Contribution of Relationships with Friends and Teachers and Experiences of School Violence to the Subjective Well-Being of Immigrant Children

Abstract

While the individual trajectories of immigrant children may differ, attending school is a collective experience for most children. When considering children’s integration into their respective school environments, social interactions with peers and teachers may contribute to their ease of integration and overall subjective well-being, as well as potential experiences of violence within the school context. The objectives of this study are to (a) explore the contribution of satisfaction with friends, teachers, and school violence to the SWB of immigrant children, and (b) examine how said contributions and subsequent associations vary across generations. Participants are 8360 children from 21 countries between the ages of 9–13, who report that they themselves or at least one of their parents was born in a foreign country. The participants completed a survey that included demographic information and validated measures from the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB), including the Children’s Worlds Subjective Well-Being Scale (CW-SWBS), and was contextually adapted as appropriate. The data was analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results indicate that higher levels of satisfaction with peer and teacher relationships, as well as fewer experiences of perceived violence, are associated with the subjective well-being of immigrant children. Thus, our model presents a good fit and accounts for 30% of the subjective well-being variance. Our results indicate the importance of social relationships, specifically with peers and teachers, and reinforces school as a crucial context for significant social support and correspondingly may improve immigrant children’s subjective well-being.