Gender and Children’s Wellbeing: Four Mediterranean Countries in Perspective

In this paper, we discuss gender disparities in children’s wellbeing using the Integrated Fuzzy and Relative (IFR) methodology adapted to the framework of the Capability Approach. The aim is to obtain insights into the multidimensional nature of children’s wellbeing by considering seven children’s capabilities. The study is conducted using cross-sectional data from the 2009 European Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) referring to four Southern European countries: Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. The role of gender in children’s wellbeing is investigated by using two different perspectives at the household level: the gender of single parents and the gender of the children. The results indicate that there is a gender effect from both the investigated perspectives. Thus, our findings suggest that dimension-specific and gendered policies are needed to improve children’s wellbeing.