Children’s ability to influence their own lives begins with awareness
and knowledge of their rights. This ability is then strengthened with
the perception that their rights are respected. Identifying the factors
that affect these components of rights acquisition is crucial to promote
children’s agency and growth into active citizenship. This article
details a study on 8-year-old children’s understanding of their rights
and their opinions about respect for their rights in 16 countries using
the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB). Multivariate
linear regression models were constructed to study the correlates of
children’s rights outcomes. Within the study sample (N = 17.369),
a minority of the children were aware of children’s rights and knew
about the rights they had. However, the majority of the children felt
that their rights were respected. Children’s responses showed great
variation by country in every dimension of the investigated rights.
Depending on the country, children’s rights outcomes were most
powerfully explained by three indicators: family deprivation and home
and school climates. The lower the deprivation score was and the
stronger the perceptions of being heard at home and school were, the
more aware children were, the more knowledge they had, and the more
respect for children’s rights from adults they perceived.