Spillover Effects across School Children’s Subjective Well-Being: Empirical Evidence from 35 Countries

Robert Rudolf, Korea University

Using wave three of Children’s Worlds’ International Survey on Children’s Well-Being conducted between 2016 and 2019 across 35 countries, this study examines the influence of school-peer subjective well-being (SWB) on individual SWB of 10- and 12-year-old children. SWB measures employed in this study are life satisfaction, positive and negative affect. Controlling for individual, household, and social environmental characteristics, results show robust positive associations for all three measures. Our findings further indicate significantly stronger spillover effects for girls compared to boys in life satisfaction. Lastly, this study reveals interesting differences in the peer-SWB-individual-SWB-nexus across countries. Results suggest that SWB spills over within schools and thus fostering a positive school climate can be beneficial to raise individual SWB across the entire child population.

Keywords: Health and Morbidity, Gender Dynamics, Data and Methods, Human Capital, Education, and Work

See extended abstract.