What Makes a Child Happy?

The study examines self-rated happiness of 1382 eight-year-old children living in five different cities and provinces in Vietnam. The results show that Vietnamese children have moderate level of subjective well-being (mean 5.975 out of a scale from 1 to 9). This level is on average higher than their caregiver’s self-reported happiness (mean 4.461). Child and parent demographic characteristics, such as age, ethnicity, health status, educational attainment or intellectual capabilities, as well as child time use have little relationship with child happiness. The two most important predictors of child subjective well-being are household expenditure (a proxy for economic conditions) and caregiver’s well-being. Furthermore, children living in rural areas report significantly lower level of happiness. The results of this study suggest that improving households’ material conditions and caregivers’ subjective well-being may be meaningful to child happiness.