is extremely high life satisfaction during adolescence ... - Springer Link

Social Indicators Research (2006) 78: 179–203 DOI 10.1007/s11205-005-8208-2

Ó Springer 2005

SHANNON M. SULDO and E. SCOTT HUEBNER

IS EXTREMELY HIGH LIFE SATISFACTION DURING ADOLESCENCE ADVANTAGEOUS? (Accepted 31 May 2005)

ABSTRACT. This study examined whether extremely high life satisfaction was associated with adaptive functioning or maladaptive functioning. Six hundred ninety-eight secondary level students completed the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale [Huebner, 1991a, School Psychology International, 12, pp. 231–240], Youth Self-Report of the Child Behavior Checklist [Achenbach and Edelbrock, 1991, Child Behavior Checklist and Youth Self-Report, Burlington, VT], Abbreviated Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire [Francis, 1996, Personality and Individual Differences, 21, pp. 835–844], Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (Muris, 2001, Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assesment, 23(3), pp. 145–149], and the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (Malecki and Demaray, 2002, Psychology in Schools, 39, pp. 1–18]. Three groups of students were created based on their life satisfaction reports: very high (top 10%), average (middle 25%), and very low (lowest 10%). Compared to students with average life satisfaction, students with very high life satisfaction had higher levels on all indicators of adaptive psychosocial functioning, except extraversion. Moreover, students with very high satisfaction had the lowest scores on all measures of emotional and behavioral problems. However, rates of clinical levels of behavior problems did not differ significantly between the very high and average groups. Finally, several necessary, but not sufficient factors for very high life satisfaction were identified. Taken together, the findings support the notion that very high life satisfaction is associated with positive psychosocial functioning. Furthermore, adolescents’ reports of their life satisfaction revealed differences in adjustment that were not captured by measures of psychopathology. KEY WORDS: subjective well-being, life satisfaction, adolescents, secondary students, mental health, psychosocial adjustment

Educators, psychologists, and parents alike would probably agree they hope and endeavor for children to be ‘‘happy.’’ But how happy is happy enough? Do meaningful differences exist between a slightly

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positive and overwhelming positive view of one’s life? The historical focus of psychology implies that simply not displaying symptoms of pathology is good enough; for example, the bulk of our economic resources allocated for mental health are spent treating and preventing mental illness. Essentially, ‘‘happy enough’’ is currently operationalized as ‘‘not symptomatic.’’ Researchers weary of psychology’s persistent focus on psychopathology have long called for increased study of optimal development (see Cowen, 1991). The interest in optimal development is evidenced by the momentum of the positive psychology movement, a central tenet of which is the pursuit and study of happiness (Diener, 2000). Scientifically, ‘‘happiness’’ is commonly operationalized as subjective well-being (Diener et al., 2002). Subjective well-being, also referred to as perceived quality of life, is comprised of three related but separable constructs: life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect (Diener, 2000). Positive affect refers to pleasant feelings and moods (for example, joy, pride, ecstasy) while negative affect describes emotions that are bothersome and/or disagreeable (for example, sadness, guilt, anger). Life satisfaction is conceptualized as a cognitive, global appraisal that people make when considering their contentment with their life as a whole or in regard to specific domains of life such as family, environment, friends, and self. Individuals with positive subjective well-being report high life satisfaction as well as a preponderance of positive emotions and moods relative to negative affect. Keyes (2002) advanced categories of mental health beyond mental illness through operationalizing mental health as subjective wellbeing in a study of over 3000 middle-age adults. Based on their levels of positive affect, life satisfaction, psychological well-being (e.g., personal growth, purpose in life), and social well-being, adults were classified on a continuum of mental health ranging from flourishing (i.e., presence of mental health; upper tertile of scores on the wellbeing indicators), to moderate mental health (mid tertile of well-being scores), to languishing (i.e., the absence of mental health; lowest tertile of well-being scores). While 28% of the languishing adults met criteria for major depression, the mean number of the nine depressive symptoms endorsed by the remaining 72% was less than one; the low frequency of symptoms in the typical languishing adult demonstrates that the absence of mental illness (i.e., depressive symptomatology)

