A Comparative Study of Wellbeing of Orphan and Non-Orphan Children

The family is the basic social institution in the society. It functions as the basic unit which produces future generations and provides love and affection to the children while facilitating the socialisation process. Children's wellbeing is largely influenced by presence of the family. Unfortunately, orphan children are deprived of parental warmth; care and guidance due to which they might be vulnerable to various psycho-social as well as psychological problems. Hence, the present study was conducted to investigate wellbeing among orphan and non-orphan children. The study was carried out in two orphanages and two schools run by Government in Tricity-Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali. The sample consisted of 50 orphan children and 50 non-orphan children. The tools used in the study included Stirling Children's Wellbeing Scale (Liddle & Carter, 2004). The findings revealed significant difference in wellbeing of orphan and non-orphan children, with orphan children scoring more on total wellbeing than non-orphan children.