The Subjective Well-Being of Malaysian

The present study explores the subjective well-being of Malaysian children between 12 and 14 years of age. These children are beginning the transition from childhood to adulthood. They are confronted by a range of social and developmental influences that impact their self concept, self esteem, independence skills and their sense of their personal well-being. Responses on the Per-sonal Wellbeing Index (School Children) were collected from over a thousand children in Form 1 and Form 2 grade levels drawn from a sample of ten schools in Ipoh, Malaysia. The results for the sample as a whole range from the lowest average score in “happiness with life achievement ” at 68.1 up to a score of 80.7 on the “personal relationships ” domain out of a total possible score of 100. Significant differences between the male and female participants were noted with males rat-ing their subjective well-being as higher than the ratings by females on their “satisfaction with life as a whole ” as well as their happiness with “personal safety”. The younger students (Form 1 grade-level) rated their happiness as significantly higher on the majority of life domains as compared to Form 2 students. There was also a significant difference between the students attending Chines