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does not necessarily correspond to the presence of mental health. This study also revealed that flourishing adults’ self-reported emotional health, as well as their activity levels at work and in other daily activities, was superior to that of their counterparts in the moderate mental health and languishing-but-not-depressed ranges of functioning. Taken together, these findings illustrate the benefits of optimal subjective well-being, as well as support the importance of studying mental health beyond the cut-point of ‘‘clinically significant.’’ Most studies of subjective well-being during youth have utilized life satisfaction as the sole indicator, perhaps because life satisfaction is considered the more stable and easily measurable of the three components. While a growing body of research documents variables that are correlated, in a presumed linear trend, with life satisfaction in children and adolescents (see Huebner et al., 2004, for a review), youth with the most extreme levels of life satisfaction have yet to be isolated and studied. Such research would be helpful in illustrating a profile of these youth compared to their counterparts with less extreme (but still positive) life satisfaction, in part to determine if increases in life satisfaction beyond the positive point are meaningful. For instance, while Keyes’ (2002) study revealed the aforementioned adjustment differences between flourishing and moderate mental health groups, his research also found that these groups did not differ on a key objective indicator of health functioning (specifically, work days limited or lost due to health problems). Theoretical and empirical work on the affective component of subjective well-being indeed purports that optimal subjective wellbeing is not synonymous with extremely positive affect. Specifically, the State of Mind theory proposes that there exists an optimal level of happiness in affect balance, and that too much is dysfunctional. Originally, Schwartz and Garamoni’s (1986) States of Mind (SOM) model proposed that the optimal affect balance entails one in which positive affect is more frequent, but not by much. Specifically, calculations of an individual’s ratio of positive to positive + negative cognitions (i.e., affective responses) yields a SOM score. SOM ratios between 0.56 and 0.68 were found to be associated with optimal coping responses. In the face of subsequent research demonstrating that higher ratios (e.g., 0.70–0.85) were associated with indices of

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optimal functioning, the revised Balanced States of Mind (BSOM) model was advanced (Schwartz, 1997). The BSOM model described ratios of 0.72 and 0.81 as associated with adequate and optimal functioning, respectively, while ratios above 0.90 are associated with maladaptive outcomes as these individuals are characterized by such features as unrealistic optimism, denial, narcissism, and mania. Recent empirical studies with adults have failed to support the notion that the happiest states of mind are associated with dysfunction and maladaptive outcomes. For example, a recent comparison of 24 very positive adults (affect ratios between 0.91 and 1.0) and 48 adults with positive dialogue (affect ratios between 0.67 and 0.90) revealed similar social and psychological functioning (Friedman et al., 2002). Contrary to hypotheses, the very positive sample did not possess significantly higher levels of hypomania or social desirability, and the notion that very positive people possibly in denial (i.e., repressors, operationalized as high in social desirability) may possess higher levels of somatic problems was not supported. Of note, the authors underscored the need for additional studies of the functionality of people experiencing very high levels of positivity in domains of experience other than emotions. Such a study of extreme positive perceptions in multiple domains of subjective experience (specifically, life satisfaction in addition to affect) was conducted by Diener and Seligman (2002). This pioneering study screened 200 college students in order to identify a group of ‘‘very happy people’’ – students in the top 10% on a combination of life satisfaction scores and positive global and daily affect balance (as assessed through self and peer reports). Very happy people were compared to students in the average range on these variables as well as to very unhappy people – the 10% of the sample who were least satisfied and experienced a preponderance of negative affect. Findings regarding emotional functionality indicated that very happy adults have working mood systems; rather than locked in a surreal state of constant euphoria, these people experienced occasional neutral and even negative moods. In examining the keys to happiness, Diener and Seligman found that very happy people experienced a combination of various interand intra-personal variables, but that no one variable was sufficient to guarantee happiness. Very happy adults spent the least time alone (as well as the most time with family and friends) and possessed the


