Children’s Experience of Activities and Participation and their Subjective Well-Being in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care Institutions

The purpose of this study is to investigate how children perceive their own well-being in ECEC institutions, and how their experience of activities in the ECEC institution and their opportunities for participation relate to their subjective well-being.

Overall, the results show that many of the children experience a high degree of well-being in their everyday life in ECEC institutions, but around one-third experience a medium level of well-being, and close to one out of ten children experience a low degree of well-being in ECEC institutions.

The study shows that the institution's physical environment, toys/equipment, common activities, such as circle time, hikes and meals, and the opportunity to influence daily activities are of crucial importance to children's well-being in ECEC institutions. This also comprises children's opportunity to negotiate and choose activities that differ from those planned by the ECEC staff.

The authors find that by far the majority of children are very satisfied with the physical environment at their ECEC institution, and that there is a significant correlation between liking the institution's indoor and outdoor environments, toys/equipment and common activities and children's experience of their general well-being in the ECEC institution. Many children experience that they are free to use the facilities they want, when they want, and this is also related to their general well-being in the ECEC institution.

 According to the authors, the results of the study indicate that the children have a higher degree of participation when they are outdoors, and that the ECEC staff are less likely to involve the children in planning indoor activities. According to the authors, one explanation for this result may be that many institutions have started spending more time indoors for more targeted learning activities, documentation and school-preparatory activities. These are activities in which the children have to participate, and this may result in children experiencing that they have less influence on their everyday life in ECEC institutions.

The data material consists of a questionnaire completed by 171 children from 17 ECEC institutions in eight randomly selected municipalities in one county. The ECEC institutions were randomly selected, although on the basis of the criterion that they had to cover different types of institution with regard to size, ownership, organisation and professional profile. A total of ten-11 children aged 4-6 years were randomly selected from each ECEC institution. Almost an equal number of boys and girls took part in the study. The questionnaire consisted of questions about the children's experience of everyday life in the ECEC institution, the physical environment at the institution (both indoors and outdoors) and the activities in which the children participate. Several questions focussed on the children's experience of their opportunities for participation in the ECEC institution, for example whether they felt that their views were considered, whether they could express their opinion about the institution's daily activities, and whether they felt that they could participate actively in planning the institution's activities. Data was collected by two researchers and three research assistants.

Sandseter, E. B. H., & Seland, M. (2016). Children’s Experience of Activities and Participation and their Subjective Well-Being in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care Institutions. Child Indicators Research 9, 913–932.