In Pursuit of Happiness: Girls' striking optimism in a time of crisis
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), unicefWhat is it?
In contrast to measures of objective well-being – which capture the material living conditions and experiences of people across a range of dimensions, including health, education, physical safety and economic security – subjective well-being measures individuals’ own assessments of their well-being, or self-reflections of the quality of their lives.
Despite growing recognition of subjective well-being as an important goal in itself, policies and metrics related to the Sustainable Development Agenda often overlook the happiness of and life satisfaction of women and adolescent girls.
HIGHLIGHTS
The analysis presented in this brief shows that life satisfaction varies widely among adolescent girls across countries.
Moreover, differences in life satisfaction and happiness are observed within countries based on schooling status, household wealth and where girls reside.
On average, for example, adolescent girls in school are more likely to be very satisfied with their lives and happy than adolescent girls not in school.
Adolescent girls are more satisfied with their lives in countries with lower levels of gender inequality.