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highest self and peer ratings of good interpersonal relationships. Regarding personality, very happy people were characterized by extraversion and agreeableness, but not neuroticism. With the occasional exception of hypomania, psychopathology was nonexistent among very happy people. In contrast to previous correlational findings, the samples did not differ significantly with respect to experiences of objective life events, substance use (i.e., tobacco and alcohol), and time spent in religious activities. Thus, while these variables correlate with life satisfaction, apparently they are not powerful enough to create a very happy state. The current study builds on aspects of the methodology for studying very happy people exemplified by Diener and Seligman in a first examination of optimal subjective well-being during youth. Focusing on life satisfaction, the indicator of subjective well-being in youth with the largest empirical database, the current study intended to determine if adolescent life satisfaction beyond the positive point is adaptive and advantageous. To accomplish these goals, we identified adolescents with extremely high life satisfaction (i.e., in the top 10% of life satisfaction scores relative to their peers) as well as comparison samples of adolescents whose life satisfaction was either extremely low or in the average range. A profile of very satisfied youth was derived from comparisons of group means on indicators of major, significant correlates of youth life satisfaction, including interpersonal variables (specifically, social support from a variety of sources), intrapersonal variables (temperament and psychopathology), and cognitive variables (self-efficacy). Additionally, effect sizes were examined to shed light on which correlates maximally separate the very satisfied from their average and dissatisfied peers. While this is the first study to isolate groups of adolescents with extreme levels of life satisfaction, findings from the empirical body of correlational studies of life satisfaction during youth provided a basis for hypothesis formation. For instance, previous research indicates parental social support is strongly associated with life satisfaction, as are positive relationships with peers (Dew and Huebner, 1994; Suldo and Huebner, 2004). Regarding cognitive factors, life satisfaction during youth co-occurs with high levels of perceived social self-efficacy (Fogle et al., 2002) and an internal locus of control (Ash and Huebner, 2001). Life satisfaction is also elevated in children and adolescents high in extraversion and low in neuroticism (Huebner,

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1991b; McKnight et al., 2002). Studies examining associations between psychopathology and subjective well-being have revealed sizeable, negative relationships between adolescents’ life satisfaction and their concurrent and later levels of internalizing disorders such as depression and anxiety (Huebner et al., 2000). With respect to externalizing behavior, low life satisfaction has been linked with behaviors that constitute delinquency (e.g., school dropout, substance use), aggression (e.g., fighting, carrying a weapon), and conduct disorder among elementary and middle school students (Huebner and Alderman, 1993) and high school students (Maton, 1990; Valois et al., 2001; Zullig et al., 2001). In light of these correlational studies indicating poor adjustment occurs more frequently as life satisfaction decreases, we anticipated the profile of adolescents with very high life satisfaction would be positive, a hypothesis in stark contrast to the Balanced States of Mind model that would predict pathological adjustment in the happiest people (Schwartz, 1997). Moreover, we expected extremely high life satisfaction to be advantageous, such that adolescents with very high life satisfaction would score higher on desirable outcomes and lower on maladaptive characteristics than their peers in the average range of life satisfaction. To further pit the BSOM model against the notion that extremely high life satisfaction is adaptive, we looked for symptoms of dysfunctionality and maladaptive outcomes among the adolescents reporting almost perfect life satisfaction. In the current study, clinical rates of psychopathology were selected as indicators of maladaptive outcomes. Although prior examinations of life satisfaction in subpopulations of youth with mental illness are absent, we hypothesized that extremely high life satisfaction and clinically significant levels of psychopathology would not co-occur. Provided extremely high life satisfaction is indeed advantageous and adaptive, the final research question involves identifying key ingredients for optimal well-being. Specifically, which factors are necessary and sufficient for very high life satisfaction during adolescence? As life satisfaction is influenced by a multitude of variables, it was not expected that any single factor would be sufficient for extremely high or low satisfaction. However, it was hypothesized that parental support would be among the necessary factors for high life


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satisfaction given the robust relationship between parent–child relationship indicators and adolescent life satisfaction. METHOD

Participants The sample consists of 698 students from 3 middle and 2 high schools in a rural public school district in a Southeastern state. Participants were ages 11–19 (M=14.78, SD=1.82). Most participants were African American (58%); the remaining were Caucasian (36%), Asian (2%), and other ethnicities (4%). The gender distribution was 64% female and 36% male. As a rough estimate of socioeconomic status, a majority of the sample (57%) reported qualifying for school lunch at free or reduced rates (low SES).

