Objective To understand the influence of family, school, and community social environments on children′s perceived well-being, to explore the key indicators that affect children′s well-being, and to provide suggestions and references for building child-friendly cities and creating friendly social environments.

Methods Using stratified multistage cluster sampling and a self-developed questionnaire, we recruited 3 511 students in grades 4–6 from 12 primary schools in 6 districts of Xiamen city, Fujian province for on-site online surveys conducted from October 2023 to January 2024. Independent samples t-tests and analysis of variance were used for univariate analysis. Multiple linear regression models were used to analyze the influence of the friendliness of the family, school, and community social environments on children′s perceived well-being. Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression was used to screen key indicators of family-school-community social environments that influence perceived well-being, and regression coefficient estimation and significance tests were performed.

Results For the 3 289 participants (54.03% boys and 45.97% girls, mean age 10.38±0.96 years) with valid responses, the mean perceived well-being score was 64.29±9.21. Based on Model 1 (which included only demographic variables), Model 8, which included family, school, and community social environment variables, increased the explanatory power of perceived child well-being by 44.6%. Compared to the school social environment (β=0.12, B=0.16, P<0.001) and the community social environment (β=0.59, B=0.22, P<0.001), the family social environment (β=0.66, B=0.39, P<0.001) had a greater impact on children′s perceived well-being. From the perspective of family-school-community synergy, five key indicators of the family environment, six key indicators of the school environment, and three key indicators of the community environment that affect children′s perceived well-being were selected. Among the key indicators in the family dimension, children′s feeling that “talking with parents is relaxing” (B=0.12, P<0.001) and “my family knows what is going on in this school” (B=0.12, P<0.001) had a greater impact on children′s perceived well-being. In the school dimension, “the subjects learned in school are all very interesting” (B=0.13, P<0.001) had the greatest impact on the perceived well-being. In the community dimension, children′s perception that “the people in this community are warm and caring” had a greater impact on children′s perceived well-being (B=0.08, P<0.001).

Conclusions To promote children′s well-being, families, schools, and communities must work together to create a child-friendly social atmosphere, especially by promoting relaxed and happy parent-child communication, parental involvement in children′s lives, and the interest in school curricula.