Child health; association between children's subjective well-being, age and socioeconomic status

ABSTRACT

Subjective well-Being [SWB] means people's feelings, emotions, inner satisfaction, happiness and their positive or negative thinking towards life events. Higher socio-economic status [SES] is associated with higher levels of SWB. The aim of the present study was to determine the level of SWB in Pakistani children. Furthermore, the impact of age and SES on SWB of children was also investigated. A random sampling technique was employed. Private and public schools of Faisalabad. Two months. Two hundred Students [100 girls and 100 boys] between the ages of 9-12 years were taken from the private and public schools of Faisalabad. The data was collected from the participants through face to face interview. A validated and reliable inventory Students' Life Satisfaction Scale [SLSS-4] was employed. The collected data was analysed by bivariate correlation and independent t test. Results show that most [81.5%] of the children has high level of SWB. Young children [9-10 years] have significantly [p =0.005] higher level of SWB than older children [11-12 years]. Furthermore, the study found a significant positive relationship [p = 0.008, r= 0.187] between SWB and SES. It is concluded that the level of SWB in Pakistani children is high and SWB varies with regard to age. SWB and SES are positively associated with each other. When programmes and policies are developed for improvement of human life satisfaction particularly for children, involvement of age and SES factors must be considered