Procedure Teachers distributed a parent information letter from the principal investigators to all regular education students in the participating schools; the letter described the purpose of the study and requested active parent consent for student participation. Assent was then sought from all students who returned signed parent consent forms and were present on data collection dates. Students with parental consent and student assent to participate were administered each of the measures discussed below in groups of 20–100, with the size of the group depending upon the availability of sufficient space and adult assistance. The first author was present at all data collection sessions to insure the valid and confidential completion of all measures. The sequence of the presented measures was counterbalanced to guard against ordering effects. Prior to the scale measures, participants completed a brief demographic questionnaire about their gender, age, grade, race, and SES (whether or not the student received a free or reduced-cost lunch). While participants were not paid, several gift certificates were given away at random to the participant pool.

Measures Students Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS: Huebner, 1991a). The SLSS consists of seven items assessing global life satisfaction in children.

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Students respond to each item using a 6-point likert response format (1=‘‘strongly disagree,’’ to 6=‘‘strongly agree’’). Items 3 and 4 are reverse scored; students’ responses are summed and divided by seven to yield a mean score. High scores on the SLSS represent high life satisfaction. Ample research endorses the SLSS as a reliable and valid measure with students in elementary, middle, and high school (for a review, see Bender, 1997). Alpha coefficients have been reported to be above 0.80 for 4th through 12th graders (Gilman and Huebner, 1997; Huebner, 1991a), and was 0.86 in the current study. The Youth Self Report of the Child Behavior Checklist (YSR: Achenbach and Edelbrock, 1991). The YSR contains 118 items that measure eight areas of problem behavior. Students rate on a 3-point scale how true each item is for them now or within the past 6 months. Due to the focus of this study, only the 61 items that comprise the five subscales in the internalizing (withdrawal, somatic complaints, and anxious/depressed subscales) and externalizing (delinquent behavior and aggressive behavior subscales) domains were administered. The YSR is commonly used in clinical practice to identify children at risk for psychopathology; normative information from a sample of 2100 children is provided in the manual (Achenbach and Edelbrock, 1991). The YSR has good reliability; the one-week test-retest coefficient is 0.79. In the current study, alpha coefficients by subscale were as follows: anxious/depressed=0.89, somatic complaints=0.78, withdrawal=0.69, aggressive behavior=0.85, and delinquent behavior=0.66. The Abbreviated Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQR-A: Francis, 1996). The JEPQR-A is an abbreviated version of the Revised Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQR), derived from Eysenck’s theory of personality and temperament. The questionnaire is designed to measure the temperament traits of Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism, as well as a Lie scale, in children and adolescents. Only the Extraversion and Neuroticism scales were administered in the current study. Students responded to 12 items (e.g., ‘‘Can you get a party going?’’ ‘‘Do you often feel ‘fedup’?’’) in a dichotomous ‘‘yes/no’’ format. Higher scores indicate higher levels of the personality trait. Each subscale consists of six questions, to which participants respond ‘‘yes’’ or ‘‘no.’’ Convergent validity correlations with the JEPQR Extraversion scale (r=0.91) and Neuroticism scale (r=0.92) support the validity of the JEPQR-A.


