Children’s Voices on School Well-Being (CV-SWB): a child-centered approach to understanding early school experiences in preschool and primary education

Understanding how young children experience well-being at school is essential for designing responsive and developmentally appropriate educational practices. Despite increasing interest in school well-being, research capturing children’s own perspectives in preschool and early primary education remains scarce. This study presents the Children’s Voices on School Well-Being (CV-SWB), designed to access young children’s school-related experiences through individually administered interviews combining brief structured items and open-ended justifications. A total of 548 children aged 3 to 12 participated. Quantitative responses indicated a set of school well-being dimensions reflecting key aspects of children’s experiences of belonging and fairness, school liking, daily peer interactions, adult care, and experiences of conflict. These dimensions showed a broadly comparable structure across gender and age groups, suggesting that core aspects of school well-being can be meaningfully identified from early childhood, even if their psychological meaning may continue to evolve across development. Qualitative analyses of children’s narratives further enriched the interpretation of these domains, highlighting how young learners articulate relational, emotional, and contextual aspects of school life. This study contributes to early childhood research by providing a developmentally appropriate and feasible approach to accessing young children’s perspectives on school well-being within educational settings.