The relationship between subjective well-being in school and children’s participation rights: International evidence from the Children’s Worlds survey

This paper considers the relationship between children’s subjective well-being at school and the fulfilment of their participation rights. Our research focuses on the association between children’s involvement in decision making in school and their subjective well-being (SWB) using international evidence from the Children’s Worlds survey. The analysis uses data from the third wave of the Children’s Worlds survey collected from 12-year-olds within 13 EU and former EU countries. We focus on the school in response for calls for more domain-specific analysis of children’s SWB, and in light of the considerable amount of time children spend in school and the compulsory nature of schooling. We identify an association between subjective well-being and participation in decision-making at school, across all countries included in this study, except Malta. The paper also finds that relationships with teachers and other peers (as measured by bullying) also impact upon children’s school-based SWB.