بهزیستی ذهنی نوجوانان اسپانیایی: تغییرات با توجه به ترتیبات زندگی متفاوت

Abstract Children and adolescents' subjective well-being (SWB) has been recognized as an important component in understanding their quality of life. However, little is known about differences in the SWB of children from different groups, particularly those who are living in diverse households. The purpose of this study is to explore differences in SWB between young adolescents in care and in two other living arrangements. The study used data from a large representative sample of Spanish 1st year students in the second compulsory education (mean age = 12.08, SD = 0.68). 5381 adolescents were divided into three groups according to their living arrangements: ‘living in care’ (0.9%), ‘living in single parent families’ (18.7%) and ‘living in two-parent families’ (80.4%). Self-administered reports were used to measure SWB in five life domains: school, social relationships, leisure time, health, and oneself. Overall life satisfaction was also measured. Background characteristics were obtained mainly in relation to stability in the adolescents' lives in the past year. Adolescents living with two parents reported better SWB in all life domains than those in the other two groups. Differences between adolescents living with one parent and adolescents living in care were mostly found in relation to interpersonal relationships and health. Furthermore, it was found that adolescents living in care have the least stable lives, followed by adolescents living with one parent, while adolescents living with two parents lead much more stable lives. These findings highlight the need to address the SWB of vulnerable children, particularly those living in care. Results are discussed in view of the value of stability to children's lives.

Introduction 1.1. Children's subjective well-being The quality-of-life perspective emphasizes the importance of including nonmaterial psychosocial measurements in order to better understand complex social realities (Casas, 2011). These psychosocial elements include the perceptions, evaluations and aspirations of the target population (Casas, 1997). Therefore, if we conduct research into children and adolescents' well-being, it is they who should by rights be the main social agents involved. Reaching this what would appear to be obvious conclusion has, however, taken a long and complex route, on both theoretical and methodological levels. Children's well-being has traditionally been studied on the basis of objective facts such as rates of mortality, illness or malnutrition. Ben-Arieh (2008) demonstrated how researches on children's well-being used to include only this type of objective survival indicators. Only in the last decade of the 20th century, due to a growing interest in quality of life research, there has being a growing recognition in the importance of including positive indicators, and subjective indicators in particular (Casas, 1997). The acknowledgment of children's rights through the approval of the Convention on the Rights of the Child also contributed to focusing on the point of view of children themselves. Since then, research into overall life satisfaction and satisfaction with different life domains (school, family, interpersonal relationships, and so on) has been published with increasing frequency (Casas, Castella Sarriera, et al., 2012, Huebner, 1994 and Rees et al., 2012). The UNICEF's Report Card #7 (UNICEF, 2007) took an important step towards articulating objective and subjective indicators for understanding children's well-being in different countries, contemplating material well-being, health and safety, educational well-being, interpersonal relationships, behavior, risks and subjective well-being. From the hedonic perspective of well-being research, subjective well-being (SWB) refers to people's satisfaction with their lives, both overall and certain aspects of it. It generally comprises two components: one more cognitive, related to people's evaluations of their own life, and another more affective, related to positive and negative emotions deriving from their life experience (Casas, 2011). The first component – life satisfaction – is seen as more stable, and the second –affect – more changing over time. The research presented here concerns the former. The inclusion of self-administered reports in child research has led to heated discussions on a methodological level, questioning their reliability. This conveniently forgets that the problem is the same for adults. Some authors have pointed out that researchers also rely on social representations of childhood based on their categorical perception as not yet adults (Casas, 1997, Casas, 2011 and Verhellen, 1997). As seen, the field of research into children's SWB is a recent one (Ben-Arieh, 2012 and Casas, 2011). The knowledge about the ways in which young people's living arrangements may affect their SWB is even more scarcer, the more so with regard to young people living in care (UNICEF, 2009). The aim of this article is to address aspects of this vacuum by examining differences in the SWB of young adolescents in care and two other living arrangements. 