Younger and dissatisfied? Relative age and life satisfaction in adolescence

Luca Fumarco, Stijn Baert

This is the first study to investigate whether age gaps between classmates (that is, relative age) affect life-satisfaction gaps in adolescence. To this end, we analyse data from the multi-country Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey. We find evidence that relative age negatively impacts adolescents’ lifesatisfaction. A twelve-month age gap decreases life-satisfaction, rated on a 0-10 scale, by 0.3 points. This negative effect is consistent across countries, although its magnitude varies; in particular, in Luxembourg, the life-satisfaction gap amounts to about 0.5 points. Finally, this negative effect does not decrease with the increase in absolute age

Zitiervorschlag

Fumarco, L. & Baert, S. (2018). Younger and dissatisfied? Relative age and life satisfaction in adolescence (Économie et statistiques – Working papers du Statec Nr. 104). Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (statec).

Verwandte Projekte