Children's perceptions of their participation rights context when living in residential care and its relationship with their subjective well-being.

BACKGROUND: Participation rights of children in residential care have not been frequently explored despite the positive effects of participation on their subjective well-being (SWB). OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship of six rights-related perceptions with the SWB of children and adolescents in residential care. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: N = 268, 9-19-year-olds living in residential care. METHODS: Five rights-related perceptions were analysed according to scores in two cognitive and two affective SWB scales, through descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: The more children feel adults at home and at school listen to them and take their say into account, the more they feel they are treated fairly by these adults, and the more they perceive adults in general in their country respect children's rights, the higher are their observed SWB scores. The majority rights-related perceptions showed significant effects on positive SWB indicators. However, only they believe that adults in general in their country respect children's rights displayed effects on Negative Affect. Girls' SWB showed lower scores than boys', and girls' rights-related perceptions displayed more effects on their SWB than boys'. CONCLUSIONS: There are important percentages of children in residential care who do not feel they are able to participate in aspects of their own lives that directly affect them and their SWB. Children in residential care display lower scores in all the positive measures, especially girls and exceptionally higher scores in the negative affect than the overall Chilean children's population.

Satisfaction with the Neighborhood of Israeli and Chilean Children and its Effects on their Subjective Well-being.

A study of subjective well-being in 4,942 children (49% girls) aged 10 and 12 living in Israel and Chile is presented. The association between perceptions of the neighborhood and subjective well-being (SWB) was analyzed based on a mediation model using satisfaction with the neighborhood as a mediating variable. The overall results showed high average SWB scores for both countries as well as high levels of satisfaction with the neighborhoods where they live. Differences between the countries were observed for the age groups. The SWB of Chilean children decreased with age, while a decrease was not detected for the Israeli children. The mediation model had excellent fit for the age groups and countries, and the satisfaction with the neighborhood variable presents a partial mediation effect between neighborhood variables and SWB. Satisfaction with the neighborhood displayed a greater effect on the SWB of the older children than the younger ones. Gender showed significant effects on SWB only in Chile. The results are discussed, analyzing the similarities and differences between both countries and providing new evidence for the study of SWB at the international level. Questions for a more specific analysis of SWB within each country are suggested.

Access to material resources and the subjective well-being of children in Brazil and Chile.

This article analyzes the relationships between the material conditions and the subjective well-being of 3,716 children (50.5% girls) between 10 and 12 years of age (M = 11.4) in Chile and Brazil. These are the two Latin American countries that took part in the third wave of the Children's Worlds research. The material conditions of the children were assessed using latent classes. A multivariate analysis of covariance was done next in order to test the influence of material conditions over the children's subjective well-being and interpersonal relationships. The association between gender and country variables of the children was also studied. The results showed that although the average subjective well-being scores of the children were high in general, the class analysis showed significant differences between the results for children with better material conditions than those with poorer material conditions. The latter group presented lower subjective well-being levels. MANCOVA was used to analyze the mean differences in subjective well-being levels and interpersonal relationships controlling variables of gender and country of residence. This showed that children with greater access to better material conditions showed significantly higher levels of subjective well-being levels and had a more positive view of their interpersonal relationships in all areas assessed compared to those who reported worse material conditions. These results are discussed in view of the high indices of material deprivation that exist in Latin America during childhood as well as how these findings may help better understand the well-being of children living in Latin American countries.