The Well-Being of Children Aged 12-14 in Cluj County. A Pilot Study

Starting with an overview of the state of the art in international children’s well-being studies and some aspects of children’s wellbeing in Romania, this article describes the background, the method and reports some findings of a pilot study on 200 children aged 12 to 14 years old from Cluj County. This pilot study is part of the International Survey of Children’s Wellbeing (ISCIWeb), developed by the International Society for Child Indicators. It was designed to give a fair reflection on children well-being and life situations around the world. Placing children centrally as research participants was fundamental to the methodological approach of this study. The way children perceive and evaluate their own well-being was explored through the method of self-administered survey. Among the numerous dimensions included in the questionnaire, we will show results on the subjective well-being of the children, as well as their evaluation of dimensions such as household and family, material well-being, relationships, school, and health. The paper ends with a discussion of some of the implications and challenges posed by such a research process. Finally, we discuss strengths and weaknesses of the questionnaire and draw some conclusions on children’s well-being in Romania.

Keywords: Children, Survey, Quality of life, Subjective well-being, Romania