Subjective wellbeing

Life satisfaction assessments rely on a more fundamental judgment about children’s satisfaction with their life taken as a whole, or by just focusing on separate areas of life such as family, school or social relationships. Children’s states of mental health determine how well they can manage the different kinds of emotions, affects and feelings that life events arouse, which at times can be intense and varied in nature. One way to measure mental health is to ask about subjective life evaluations, i.e. how happy one thinks he or she is, and how one feels about him or herself and life in general. This is usually possible from middle childhood onwards. Then it is common to ask children how they are feeling at a particular point in time i.e. core affect. This type of feeling varies over time and does not have a beginning nor an end, and may not necessarily be directed at anything. Often it can be feeling happy, or relaxed, or satisfied, or in a calm state or full of energy.