Children’s Self-Concept of their Well-Being in Rawalpindi and Islamabad: Actor’s Perspectives of Identity and Existence

• Published in: Child indicators research Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 501 - 523
• Main Authors: Ahmed, Makhtoom, Zaman, Muhammad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.04.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Child and School Psychology; Child development; Child psychology; Children; Early Childhood Education; Embeddedness; Gender identity; Gender roles; Morality; Quality of Life Research; Relatives; Self concept; Self esteem; Social construction; Social identity; Social Sciences; Social Work; Sociocultural factors; Well being; Self-concept; Self-identity; children’s wellbeing; Agency; Pakistan
• ISSN: 1874-897X; 1874-8988
• DOI: 10.1007/s12187-018-9552-5

Psychological investigations of the self-concept of children constitute a significant body of knowledge. This study focuses on self-concept from a sociological perspective, viewing self-concept as a social construct instead of a psychological construct. Drawing data from qualitative in-depth interviews with 30 children aged 8 to 12, the article asserts that children describe their self-concept within their cultural context. Focusing on the Pakistani context, we demonstrate the cultural embeddedness of self-concept by showing that children describe their social identity with reference to specific ideas of traditional gender roles and with reference to religious and national identifications which are formally valued in Pakistan. The importance of acting as moral agents who consider it obligatory to undertake domestic roles, perform well at school and support their family members in the future is also emphasized. We argue that there are multiple domains of self-concept, within which children represent themselves in a specific cultural context.