Subjective Well-Being in Early Adolescence: Observations from a Five-Year Longitudinal Study

Mònica González-Carrasco, Marc Sáez and Ferran Casas
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Mònica González-Carrasco: Research Group on Childhood, Adolescence, Children’s Rights and their Quality of Life, Research Institute on Quality of Life, University of Girona, Pujada de Sant Domènec, 9, 17004 Girona, Spain
Marc Sáez: Research Group on Statistics, Econometrics and Health. (GRECS), University of Girona and CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Carrer de la Universitat de Girona 10, Campus de Montilivi, 17003 Girona, Spain
Ferran Casas: Research Group on Childhood, Adolescence, Children’s Rights and their Quality of Life, Research Institute on Quality of Life, University of Girona, Pujada de Sant Domènec, 9, 17004 Girona, Spain

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-20

Abstract: This article aims to redress the lack of longitudinal studies on adolescents’ subjective well-being (SWB) and highlight the relevance of knowledge deriving from such research in designing public policies for improving their health and wellbeing in accordance with the stage of development they are in. To achieve this, the evolution of SWB during early adolescence (in adolescents aged between 10 and 14 in the first data collection) was explored over a five year period, considering boys and girls together and separately. This involved comparing different SWB scales and contrasting results when considering the year of data collection versus the cohort (year of birth) participants belonged to. The methodology comprised a generalized linear mixed model using the INLA (Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation) estimation within a Bayesian framework. Results support the existence of a decreasing-with-age trend, which has been previously intuited in cross-sectional studies and observed in only a few longitudinal studies and contrasts with the increasing-with-age tendency observed in late adolescence. This decrease is also found to be more pronounced for girls, with relevant differences found between instruments. The decreasing-with-age trend observed when the year of data collection is taken into account is also observed when considering the cohort, but the latter provides additional information. The results obtained suggest that there is a need to continue studying the evolution of SWB in early adolescence with samples from other cultures; this, in turn, will make it possible to establish the extent to which the observed decreasing-with-age trend among early adolescents is influenced by cultural factors.

Keywords: subjective well-being; late childhood; early adolescence; longitudinal study; gender differences; decreasing-with-age trend; Bayesian models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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