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Data from the current study yielded alpha coefficients of 0.70 and 0.66 for the Neuroticism and Extraversion subscales, respectively. Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C: Muris, 2001). The SEQ-C is a 21-item self-report instrument intended to measure adolescents’ beliefs about their competencies in three areas: social, academic, and emotional. Social self-efficacy measures adolescents’ perceived capability for peer relationships and assertiveness. Academic self-efficacy pertains to adolescents’ perceived capability to manage their own learning behaviors, to master academic material, and to fulfill academic expectations. Emotional self-efficacy refers to adolescents’ perceptions of their abilities to cope with negative emotions. Each subscale consists of seven items assessing perceived competence; response options include a 5-point likert scale in which 1=‘‘not at all’’ and 5=‘‘very well’’. Construct validity is evidenced by relationships, in expected directions, between SEQ-C scores and depression (Muris, 2001), and anxiety and neuroticism (Muris, 2002). With regard to internal consistency, the current study yielded alpha coefficients of 0.82, 0.78, and 0.76 for the academic, emotional, and social subscales, respectively. The Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS: Malecki and Demaray, 2002). The CASSS is a self-report measure used to assess children’s perceptions of social support from five sources: parent(s), teacher(s), classmate(s), a close friend, and school administrators. Only the first four subscales were administered in the current study. Each subscale contains 12 items that assess four types of support (emotional, instrumental, appraisal, and informational) offered by the source (e.g., parent, teacher) who is identified at the beginning of each subscale. Students read each statement and rate how often they perceive a particular supportive behavior. Response options range from one (‘‘never’’) to six (‘‘always’’). Frequency ratings were summed within each subscale to create total social support scores for each of the four sources. Higher scores reflect higher perceived social support from a particular source. Construct validity for the CASSS is supported by strong correlations with established measures of social support and relatively lower correlations with other self-report measures of separable psychological constructs such as social skills, self-concept, externalizing behavior and internalizing behavior (Malecki et al., 2000; Malecki and Elliot, 1999). The authors report a test-retest reliability of 0.78

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for the full scale score (total support from all sources) over a period of 8–10 weeks. Internal consistency is excellent; in the current study, coefficient alpha was 0.95 to 0.96 for each subscale. RESULTS

Extreme life satisfaction groups Global life satisfaction scores were used to assign participants to the extreme life satisfaction and comparison subsamples. The very high life satisfaction (HLS) group consisted of adolescents whose mean life satisfaction scores were in the top 10% of the entire sample. The very low life satisfaction (LLS) group consisted of participants whose mean scores were in the bottom 10% of the entire sample. The comparison group of students in the average range of life satisfaction (ALS) consisted of participants whose mean scores were in the middle quarter of the distribution. The remaining 55% of participants were not utilized in further analyses, unless otherwise noted. Following detection of multivariate outliers, two participants from the ALS group and one participant from the HLS group were also excluded from additional analyses. Demographic characteristics for each of the three subsamples are presented in Table I. The HLS group consists of 63 participants whose mean global life satisfaction scores were at or above 5.86 on the 6-point SLSS, reflecting extremely high life satisfaction (i.e., participants responded ‘‘strongly agree’’ to virtually all statements indicative of high global life satisfaction). Z-ratios and associated two-tail probabilities were calculated to test the significance of the differences between proportions of participants in each subgroup compared to the total sample on each demographic variable of interest. As can be seen in Table I, the composition of the HLS group approximates the makeup of the total sample with respect to gender and age, while Caucasian youth are significantly underrepresented (z=2.0). The LLS group consists of 70 participants whose mean global life satisfaction scores were at or between 1.0 and 2.71, scores in the negative (i.e., dissatisfied) range of life satisfaction. The LLS group parallels the makeup of the total sample with respect to gender and age, but not ethnicity. Specifically, African-American youth are

44.29% 55.71%

37.14%* 52.86%* 10.00%

37.14% 62.86%

Age Cohort Early adolescents Late adolescents

Ethnicity African-American Caucasian Other ethnicity

Gender Male Female 36.65% 63.35%

59.63% 35.40% 4.97%

43.48% 56.52%

Average LS (n=161)

46.03% 53.97%

68.25% 23.81%* 7.94%

50.79% 49.21%

Very high LS (n=63)

35.82% 64.18%

57.59% 36.39% 6.02%

45.70% 54.30%

Total sample (N=698)

Note: LS=life satisfaction. Z-tests were employed to test the significance of the difference between proportions of participants in each subgroup and the total sample. *p