Assessing children’s subjective well-being in a school context

Abstract

Children spend an extended period at school from very early ages. The numerous components of school life have an impact on the subjective well-being of children. The present study aims to understand the subjective well-being of children through their own eyes and aims to understand how relational elements affect subjective well-being of children in school context. Eighteen girls and 19 boys aged between 9- 12 years-old children attending both public and private schools participated in this study. The participants belong to various SES and ethnicities, and with different levels of religiosity. The school-related parts of the interview, which is constituted by relying on Children’s Understandings Well-being – Multinational Qualitative Study (CUWB) Project, which includes 18 countries, was used in the process. The interviews were coded using Nvivo software program. The analytic frame which was used to elucidate children’s subjective experiences in schools was Konu and Rimpela (2002) the school well-being model. In addition, the bioecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and the recognition theory for school context (Graham et al., 2014) were used as additional lenses. The results showed that across the socioeconomic status the subjective well-being of children is influenced significantly from the relational context with teachers and peers. It was seen that under the impact of particular relational issues, opportunities of schools may turn into burden. This study highlighted how children interpret and make meaning of their experiences within the context of their relationality in the school context.