Abstract:
This paper examines the subjective well-being (SWB) of children and adolescents (10‒18 years old) during the COVID-19
pandemic in Indonesia for two periods (May to July 2020 and March to May 2021), using cross-sectional data from two distinct samples of N = 1,011 (M age = 14.61) and N = 1,640 (M age = 14.86), respectively. Its aims are twofold: (1) to examine
the state of SWB among Indonesian children, including its cognitive component (measured using the CW-SWBS), positive
affect (PA), and negative affect (NA), and the participants’ satisfaction with their contact with friends and how they spend
their time; and (2) to compare the evolution of these SWB-related aspects from the first to the second year of the COVID-
19 pandemic. Data were collected using Google Forms and convenience and snowball sampling. Results showed that boys
displayed significantly higher mean SWB scores than girls, while elementary students displayed significantly higher mean
scores for the cognitive component than middle and high school students for both data collection periods. Boys also displayed
significantly higher mean PA scores than girls. There were significant school grade differences on PA and NA, depending on
the period of study. In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, children and adolescents displayed lower scores on satisfaction with their contact with friends than in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. These results suggest that children
and adolescents adapted to the COVID-19 situation during the second year, and this adaptation protected their SWB from
further decrease, as defended by the homeostasis theory
