school psychologists, who are serving in the role of child advocates, are in a unique position to contribute to integrating the children's rights movement and educational progress. Situated within the context of the CRC and the practice of school psychology, we further discuss how advances in child well-being assessment can inform the implementation and evaluation of CRC principles and related policies. We propose that the use of evidence-based, developmentally appropriate objective and subjective measures of well-being should contribute a key component to meaningful assessments of the status of children's rights and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have brought important changes to the profession of school psychology, influenced by larger social, scientific, and political trends. These trends include the emergence of children's rights agenda and advances in children's well-being measurement. During these years, a growing public attention and commitment to the notion of children's rights has developed, which is best expressed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention outlines the conditions necessary to ensure and promote children's well-being and calls for the ongoing monitoring of children's well-being for accountability purposes. We articulate advances in children's rights and children's well-being measurement in the context of children's schooling experiences in general and for school psychology in particular. We highlight implications for the assessment roles of school psychologists, who occupy a unique position at the intersection of multiple subsystems of children's overall ecosystems. We argue that the synergy between a fights-based agenda and advances in children's well-being assessment methodology can provide valuable opportunities for school psychology. This synergy can help school communities establish perspective and goals for children's well-being in rights respecting ways, using the most promising well-being assessment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The last quarter of the 20th century has brought a growing attention to the efforts to measure and monitor children''s well-being, as can be seen in the quantity of various “State of the Child” reports. Many have argued that the attention has continued and even intensified during the first decade of the 21st century. This study explores the development of “state of the child” reports between 2000 and 2010 in an effort to not only quantify the development but also to understand the shifts and changes in the field. Findings support earlier research showing that the field is rapidly developing around the globe. Furthermore, the findings support earlier arguments that the field can be characterized by nine shifts or changes. The study lends an empirical basis for the arguments presented to date and draws a unique picture of this rapidly evolving field of measuring and monitoring children''s well-being. Finally, the study predicts that the field will continue to move in these directions but most likely at a considerably faster pace, particularly in the developing countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent years have brought a dramatic rise in the number of efforts to measure and monitor the status of children. Yet, despite numerous efforts and reports with ‘Child indicators’ in the title, the field of social child indication is fragmented and lacking a unifying taxonomy. The more ambitious the analysis and the more elaborate the statistics, the stronger the need for a common language used by all. This article tries to suggest such a taxonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The study explored whether locality characteristics are related to the proportion of local public expenditures on education and welfare and to a set of child outcomes (reported maltreatment rates; juvenile delinquency; success in matriculation exams; and rate of children known to social services). Specifically, we checked whether the proportion of public expenditures aligned with local needs, and whether they played a role in child outcomes. Data was collected for 172 localities in Israel that were home to approximately 34% of the country''s child population. Findings show a clear relationship between the proportion of public expenditures on education and welfare and the socioeconomic characteristics of the locality. Further, the study established an association between child outcomes and the localities'' socioeconomic characteristics. Findings show that Arab children are disadvantaged when compared to their Jewish counterparts. The study further supports the belief that locality matters, and that by changing locales, one can improve children''s well being. The study only partially supported the notion that proportions of public expenditures on education and welfare are related to child outcomes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent attention to children’s well being has generated research showing that safety and home–school relations are two of the most important indicators of children’s well being. Recent studies have also demonstrated the consistent differences in perspectives between children and teachers and between parents and teachers in regard to home–school relations and between children and parents in regard to children safety. This paper reports findings from an exploratory study, conducted as part of the “Strong Communities” initiative in South Carolina, comparing between the three perspectives of children, parents, and teachers in regard to children both home–school relations and safety. The findings show significant differences regarding almost all items between the three groups. For example, teachers felt school and the way to and back from school were safer for children than how the children themselves felt. However, other patterns were found with regard to home–school relations. The article concludes with a discussion of the apparent weight given to each of these perspectives, possible explanations for the gaps found and its practical implications for social indicators usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the potential and actual use of child social indicators and indices in the policy-making process. It opens with a brief overview of the child indicators field and its current development and trends. A discussion of these new developments