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The valid measurement of children's life satisfaction is key for subsequent analysis and policy recommendations. It has been demonstrated that individuals use different scales in (self-)reports which leads to misleading results. In this study we focus on the analysis of life satisfaction self-reports among children with differences in the following characteristics: family, school, and free-time activities. Using the anchoring vignette method, we analyze differences in response scale usage among the groups and the impact of these differences on the comparison of life satisfaction among the groups. Our sample (N = 3737) is a representative sample of 5th graders (11 year-olds) in the Czech Republic. After adjustment for differential scale usage, children's life satisfaction is significantly positively related to being female, having a father at home, having good school grades, spending time with friends and the level of education they expect to attain. It is significantly negatively linked to preparing for hard admission exams and time spent playing computer games. The adjustment for response scale differences substantially changes the comparison of different groups. The most significant change is for gender – after correction girls' life satisfaction is significantly higher while before correction it is the opposite. Before adjustment the differences between some groups are underestimated – children with excellent grades, living with their father and spending at least some time with friends have a higher level of life satisfaction after adjustment in comparison to other children. We recommend examining the differences in scale usage among different cultures, countries and groups in children's life satisfaction research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we test two alternative explanations for the decline in school performance in the case of children living without one of their natural parents: that a non-intact family structure has a negative effect on educational performance either through the decline in material resources accessible to the student, or due the lack of maternal/paternal control and support. We investigated the relationship of academic achievement with family structure in the case of 2093 students in grades 8-12 learning in schools from Oradea, Romania. Results show that male children tend to protect Romanian families from disruption, which is in line with the theory. However the proportion of teenagers living in non-intact families from the sample is much higher than expected at country-level, probably because of the specific nature of the sample. Bivariate tests show that Grade Point Average, parental control and support and living conditions have all lower averages in non-intact families leaving the causal mechanism of lowered academic performance unclear. Successive tobit regressions show that the poorer results of students living in families in which at least one of the natural parents is missing can be attributed mostly to the more deprived material, cultural and educational living conditions of children in non-intact families. Lower parental control and support is only a covariate of the other dimensions of analysis. Romanian children living in incomplete families and with financial problems need special attention from the school in order to diminish threat towards their academic performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]