Children capabilities and family characteristics in Italy

This paper explores the possibilities of using structural equation modelling to measure capabilities of Italian
children. In particular the paper focuses on two capabilities: “Senses, Imagination and Thought” and
“Leisure and Play Activities ”.
The indicators used to measure the capability of ‘Senses, imagination and thought’ for 6-13 years old
children are attitude towards education, attendance to arts classes and other type of extra curriculum
classes like computing and languages. The variables used as indicators of the capability of “Leisure and
play activities” include how often children play in playground, various types of games, attendance to sports
classes.
We use both descriptive statistics, an ordered probit model, and a structural equation model in order to
investigate the relation among the above mentioned indicators, the latent construct for capabilities and a set
of covariates. Moreover we use a new data set in order to include family income among the covariates. The
data result from the matching (through a propensity score method) of two data sets: Bank of Italy Survey
on Income and Wealth for year 2000 and Istat Families, social subjects and childhood condition for
year 1998.