The Subjective Well-Being of Malaysian School Children: Grade Level, Gender and Ethnicity

Abstract

The present study explores the subjective well-being of Malaysian children between 12 and 14 years of age. These children are beginning the transition from childhood to adulthood. They are confronted by a range of social and developmental influences that impact their self concept, self esteem, independence skills and their sense of their personal well-being. Responses on the Per-sonal Wellbeing Index (School Children) were collected from over a thousand children in Form 1 and Form 2 grade levels drawn from a sample of ten schools in Ipoh, Malaysia. The results for the sample as a whole range from the lowest average score in " happiness with life achievement " at 68.1 up to a score of 80.7 on the " personal relationships " domain out of a total possible score of 100. Significant differences between the male and female participants were noted with males rat-ing their subjective well-being as higher than the ratings by females on their " satisfaction with life as a whole " as well as their happiness with " personal safety " . The younger students (Form 1 grade-level) rated their happiness as significantly higher on the majority of life domains as compared to Form 2 students. There was also a significant difference between the students attending Chinese schools and those attending non-Chinese " National " schools. While those attending Chinese sch-ools rated themselves substantially higher in regard to their happiness with " achievement in life " , those in the other schools rated themselves higher on most of the other domains as well as signifi-cantly higher on " satisfaction with life as a whole " . The strongest associations with " life as a whole " included " standard of living " , " personal safety " and " future security " .