1.2. The SWB of children in care Past researches have identified the importance of investigating the well-being of vulnerable children. The OECD report “Doing better for families” acknowledges that “child maltreatment has received less attention than other aspects of child well-being in international comparisons, despite good work at a United Nations and Council of Europe level” (OECD, 2011, p. 245). The little data we have indicates that this is a small but significant group of children, who tend to suffer other social disadvantages as well, such as living in poverty or having less equality in terms of educational opportunities. UNICEF (2009) also demonstrated how the lack of data on children living in care systems made it difficult to compare between countries. It proposed 12 quantitative indicators for gathering numerical information regarding the situation of children in care and 3 more for the legal and political context of a country, but only via objective indicators. In addition, various studies (for review see: Proctor, Linley, & Maltby, 2009) have found associations between lower levels of well-being and certain problems in childhood such as depression, high-risk behaviors, suicide attempts and eating disorders, among others. Rees (2011) also found a relationship in England between having had a recent experience with running away and low well-being. In the YIPPEE project (Montserrat, Casas, Malo, & Bertran, 2011), reviewed studies showed that for the social groups identified, young people leaving care were at a greater risk of teenage pregnancy, health problems and delinquency. A lack of stability in residential and foster care is one of the factors increasingly more accepted as disrupting the well-being of this population. Children who experienced numerous placement disruptions and changes are prone to negative outcomes while in care and after leaving care. Working towards permanency becomes an important challenge for all the child protection systems (Montserrat et al., 2011 and Sinclair et al., 2007). On the other hand, less agreement is found among studies into the well-being of children who live with only one parent, with more negative results standing out in the United States. In the OECD report (2009) “Doing better for children”, the cross-OECD meta-analysis suggests that growing up in a single-parent family can only have a small effect on children's well-being. In most other OECD countries, the single-parent effect is on average slightly less than in the United States. Similarly, Bradshaw, Keung, Rees, and Goswami` (2011) found association between children's SWB and family structure only regarding health, in varied European countries. A report on children's views and experiences of parenting (Madge & Willmott, 2007), showed how children value good relationships, affection and support above all else and particularly dislike family conflict. The authors highlight the fact that children are able to face up to family separation and other problems if they feel being cared for. What is more, satisfaction with family relationships is strongly linked to children and adolescents' overall well-being (Bradshaw et al., 2011 and Rees et al., 2012). Only few researches have compared the SWB of children in care with other groups of children. In Israel, a study by Davidson-Arad, 2005 and Davidson-Arad, 2010 compared the quality of life (QOL) of two groups of children in a situation of risk, some living with their family and others in residential facilities. Evaluations were submitted by professionals, the children and the families. All of the scores reflected a high level of well-being for the children living in residential care, with the evaluations provided by professionals being the lowest. This study suggests that offering children better living conditions can contribute to their well-being, while staying in situations of risk can be a negative factor. Montserrat and Casas (2007) found that the satisfaction of children who live in kinship foster care with different life domains and with overall life was similar to that found in studies conducted with adolescent from the general population. Poletto and Koller (2011) studied the SWB of children and adolescents who lived with their families and those who were in residential care in Brazil. Results showed that the latter experienced more negative affect regarding development contexts, but did not show differences with regard to positive affect and life satisfaction. In France, Muñoz and Ferrière (2000) used Diener's Satisfaction with Life Scale and their results, comparing children in residential care to those living with their families, showed three main factors influencing the lower level of well-being among children in care: a direct effect of placement, and an indirect effect of satisfaction with family life and experiencing personal growth. Finally, it is worth referencing the results of a recent research published by The Children's Society carried out jointly with the University of York (Rees et al., 2012). This English study analyzed the SWB of a sample of 30,000 children aged between 8 and 16, including both satisfaction with different life domains and overall life satisfaction. They identified a subgroup of children who did not live with their family, either because they were in foster or residential care, representing 1% of the total sample. These children were around five times as likely (50%) to have low SWB as those living with their family (10%). To sum, despite the growing recognition of the importance of exploring children's SWB, far too little is known about differences in the SWB of children who live in varied living arrangements, particularly those who are living in out of home care. 1.3. Research question The purpose of the research presented in this article is to examine differences in the SWB of young adolescents in three different living arrangements in Spain: adolescents living in care, adolescents living in single parent families, and adolescents living in two-parent families. This study is linked to a new international effort, shared by the International Society for Child Indicators, UNICEF and World Vision, to obtain a better understanding of children and adolescents' lives by exploring their SWB.

