PART 3: CHILDREN'S OUTCOMES - SOCIAL, EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIOURAL

Self-Reported Happiness

The subjective measurement of children and adolescents' health-related quality of life is valuable in public health policy and planning. 46

Measure

The percentage of children aged 9-17 who report being happy with their lives at present.

Key findings

  • In 2006, 90.8% of children aged 9-17 reported being happy with their lives at present (see Table 76).

Table 76: Percentage of children who report being happy with their lives at present,
by gender, age and social class (2002 and 2006)

    2002     2006  
  Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total
Total 91.2 88.3 89.5 92.4 89.1 90.8
Age            
9 years - - - 95.0 96.0 95.5
10-11 years 93.3 96.0 94.8 95.0 95.6 95.4
12-14 years 91.6 88.9 90.1 92.6 90.4 91.5
15-17 years 89.6 84.5 86.5 91.7 85.0 88.5
Social class            
SC 1-2 93.1 90.2 91.4 94.2 89.2 91.8
SC 3-4 92.4 88.4 90.1 93.0 89.7 91.4
SC 5-6 90.8 89.2 89.9 91.4 90.7 91.0

Source: HBSC Survey

Differences by gender, age and social class

  • The percentage of children who reported being happy with their lives at present was relatively stable across social class (see Table 76).
  • The percentage of children who reported being happy with their lives at present was higher among boys and younger children:
    • 92.4% of boys, compared to 89.1% of girls;
    • 95.5% of children aged 9, compared to 88.5% of those aged 15-17.

Differences by geographic area

  • Children in the South-East region are more likely (92.2%) to report being happy with their lives at present, while children in the Midlands region are least likely to report this (87.4%) (see Table 77).

Table 77: Percentage of children who report being happy with their lives
at present, by NUTS Region (2006)

  2006
Border 91.9
Midlands 87.4
West 89.7
Dublin 90.2
Mid-East 90.6
Mid-West 91.5
South-East 92.2
South-West 91.2
Overall 90.8

Source: HBSC Survey

Technical notes
All data presented are drawn from self-report, self-completion questionnaires completed by children in schools. Thus, they are subject to potential biases in relation to self-presentation and memory. These measures may suffer from social desirability bias.

Percentage differences are presented for descriptive purposes only and may not reflect a statistically significant finding.

Social class (SC) is classified into one of the following groups (introduced in 1996 by the CSO), defined on the basis of occupation:
SC I: Professional
SC 2: Managerial
SC 3: Non-manual
SC 4: Skilled manual
SC 5: Semi-skilled
SC 6: Unskilled

NUTS is an acronym for the EU Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. This classification was legally established by EU Regulation No. 1059/2003 on 29 May 2003. In Ireland, NUTS is classified hierarchically as Level 1 – Ireland; Level 2 – Regions; and Level 3 – Regional Authorities. The 8 Regional Authorities in Ireland (NUTS 3 regions) were established under the Local Government Act, 1991 (see Appendix 2).

No international data are available for comparative purposes.

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46 OMCYA (2006) State of the Nation's Children: Ireland 2006, Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. Dublin: The Stationery Office. Available at: www.childrensdatabase.ie OR www.omc.gov.ie