1-027 - Understanding Children’s Subjective Well-Being across Age Groups and Contexts

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Child well-being has been examined from a range of perspectives utilizing a variety of data sources. Recently, however, researchers have called for more in-depth examinations of children’s self-reported subjective well-being (SWB). This collection of papers examines children’s SWB in the early, middle, and late school years using a variety of self-report measures. The children sampled for these studies come from a variety of geographical locations and family contexts, including two-parent, single parent, and foster care households. These empirical studies address (1) associations between mothering, fathering, child attachment, and children’s SWB in 8-11 year-olds, and the prediction of SWB indices including self-esteem, self-image, and mental health; (2) associations between individual, contextual (home, school, peer, neighborhood), and relationship factors and children’s SWB in 12-year-olds, and the prediction of SWB indices including life satisfaction, mental health, and self-image; (3) differences in foster and non-foster youth (age 17) in SWB, including attachment, emotion regulation, and mental health, and the prediction of mental health from attachment, emotion regulation, and foster care experiences; and (4) a systematic review of 1300 studies in the research literature to examine evidence-based methods for interviewing children in foster care to measure their SWB; studies reviewed were rated based on quality, and findings were synthesized across studies to guide further development of SWB indices. Collectively, these four papers give researchers and practitioners a broad perspective on SWB indices and predictors for children across several age groups and contexts, and shed light on future directions for examining children’s SWB.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chairs

• Lisa Anne Newland, University of South Dakota

• Michael J Lawler, University of South Dakota

Individual Presentations

• Parenting, Attachment, and School-Age Children’s Subjective Well-Being - Presenting Author: Lisa Anne Newland, University of South Dakota; Diana Delano Shepherd, California State University, Chico

• Individual and Contextual Predictors of Subjective Well-Being in Seventh Graders - Presenting Author: Michael J Lawler, University of South Dakota; Lisa Anne Newland, University of South Dakota; Jarod Giger, University of South Dakota; Eliann Renee Carr, University of South Dakota; Soonhee Roh, University of South Dakota

• Attachment and Emotion Regulation: Predictors of Child Well-Being in Foster Youth - Presenting Author: Gail S. Goodman, University of California, Davis; Daniel A Bederian-Gardner, University of California, Davis; Ingrid Cordon, California Department of Public Health; Sue Hobbs, University of California, Davis; Rachel K. Narr, University of Virginia; Sarah Bakanosky, City University of New York, Brooklyn

• Listening to Children in Foster Care: Systematic Review of Interview Methods - Presenting Author: Sue Hobbs, University of California, Davis; Karen Saywitz, UCLA, David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences; Rakel P. Larson, University of California, Riverside; Christine Wells, Univeristy of California, Los Angeles