Leisure Participation and Child Well-Being: The Role of Family Togetherness

This study investigates the links between subjective well-being, family togetherness and leisure time in Finnish primary school children. We hypothesize that leisure time activity is related to perceived well-being and that family togetherness mediates this relationship. The present data are drawn from the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being, Finnish data, which surveyed children between the ages of 8 and 12 in diverse contexts (N = 2840; boys 1381). The Student Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS) was applied to obtain children’s own perception of their well-being. Family togetherness includes items assessing family functioning, whereas leisure participation is evaluated by frequency of activity. A structural equation model (SEM) was estimated based on ecological system’s theory in order to discover relationships between the above mentioned three life domains. The model was confirmed which supports the use of ecological system’s theory and indicates that children’s well-being is explained in terms of personal, relational and contextual factors.