follows, with special emphasis on the consequences of the changing field to the potential role of child social indicators in the policy-making process. The third section focuses on existing knowledge on indicators of children's well-being and the information needed to enhance their policy impact. The article then turns to discuss two major efforts to measure and monitor children's well-being: the UNICEF child well-being index and the Foundation for Child Development (FCD) child well-being index. As both cases were mainly data driven, the paper uses them as case studies assessing the potential for using existing indicators of children's well-being in the policy process. The paper if finalized with discussing the two indices within a context of a future oriented research and indicators development agenda for anyone who want to enhance the policy impact of indicators and indices of children well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study aimed at understanding how social indicator data influence decision making in regard to children's well-being. We focused on how information on children's lives gained from two major studies is influencing decision making by using a case study technique and 20 face-to-face interviews. The two studies underlying this work are the Chicago After-School Study and its impact on city public school administration and the Strong Communities Initiative in South Carolina's Golden Strip and its impact on the community environment. Our findings are given a conceptual framework to enhance the general influence of data and of child well-being indicators, in particular, in the processes of planning and decision making among administrative staff and in policy process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a comparative study in which social indicators were employed as a means to examine differences in living conditions and family and children outcomes on a local level. The study obtained household-level data on the well-being of children and families in two cities: New York (NYC) and Tel Aviv (TLV). Data were collected using computer assisted telephone interview (CATI) technology and random digit dialing (RDD). Telephone interviews were conducted with the randomly selected adults in English, Spanish and Chinese in NYC and in Hebrew in TLV. The study reported here documented differences in family and child well-being between the two cities. It further documented that family size and caregiver level of education play a similar role in both cities and their importance in regard to child and family outcomes. The significant differences found in adults’ and especially children’s outcomes were analyzed by the caregiver’s level of education and further support the need for policies that alleviate the burden of less educated caregivers and aim to improve the well-being of them and their families. The study demonstrates the relevance of social indicators at the local level, not only for measuring outcomes among specific populations, but also in regard to their possible implications for social policies, a most timely task in an era of social services devolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Asher Ben-Arieh, John Gal, Lenna Nepomnyaschy and Irwin Garfinkel on differences in living conditions and family and children outcomes and another by Keneth C. Land, Vicki L. Lamb, Sarah O. Meadows and Ashley Taylor on trends in child well-being.

This paper starting point is the dynamic changes and shifts in the field of measuring and monitoring children’s well being. In the paper we focus on one specific change – the “new” role of children in measuring and monitoring their own well being – a role of active participants rather then of subjects for research. We then turn to present based on a sequence of arguments and findings what role children should carry in measuring and monitoring their well being. Followed by a presentation of five possible roles for children involvement in such studies and in regard to the specific roles existing knowledge from various studies and suggested directions for future research are presented. The danger of children’s involvement is such studies are then discussed followed by a presentation of what do children think on this all issue. Finally we conclude that the potential involved in children’s involvement is much greater then the hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An international initiative to measure and monitor the status of children beyond survival is an effort to use tools of the information age to promote understanding of children's life perspectives and an action to improve their condition. An interdisciplinary group proposes widespread consensus on the selection and monitoring of cross-cultural indicators to cover the following children's lime domains: social connectedness, civil life skills, personal life skills that enable children to contribute to their own well-being, safety and physical status, and children's subculture. Social workers can contribute substantially to the design, collection, interpretation, and use of indicators in various arenas ranging from local to global levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally assumed that there is greater pressure to conform to social norms in collectivist cultures than in individualist cultures. However, most research on cultural differences in social norms has examined norms for behaviors. Here, we examine cultural differences in norms for emotions. Relative to members of collectivist cultures, members of individualist cultures are more attuned to internal states and value them more. Therefore, we predicted that adherence to emotion norms would be greater in individualist than in collectivist cultures. In four studies with 119 samples from 69 distinct countries and over 200,000 participants, we estimated adherence to emotion norms in different cultures, and how deviation from emotion norms is associated with life satisfaction. As predicted, in countries higher in individualism, emotional experiences of individuals were more homogenous and more concordant with the emotions of others in their culture. Furthermore, in more individualist countries, deviation from the mean emotional experience was linked to lower life satisfaction. We discuss two complementary mechanisms that may underlie such differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]