title: Measuring school-related subjective well-being in adolescents.
abstract: The tripartite model of subjective well-being (SWB) incorporates 3 components: frequent positive emotions, infrequent negative emotions, and an overall positive evaluation of life circumstances (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999). In light of the large amount of time that youth spend in school, this study investigated a tripartite model of school-related SWB among adolescents, based on 3 measures of SWB appropriate for adolescents. The measures included a measure of school satisfaction (SS) and measures of positive and negative emotions experienced specifically during school hours. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to analyze the factorial validity of 3- and 4-factor models of school-related SWB in a sample of 921 adolescents. Results indicated that a 4-factor model comprised of positive emotions, negative emotions, fear-related negative emotions, and SS best described the structure of school-related SWB in the current sample. Results also revealed a comparable factor structure for male and female students. The study points to the possible benefits of a contextualized approach to SWB that takes into account the specific environments in which adolescents live.
authors.affiliation: University of South Carolina, Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA. huebner@sc.edu
authors.forename: Rachel F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Long
authors.forename: E Scott
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Huebner
authors.forename: Douglas H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Wedell
authors.forename: Kimberly J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Hills
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*