Findings 3.1. Background characteristics Table 1 presents the background characteristics of the three groups of adolescents and the results of Chi-square tests examining differences between them. As we can see, differences were found between groups in all of the characteristics measured. In both the group of adolescents living in two-parent families and the group of adolescents living in single parent families, gender is almost equally distributed. However, distribution is different for the group of adolescents in care, boys comprising almost three quarters. Most of the adolescents in the research were born in Spain, but the number of adolescents born outside Spain is higher among adolescents who live with one parent and adolescents in care. Table 1. Differences in background characteristics among adolescents in different living arrangements. Living in two-parent families (%) Living in single parent families (%) Living in care (%) Total (%) χ2 df Gender (n = 5381) 10.90⁎⁎ 2 Boy 49.2 51.1 72.3 49.7 Girl 50.8 48.9 27.7 50.3 Country of birth (n = 5367) 31.25⁎⁎⁎ 2 Spain 90.2 84.2 85.1 89.0 Other 9.8 15.8 14.9 11.0 Change in parents or carers (n = 5211) 363.30⁎⁎⁎ 2 Yes 2.3 17.0 19.0 5.2 No 97.7 83.0 81.0 94.8 Moved house (n = 5240) 208.79⁎⁎⁎ 2 Yes 11.8 28.6 47.6 15.2 No 88.2 71.4 52.4 84.8 Moved to a new area (n = 5233) 93.92⁎⁎⁎ 2 Yes 5.7 13.6 25.0 7.4 No 94.3 86.4 75.0 92.6 Changed school (n = 5238) 21.73⁎⁎⁎ 2 Yes 36.2 41.2 63.6 37.4 No 63.8 58.8 36.4 62.6 ⁎⁎ p < .01. ⁎⁎⁎ p < .001. Table options Adolescents were also asked a series of questions regarding changes in their lives in the past year. As suggested by the results in Table 1, the lives of adolescents living in single parent families and adolescents in care are less stable than those of adolescents in two-parent families. Of the former two groups, adolescents in care faced the highest number of changes during the past year. Only a small percentage of adolescents living in two-parent families had a change in carers in the past year, whereas 17% of those living in single parent families and almost one out of five adolescents in care faced a change in carer during this period. In addition, merely 10% of the adolescents living in two-parent families moved house, while 28.6% of the adolescents living in single parent families and almost half of the adolescents in care experienced this change in their lives. Likewise, a quarter of the adolescents in care and 13.6% of the adolescents living in single parent families moved to a new area (e.g. village, town or city), whereas only 5% of adolescents living in two-parent families did. Lastly, the percentage of adolescents who changed school is relatively high among all adolescents who participated in the research, due to the fact that some of the adolescents needed to change school when moving from primary to secondary school. However, this number is double among adolescents in care and rises to two thirds for the adolescents in this group. 3.2. SWB: group differences Table 2 summarizes differences between the groups in terms of the SWB of adolescents surveyed in five life domains and their overall life satisfaction. The means and standard deviations are also presented, although they were not used in the calculations, so as to display differences more clearly. Table 2. Differences in SWB among adolescents in different living arrangements: Kruskal–Wallis (H) and Mann–Whitney U post-hoc tests. Living in two-parent families Living in single parent families Living in care H M SD M SD M SD School Satisfaction with homework1 8.28 2.10 7.49a(r = .13) 2.60 6.73a(r = .06) 2.83 92.55⁎⁎⁎ Satisfaction with classmates1 9.14 1.52 9.01a(r = .03) 1.65 7.96a(r = .05)b(r = .08) 2.69 16.26⁎⁎⁎ Agree that classmates treat me well2 4.53 0.72 4.42a(r = .06) 0.79 4.02a(r = .05)b(r = .06) 1.20 27.03⁎⁎⁎ Agree they feel safe at school2 4.46 0.81 4.36a(r = .04) 0.91 4.09a(r = .04) 1.07 13.35⁎⁎ Social relationships Satisfaction with relationships with people in general1 9.15 1.36 9.06a(r = .03) 1.43 8.27a(r = .05)b(r = .08) 2.23 12.68⁎⁎ Satisfaction with friends1 9.30 1.41 9.26 1.46 8.36a(r = .04)b(r = .08) 2.58 7.09⁎ Agree they have enough friends2 4.63 0.70 4.57a(r = .03) 0.75 4.20a(r = .03) 1.25 9.96⁎⁎ Agree that friends are nice to me2 4.52 0.72 4.50 0.74 4.31 0.97 2.11 Frequency of having fun with friends3 3.62 0.62 3.54a(r = .05) 0.67 3.33a(r = .03) 0.90 17.60⁎⁎⁎ Leisure time Satisfaction with leisure time (index)1 8.99 1.36 8.73a(r = .06) 1.63 8.49a(r = .03) 1.61 21.34⁎⁎⁎ Health Satisfaction with health1 9.51 1.12 9.33a(r = .05) 1.42 8.76a(r = .05) 2.10 19.75⁎⁎⁎ Satisfaction with how doctor treats them1 9.26 1.41 9.11a(r = .03) 1.58 8.00a(r = .05)b(r = .07) 2.92 13.36⁎⁎ Oneself Satisfaction with yourself1 9.08 1.59 8,86a(r = .04) 1.85 8.05a(r = .04) 2.78 16.04⁎⁎⁎ Satisfaction with amount of opportunities in life1 9.08 1.51 8.80a(r = .06) 1.84 8.26a(r = .03) 2.35 20.17⁎⁎⁎ Satisfaction with how you are listened to by adults1 8.70 1.82 8.44a(r = .05) 2.01 7.79a(r = .04) 2.67 17.57⁎⁎⁎ Agree about feeling lonely2 1.64 0.98 1.81c(r = .07) 1.09 2.39c(r = .06)d(r = .09) 1.40 38.10⁎⁎⁎ Agree about feeling happy2 4.67 0.66 4.52a(r = .08) 0.81 4.37a(r = .05) 0.87 48.08⁎⁎⁎ Agree about worrying a lot2 1.75 0.80 1.81 0.83 1.84 0.52 4.28 Agree that they are optimistic about the future2 4.00 1.07 4.00 1.09 3.70 1.08 4.56 Overall life satisfaction Single-item overall life satisfaction1 9.26 1.43 8.94a(r = .09) 1.66 8.19a(r = .05) 2.71 46.16⁎⁎⁎ SLSS-52 4.32 0.69 4.07a(r = .12) 0.82 3.96a(r = .04) 0.98 79.93⁎⁎⁎ ⁎ p < .05 ⁎⁎ p < .01, ⁎⁎⁎p < .001. 