The opportunity to incorporate subjective well-being in the protection of children and adolescents in Chile

Abstract

Children and adolescents (CA) represent a quarter of the Chilean population, on which the country, regarding protection, has focused on the promotion of equal rights opportunities based on different international conventions. However, CA continue to die from preventable and modifiable causes in addition to experiencing severe degrees of vulnerability, a situation that has an impact on complex emotional and cognitive effects through their life cycle. According to international evidence, the welfare of CA is directly related to social inequality indices, valuing well-being as an essential and transversal component of the rights of CA in the country. In Chile, subjective well-being is defined as the perceptions of CA regarding their living conditions, both economic, social, cultural, and health aspects and personal achievements. This concept has been studied through different instruments which could be very useful to promote the psychosocial component and quality of life of CA in national strategies and policies in this population. This review proposes to explicitly integrate into the public policies of CA the concept of subjective well-being in order to provide fair, positive and systematic opportunities for the maximum development of CA in their life cycle, empirically validating the necessary conditions for good living based on a modern human rights approach that the country has committed to.