Background and purpose: There are very few studies on the subjective well-being (SWB) of children in care and it is only in recent years that studies have begun to appear which include the perspective of children in vulnerable situations. Children's subjective well-being constitutes an important component in understanding their quality of life. However, little is known about children in public care regarding their perceptions and satisfaction with life.
The purpose of this study is to explore SWB among adolescents in residential care, kinship care and family foster care (no relatives) in Catalonia.
Design: Cross-sectional study. The study used data from the care population in Catalonia born between 1998 and 2000 (N=700) (response rate=58%)
The questionnaire used was the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB), which includes three psychometric scales: Overall Life Satisfaction (OLS), Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS) and the Personal Well-Being Index (PWI), which was adapted for adolescents living in residential care. The psychometric scales are used as indicators of SWB.
The independent variables included are related to the personal characteristics of adolescents in care, reflecting their perceptions and evaluations of different aspects of their life. In addition, we also included some variables related to how some aspects of the protection system affect the SWB of adolescents in care.
The Student’s t-test, ANOVA and linear regression were used. We have constructed multiple linear regression models, with type of placement as a stratifying variable (aggregate group, foster family group and residential care group).
Results: Adolescents living in kinship and non-kinship foster care reported better SWB in all life domains than those in residential care. The means for those in family foster care are very close to that of adolescents in the general population.
Adolescents in care who like going to school, feel safe at school, have good relationships with classmates, are in the school year corresponding to their age or who achieve better marks, all display significantly higher SWB scores, regardless of the type of placement. Moreover, adolescents in care who do leisure time activities display higher SWB scores than those who do not. Those adolescents in care who had had the same carers in the previous year had a greater SWB than those who had changed carer. Among adolescents in care, going out with friends every day or one/twice a week increases SWB compared to going out not often or never.
With regard to variables related to the protection system, we found that adolescents who spend more time in the same placement and those who have not suffered a family breakdown have greater SWB. Among adolescents in residential care, those who live in smaller centres and those who have never run away from a centre also display greater SWB.
Conclusions: These findings highlight the need to address the participation of children in any decision that affects their lives, the key role of education, and the importance of stability, having friends and what children do with their leisure time. Attention must be paid to the fact that determining factors in how the protection system is run affect SWB among these children. Efforts must be made to avoid unnecessary changes, increase support for family foster care to avoid ruptures and promote smaller residential centres, which more resemble a family unit, wherever possible. In addition, there is a need to review residential care as a whole, further promote family foster care and pay greater attention to the positive results of kinship care.
Family foster care and adoption , Residential child care
