“How Children View Their Worlds: Children's Subjective Well-Being in 19 Countries”

The Schubert Center for Child Studies will host “How Children View Their Worlds: Children's Subjective Well-Being in 19 Countries,” Tuesday, Oct. 11, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Tinkham Veale University Center Ballroom A. Registration is recommended through Eventbrite. This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, contact the Schubert Center at schubertcenter@case.edu, or visit schubert.case.edu/events/how-children-view-their-worlds-childrens-subjective-well-being-in-19-countries/.

Sabine Andresen

Professor at Institut für Sozialpädagogik und Erwachsenenbildung, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Sabine Andresen will discuss empirical findings from the Children’s Worlds study surrounding family well-being. Relationships within the family are important for the development of children’s well-being, as well as for their evaluations of their family and their overall life satisfaction. But how are the links between family well-being in general to children’s well-being. How could we measure family life within a study of children’s subjective well-being? This presentation will start with theoretical aspects of childhood and family studies. In the main part, it focuses on empirical findings from the Children’s Worlds Study about differences in family relationships, family subjective well-being and children’s well-being in in diverse family structures. It will end with findings from a qualitative study about poor families and their ideas of a “good life.”

Asher Ben-Arieh

Director of the Haruv Institute, editor in chief of Child Indicators Research and co-chair, International Society for Child Indicators at The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Asher Ben-Arieh will focus on the changes in the field of child welfare and introduce the key findings of the International Survey of Children's Well-Being (ISCIWeB). ISCIWeB is a global survey on children’s subjective well-being, funded by the Jacobs Foundation. This paper will introduce the study together with the survey methodology and the how and what to ask children as young as 8 years of age in regards to their own well-being. The main findings from the second wave of data collection, which is composed of representative samples of 19 countries with 55,000 children, then will be presented, and the implication of children's views for both policy and future research will be discussed.

About the Series

The Schubert Center Conversation Series connects CWRU faculty, students and staff, visiting researchers, practice and policy experts, and community members whose work impacts children, young people, and families. This year's series is “Confronting Inequalities in Childhood.”