title: The upward spiral of adolescents' positive school experiences and happiness: investigating reciprocal effects over time.
abstract: In line with self-determination theory and Fredrickson's (2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, this study adopts a positive perspective on students' school experiences and their general psychological functioning. The reciprocal effects of positive school experiences and happiness, a dimension of affective well-being, are examined over the course of an academic year. Data were collected from 215 secondary school students at 5 measurement occasions. The results of longitudinal cross-lagged structural equation modeling support the notion of an upward spiral of positive school experiences and happiness over time. Positive school experiences had a stable lagged effect on happiness, and, in turn, happiness had a lagged effect on future positive school experiences.
authors.affiliation: University of Linz, Austria. barbara.stiglbauer@jku.at
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stiglbauer
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gnambs
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gamsjäger
authors.forename: Bernad
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Batinic
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012574:Schools; D012931:Social Environment; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*