Factors Affecting Happiness of School Children

Abstract

Parents, teachers and managers are crucial elements and play a key role in raising happy and healthy individuals. Besides the factors that determine the level of happiness, turning happiness into something that can be taught puts responsibility on people who are accountable for raising children starting from first-year education. Our study aims to offer suggestions to contribute to students’ happiness by determining variables which affect the level of happiness of students whose study levels vary from 3rd grade to 12th grade. Sample space is composed of 2187 students in total and 28 different schools located in İzmir-Dikili and Foça district. “School Children Happiness Inventory” was used to measure students’ happiness levels. “One Way ANOVA”, “t-test”, “Varian’s Homogeneity Test”, Welch and Post-hoc tests are used for the statistical analysis of data. The results of the statistical analysis have illustrated that students’ happiness score does not depend on grade, the number of siblings, financial situation, whether a mother is working or mother’s job type. On the other hand, it has seen that happiness score decreases when a father is unemployed, and parents are divorced. Other important data shows that happiness score decreases as students get older. Findings have demonstrated that enjoying going to school, spending quality time with their peers and having fun with them as well as having higher self-esteem and feeling safe in school environment contribute to the level of happiness of students in a positive way. A necessary suggestion has been provided to contribute to students’ level of happiness.