Well-being, school and age, from the understandings of Chilean children

This research studies the relationships that promote well-being in the school setting from the perspective of Chilean children's understandings and how these vary with age by comparing 10-to 11-and 14-to 15-year-old students using a sample of 21 children. The material was collected using semi-structured interviews followed by a thematic content analysis.Seven school categories were identified: performance-based relationships; relationships of support (or lack thereof) from the adult world; relationships with teachers who facilitate (or fail to) learning; supportive peer relationships, fun and friendship; contentious peer relationships; relationships with the school as a whole; and relationships with the material conditions and physical environment of the school.The children perceive their well-being as affected by: relationships between students and teachers, the exigencies of schoolwork, discipline and control, support and interpersonal communication, peer relationships, the avail-ability of affective support, conflict resolution, and poor treatment (bullying). They also talk about the school as a whole and the entirety of interactions transpiring there, affective links with the adult world, and its socio-spatial, infrastructure and habitability conditions. The two studied age groups present common elements, although there are also distinctive, heterogeneous traits of each group that depict the diversity of the well-being experience related to age.