Children's subjective well-being in Africa: A comparative analysis across three countries

Abstract

Recent trends in child well-being research have shown a substantial advancement in studies investigating children's subjective well-being (SWB). This advancement has raised questions concerning the measurement of SWB and the extent to which various measures can be compared across countries and diverse cultures. With a dearth of empirical data on cross-cultural comparisons, the validation of existing measures and cross-cultural comparisons and adaptations, have been identified as a critical course of action. The current study contributes to this process-it aims to report on children's SWB in three African countries (Algeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa), using two multiple item measures of SWB (the context-free Students' Life Satisfaction Scale and the domain-specific Personal Well-Being Index-School Children). Within this process the study further aims to test the structural validity of these measures and to ascertain its crosscountry comparability. Data from the second wave of the Children's Worlds survey were used; and includes a randomly selected sample of 3394 children between the ages of 11-12 from Algeria (Provinces of El Bayedh, Oran, and Tlemcen), Ethiopia and South Africa (Western Cape Province). Located within the goodness of fit theoretical framework, confirmatory factor analysis and Structural Equation Modelling were used to test the overall fit structure, while multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to test measurement invariance. The results show appropriate fit structure for the individual models, with metric and scalar factor invariance tenable across the three countries for the Students' Life Satisfaction Scale and partial scalar invariance obtained for four items on the Personal Well-Being Index-School Children. The Algerian sample scored significantly higher than Ethiopia and South Africa on both SWB measures. Appropriate fit structure was obtained for the combined model and for the structural model, indicating adequate convergent validity with the single item Overall Life Satisfaction. Metric and partial scalar invariance was tenable for the structural model, suggesting crosscountry comparability for correlations, regressions and means. The overall findings suggest that the two measures are appropriate for use with children from the three countries and that meaningful comparisons can be made between the three countries.

Children's Experiences of Bullying Victimization and the Influence on Their Subjective Well‐Being: A Multinational Comparison

“…SEM usually proceeds with the testing of the measurement model using Confirmatory Factory Analysis. The measurement model (SLSS) has previously shown good fit statistics with multinational samples (see Casas, 2016;Casas & Rees, 2015;Savahl et al, 2017). In the current study, the measurement model (SLSS), with the overall pooled sample, presented with an adequate fit which improved considerably with the inclusion of one error covariance between Items 4 and 5.…”

The Relationship Between Hope and Life Satisfaction Among Children in Low and Middle Socio-Economic Status Communities in Cape Town, South Africa

“…They further found that there was a significant difference between SES groups, with the lower-middle and upper-middle SES groups scoring significantly higher than the low SES group. Further studies on children's SWB conducted in Cape Town by Savahl et al (2017aSavahl et al ( , 2017b across two SES communities, found no significant difference in life satisfaction between low and middle SES groups. Noting the contestation within the literature, the current study looks at the extent to which SES could moderate the relationship between hope and life satisfaction within a South African context, for both low and middle SES communities.…”

“…The SLSS has also shown good crosscultural adaptation with children aged 8-18 years across a range of contexts (see e.g. Casas et al 2014;Jones 2011;Savahl et al 2017aSavahl et al , 2017b. Recently Savahl et al (2017aSavahl et al ( , 2017b validated the scale for use on children across low and middle SES groups in Cape Town.…”

“…Casas et al 2014;Jones 2011;Savahl et al 2017aSavahl et al , 2017b. Recently Savahl et al (2017aSavahl et al ( , 2017b validated the scale for use on children across low and middle SES groups in Cape Town. Their results indicated a good-fit structure for the overall scale, and that metric and scalar invariance was tenable across socio-economic status groups.…”

A cross-cultural evaluation of the students’ life satisfaction scale in chinese and american adolescents

“…Cross-cultural research on the measurement invariance of the BMSLSS across multiple cultures has been reported in Abubakar et al (2016). Only one study reported measurement invariance of a 5-item SLSS across three countries in African culture (i.e., Algeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa), which yielded metric and scalar invariance for this scale (Savahl et al 2017). However, no study has been conducted to examine whether the SLSS functions equivalently across distinctly different cultural groups.…”