The Construction of Youth Happiness Index in Korea
Shinyoung Kim(Ph.D in sociology) National Youth Policy Institute June.28. 2007
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Why do we develop an index in the first place?
1.To facilitate concise and comprehensive understanding of social phenomenon
2. To make comparisons cross-sectionally and longitudinally
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How to measure happiness?
▪ measurement should be based on the conceptual understanding
▪ several issues emerge, most of all
- how to define “various aspects of human life” exhaustively? - how to combine cognitive aspects with emotional aspects?
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1st issue:
how to define “various aspects of human life”?
▪ matter of securing “content validity” in methodological term
▪ no standard classification up to now
▪ the human life is made of ……….. ▪ practical solution is to look for previous research on this subject
▪ Child Well-Being Index made in 1999 by sociologists
in Duke University practical solution is to look for previous research on this subject
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▪ About Child Well Being Index
- synthesis of subjective well-being approach and objective social indicator approach in the sense that
- classify major domains of human life through comprehensive literature review on subjective well-being and life satisfaction - measures objective hard indexes based on life domain classification - seven life domains
- material well-being, health, safety, achievement, participation in community, social relationship, and emotional well-being - twenty eight indicators
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Korean Youth Happiness Index
▪ borrow the classification of life domains from the CWI ▪ difficulty in finding comparable objective indicators due to lack of longitudinal data
▪ decided to develop subjective indicators in each life domains ▪ depli survey and focus group interview
▪ final outcome – forty indicators in six domains
- economic well-being - satisfaction with self - safety - academic achievement - social relationship - emotional/psychological well-being
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1. economic well-being -three indicators
▪ Two sub-dimensions: class identification and satisfaction with economic situation ▪ Which social class do you think your family belongs to? ▪ I am satisfied with my family's financial circumstance. ▪ I am satisfied with my own financial circumstance. ▪
2. satisfaction with the self
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ I think my health is in a good condition. I am satisfied with my leisure life. I like my looks I like my personality.
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3. Safety
Two Sub-dimensions: safety in schools and safety in the neighborhood
1) safety in schools
▪ I fear that someone in or around the school might hurt me. ▪ My school is filthy with litter scattered around. ▪ There is a certain place in school, where extortion, theft or physical ▪ assault frequently takes place. ▪ There are many juvenile delinquents in my school. ▪ Many juvenile delinquents are seen around the school. 2) Safety in the neighborhood ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ I fear that someone in my neighborhood might hurt me. My neighborhood is filthy with litter scattered around. My neighborhood has many dark and isolated places. Many drunken people are seen around my neighborhood at night. Teens in group are often seen around my neighborhood.
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4. Academic Achievement
▪ Are you satisfied with your academic performance?
5. Social Relationships
- Three sub-dimensions
▪ 1) relationships within family
▪ I try to spend as much time as possible with my parents.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ My parents always let me know that they love me and care about me My parents and I understand each other I often talk with my parents about what I want to do in the future. I get along well with my sibling(s)
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2) relationships with school teachers ▪ I get along well with my teachers. ▪ I am not reluctant to talk with my teachers about what troubles me. ▪ My teacher always lets me know how much s/he cares about me.
▪
3) relationships with friends ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ I hope to remain as their close friends for long. I enjoy being with them. I try to think and feel in a way they do I can talk to my close friends about what troubles me.
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6. Emotional/Psychological well-being
-Two sub-dimensions: positive vs negative
(not necessarily negatively correlated) 1) positive dimension ▪ I found something that interested or intrigued me.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
2)
I felt proud of myself after being praised about what I have done. ▪ I felt excited about what I have accomplished. There was a point where I was the happiest . I felt many things have played out the way I wished.
negative dimension
▪ I felt so anxious that I couldn't calmly sit in the chair. ▪ I felt lonely and isolated from others. ▪ I felt bored. ▪ I felt miserable and unhappy ▪ I felt offended by someone who criticized me.
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Methodology 1. Data: National Sample of 9th, 10th, grade students (approximately 2,000) 2. Fieldworks: done by Survey Research Center(KGSS) 3. weighting strategy: Principle component methods - transform factor loadings for each item to its proportions
▪
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More on weighing issue...
1. Reliability Check for Multiple Indicators
2. Standardize Raw Scores of Indicators
▪
3. Produce Transformed Variables through Repeated CFA
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The Weights of Each Indicators are Proportions of Their Coefficients in CFA
factor loading of Xi
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The Weights for Final Happiness Index
9th
Economic Well-Being Satisfaction with Self
Safety Academic Achievement Social Relationships Emo/Psy Well-Being
10th
.489(.14) .749(.22)
.410(.12) .371(.11) .656(.19) .728(.21)
.610(.20) .716(.23)
.277(.09) ▪ .312(.10) .633(.21) .527(.17)
The Ranks of Individual Life Domains are Stable !!!
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Happiness Index Score
in Korea
70.00 51.98 35.00 48.95 55.01
▪
0.00 total 9th grade 10th grade
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The Scores of Each Life Domains
Mean N
Economic Well-Being
Satisfaction with Self Safety
49.12
52.95 65.44 ▪
1923
1925 1926
Academic Achievement
Social Relationships
25.76
44.73
1902
1803
Emo/Psy Well-Being
57.00
1931
1. High on Safety and Emo/Psy Well-Being 2. Low on Academic Achievements
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Happiness Scores by Groups
MEAN male Gender Female High Social Class 53.59 59.09 14.08 13.93 363 52 56.11 S.D 12.99 N 470 F=7.169** F
Middle
Low
55.81
47.78 57.87 55.28 52.37
▪
12.93
14.78 13.12 13.84 13.36
677
104 251 268 252
F=19.193***
Academi c
Ranks
High Middle Low
F=10.505***
Types of School
*
General
Vocationa l
**
54.48
56.16
***
13.45
13.64
566
F=2.807 267
p < .05,
p < .01,
p < .001
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Concluding Remarks
1. What Does 52 out 100 Mean?
2. Limited Data Considering the Official Age Span of "Youth"
▪ 3. Survey in 2007 1) Extended Age Span (7th - 12th) 2) Approximately 6,200 3) Data Cleaning Stage 4) Trend and Cohort Analysis
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Thank you very much!!!!
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