The Development of a Happiness Measure for Schoolchildren

Happiness, or subjective well‐being, the self‐evaluation of how happy or unhappy a person is, has been studied amongst adults using a variety of self‐report methods. However, there has been relatively little related work with children. A psychometrically valid and reliable SWB measure for schoolchildren aged 8‐ to 15‐years‐old, the School Children’s Happiness Inventory (SCHI), was piloted and developed against existing measures of self‐esteem, affect and depression (n = 71). Predictive validity (n = 771) was assessed using a measure of being bullied, sharing the same context (school) and time scale (the previous week). The School Children’s Happiness Inventory (SCHI) may be especially useful in assessing the effect of school‐based interventions and influences on schoolchildren’s well‐being.     

Engaging fans and the community in social media: interaction with institutions of higher education on Facebook

Although many universities use social media to interact with stakeholders, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Drawing on theories of self-presentation and community engagement, we develop a theoretical model to explain these crucial outcome factors. We then test the model based on secondary data from 159 universities. Our findings reveal the double-edged nature of community size: universities with a strong reputation tend to have more Facebook fans, but having many Facebook fans has detrimental effects on individual fan engagement. Furthermore, the frequency of updates is a crucial factor, as too frequent and too infrequent updates lead to lower levels of fan engagement. We discuss theoretical implications for online communities and derive implications for social media managers.