engleski

Children's perceived quality of life: The effects of material well-being, self-esteem and quality of family and peer relationships

A central component of positive psychology is subjective well-being, and one aspect of subjective well-being receiving increased research attention is children's perceived quality of life. The aim of the present research was to examine the effects of various socio-demographic characteristics, subjective material well-being, and various aspects of quality of family and peer relationships on children's perceived life satisfaction. The research was carried out on a representative sample of 2823 Croatian high school students. Socio-demographic characteristics included children's gender and age, type of school they attend, size of their place of residence and mother's and father's education. Measures of quality of family relationships included children's perception of parental support and parental knowledge of their whereabouts, participation in joint decision making with parents and level of family cohesion. Children also completed instruments measuring perceived social support from a close friend and global self-worth as well as two questions tapping subjective material well-being and perceived satisfaction with life. Gender was the only socio-demographic variable that significantly predicted children's perceived quality of life with boys displaying higher life satisfaction. Children who evaluated their families' material well-being as higher were also more satisfied with their lives. Results indicate that factors associated with children's positive relationships with significant others and their global self-worth play an important role in determining their perceived quality of life. Positive parent-child relationships that are characteristics of authoritative parenting style (parental support, knowledge of children's activities, joint decision-making), family cohesion, support from a close friend and higher children’ s self-esteem significantly predicted their overall life satisfaction. Results also indicate that self-esteem and positive peer relationships moderate negative effects of perceived material disadvantage on life satisfaction, i.e. children who experience lower material well-being were more satisfied with their lives if they had support from a close friend and higher self-esteem. Our results highlight the importance of developing individual strengths and strengthening positive family and peer relationships for children's psychological well-being. The influence of objective and subjective determinants of children's quality of life is discussed in the context of contemporary theories and research on children's subjective well-being.

life satisfaction; socio-economic status; adolescents; self-esteem; family relations

nije evidentirano