Peer-reviewed article
The Relationship of Child Agency and Subjective Well-Being
Lyudmila Fedina, Zhanna Yu. Bruk, Ludmila M. Volosnikova ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined the relationship between child agency and subjective well-being among 3,282 secondary school students in the Tyumen region of Russia. Using factor analysis of survey data, researchers identified eight factors contributing to well-being, with agency ranking second in importance after safety. Interestingly, students with average levels of agency reported higher well-being than those with high agency, and older students with disabilities showed the largest gap between desired and actual agency levels.
Key points
- Agency ranked second in importance to subjective well-being after safety and security factors
- Eight factors identified as contributing to well-being: family, school, health, agency, status, social loyalty, security, and romantic relationships
- Students with average agency levels reported higher subjective well-being than those with high agency levels
- The importance of agency increases with age among secondary school students
- Older students with disabilities showed the most pronounced gap between desired and actual levels of agency
Limitations
This is a cross-sectional survey study without a control group, so causality cannot be established and the counterintuitive finding that high agency correlates with lower well-being cannot be fully explained. The study focuses only on secondary students in one Russian region, limiting generalisability.
Abstract
The multidimensionality and complexity of the child agency` phenomenon determines the presence of different approaches and grounds for its study, which are in diametrically opposite positions. The aim of the study is to analyze agency and its indicators in the structure of subjective well-being of senior schoolchildren. The empirical base was made up of data obtained from a survey of 3,282 students in grades 7-11 of the Tyumen region. The questionnaire of the international survey of children's subjective well-being - Children's World is taken as a basis. The questionnaire was supplemented with indicators showing the level of agency, as well as the impact on the subjective well-being of security, health and romantic relationships. Factor analysis in the space of 47 SWB indicators allowed us to identify 8 factors reflecting the contribution to the SWB of family, school, health, agency, status, social loyalty, security and romantic relationships. In addition, students were asked to evaluate the SWB indicators from two angles: how important this or that SWB indicator is for them (the desired level) and how much they assess the presence of this indicator in relation to their lives (the real level). At the actual and real levels, the greatest contribution to subjective well-being is made by such factors as: family satisfaction, agency, security and safety (psychological, physical). There are direct significant moderate correlations between the relevance of factors and their real level. Agency is a significant factor in the subjective well-being of schoolchildren and ranks second in importance after safety. The relevance of agency increases with age. The gap between the desired and real levels of agency is most pronounced in older students with disabilities. A comparison of the SWB structure in groups with different levels of agency showed that high school students with an average level of agency demonstrate a higher level of SWB, and students with a high level of agency have the lowest level of SWB. The results obtained are discussed in the critical field of research.