TITLE:
The Subjective Well-Being of Malaysian School Children: Grade Level, Gender and Ethnicity
AUTHORS:
Mitchell Clark, H. S. Amar-Singh, Lina Hashim
KEYWORDS:
Malaysia, Child Well-Being, Personal Wellbeing Index, Quality of Life, Subjective Well-Being, Adolescents, School-Children, Gender, Ethnicity
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.12,
August
28,
2014
ABSTRACT: The
present study explores the subjective well-being of Malaysian children between
12 and 14 years of age. These children are beginning the transition from
childhood to adulthood. They are confronted by a range of social and
developmental influences that impact their self concept, self esteem,
independence skills and their sense of their personal well-being. Responses on the Personal Wellbeing Index (School Children) were collected from over a
thousand children in Form 1 and Form 2 grade levels drawn from a sample of ten
schools in Ipoh, Malaysia. The results for the sample as a whole range from the
lowest average score in “happiness with life achievement” at 68.1 up to a score
of 80.7 on the “personal relationships” domain out of a total possible score of
100. Significant differences between the male and female participants were
noted with males rating their subjective well-being as higher than the ratings
by females on their “satisfaction with life as a whole” as well as their
happiness with “personal safety”. The younger students (Form 1 gradelevel)
rated their happiness as significantly higher on the majority of life domains
as compared to Form 2 students. There was also a significant difference between
the students attending Chinese schools and those attending non-Chinese
“National” schools. While those attending Chinese schools rated themselves
substantially higher in regard to their happiness with “achievement in life”,
those in the other schools rated themselves higher on most of the other domains
as well as significantly higher on “satisfaction with life as a whole”. The strongest associations with “life as a
whole” included “standard of living”, “personal safety” and “future security”.