1Range: 0–10, 2range: 1–5, 3range: 1–4. a (r = effect size) Significantly lower than living in two-parent families. b(r = effect size) Significantly lower than living in single parent families. c(r = effect size) Significantly higher than living in two-parent families. d(r = effect size) Significantly higher than living in single parent families. Table options 3.2.1. School Differences were found between groups for all questions regarding SWB in relation to school. At the same time, the post-hoc tests show that differences between each two groups vary depending on the item. Adolescents living in single parent families and adolescents in care are less satisfied with their homework than adolescents living in two-parent families. However, no differences were found between the first two groups. Similar findings were obtained regarding the extent to which adolescents agreed with feeling safe at school. No differences were found between adolescents in care and adolescents living in single parent families, yet both groups reported less agreement than adolescents living in two-parent families. The picture regarding classmates is somewhat different. Adolescents living in two-parent families are more satisfied with their classmates than adolescents living in single parent families, although the latter are also very satisfied. However, adolescents in care are less satisfied than the other two groups in this respect. The same differences were also found regarding the extent to which adolescents agree that their classmates treat them well. 3.2.2. Social relationships In general, all adolescents rate their social relationships fairly high. Nevertheless, differences were found between the groups for most of the questions. Differences were found between all groups regarding their overall satisfaction with relationships with other people, as adolescents living in two-parent families are the most satisfied, followed by adolescents living in single parent families, the least satisfied being adolescents in care. The adolescents' evaluation of their relationships with friends is more complex. A general question about satisfaction with their friends indicates that while adolescents living in single parent families did not differ from adolescents living in two-parent families, adolescents in care were less satisfied in this respect. More specific questions about friends were also presented. Both adolescents in care and adolescents living in single parent families agreed less with the statement that they have enough friends compared to adolescents living in two-parent family, and no differences were found between the former two groups. Findings were similar regarding adolescents' reports on the amount of time they had fun with friends during the past week, as adolescents in care and those living in single parent families had less fun time with their friends than adolescents living in two-parent families, with no differences between the former two groups. By contrast, differences were not found between the three groups of adolescents regarding their agreement with the statement about their friends being nice to them. 3.2.3. Leisure time The leisure time index showed that adolescents in care and adolescents living in single parent families were less satisfied with their free time than adolescents living in two-parent families. No differences were found for the first two groups. 3.2.4. Health Adolescents living in single parent families and adolescents in care are less satisfied with their health than adolescents living in two-parent families. No significant differences were found between the first two groups, however adolescents in care reported much lower satisfaction. This trend is also found regarding their satisfaction with the way they are dealt with when they go to the doctor's, as differences were found between all groups. Adolescents living in two-parent families were most satisfied, followed by adolescents living in single parent families, and adolescents in care were the least satisfied. 3.2.5. Oneself For most of the domains, the evaluations provided by adolescents in care and adolescents living in single parent families were lower than those of adolescents living in two-parent families, with no differences between the former two. Adolescents in care and adolescents living in single parent families were less satisfied with themselves, the amount of opportunities they have in life, and the way they are listened to by adults. Similarly, adolescents in care and adolescents living in single parent families reported less agreement with feeling happy, compared to adolescents living in two-parent families, and no differences were found between the former two groups. However, when asked about how lonely they feel, differences were found between all groups, in parallel with those found regarding SWB in relation to social relationships. Adolescents in care agreed most about feeling lonely, followed by adolescents living in single parent families, with adolescents living in two-parent families agreeing least. Contrarily, no differences were found between the groups with regard to being optimistic about the future and worrying a lot about things, as all adolescents in the survey felt quite optimistic and did not worry much. 3.2.6. Overall life satisfaction The two measurements of life satisfaction revealed similar results to the trend described up to now. In general, life satisfaction was quite high among all adolescents. Nevertheless, both adolescents in care and adolescents living in single parent families scored lower on the SLSS-5 than adolescents living in two-parent families, with no differences between the first two groups. Similar results were obtained for the single item on overall life satisfaction.