The impact of better‐ versus worse‐than‐average comparisons on beliefs about how life satisfaction is unfolding over time, affect, and motivation

Author(s):  
Brock DeGagne ◽  
Michael A. Busseri
2019 ◽  
pp. 089484531986169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Marcionetti ◽  
Jérôme Rossier

Self-esteem, general self-efficacy, and career adaptability, which include career concern, control, curiosity, and confidence, are important resources for adolescents who are required to make important educational and professional choices. No studies have investigated how these resources codevelop over time and their impact on life satisfaction. To more precisely study this codevelopment and the impact of these resources on well-being, 357 Swiss adolescents were assessed 3 times during the last 17 months of compulsory school. The results showed an interrelationship between career adaptability and self-efficacy and a unidirectional effect of self-esteem on life satisfaction over time. They also highlighted the importance of career adapt-ability concerns for predicting the other three career adapt-abilities. Overall, the results suggested that in adolescents, higher levels of career adaptability may favor higher levels of general self-efficacy and that higher levels of self-esteem may induce higher levels of life satisfaction. Implications for practice are discussed.


Author(s):  
Darío Moreno-Agostino ◽  
Francisco José Abad ◽  
Francisco Félix Caballero

AbstractPrevious research on health and life satisfaction in older adults has suggested a bidirectional relationship. However, most evidence either is based on cross-sectional data, being unsuitable for inferring any directionality on the results, or disregards the within-person stability of both variables over time, thus providing potentially biased results. We analysed data from 11,667 older adults interviewed between 2008 and 2016 within the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. A health measure including self-reported and measured tests on cognitive and physical performance was computed using a Bayesian multilevel item-response theory approach. Life satisfaction was assessed with the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Cross-lagged models using a Structural Equation Modelling approach were used to analyse the longitudinal interrelation between health and life satisfaction. Models accounting and not accounting for the within-person stability in the measures were computed. Additional sensitivity models were ran using an exclusively self-reported measure of health. Health and life satisfaction were significant longitudinal predictors of one another only when the within-person stability was not considered. The effect of life satisfaction on health became negligible once that stability was modelled. The impact of not accounting for within-person stability was larger when health was measured exclusively with self-reported information. Our study suggests that health and life satisfaction are not bidirectionally related in older adults, but only health predicts a better life satisfaction over time. Thus, policies aimed at fostering older adults’ life satisfaction by focusing on health enhancement and maintenance may be fruitful, whereas the opposite may not.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Blau ◽  
John DiMino ◽  
Iris Abreu ◽  
Kayla LeLeux-LaBarge

Data for non-urgent undergraduate clients at a University Counseling Center (UCC) were collected using on-line surveys over three time-periods. Despite the expected diminishing number of participants over time, within-time correlations generally showed that level of mental distress and mental health concerns were negatively related to life satisfaction, while self-esteem was positively related. Using a smaller sample of matched-over-three time-periods clients, levels of mental distress and mental health concerns significantly declined, while life satisfaction significantly increased. The strongest changes for this complete data sample were found from Time 1 to Time 3 for reduced mental health concerns and increased life satisfaction. These findings reinforce that additional counseling sessions for undergraduates may be beneficial, and that spreading these sessions out may also be useful. Scientifically demonstrating to higher-level University administration that a UCC can help undergraduates in distress should ideally help the UCC to increase its allocation of university-based resources.


Crisis ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedrich Martin Wurst ◽  
Isabella Kunz ◽  
Gregory Skipper ◽  
Manfred Wolfersdorf ◽  
Karl H. Beine ◽  
...  

Background: A substantial proportion of therapists experience the loss of a patient to suicide at some point during their professional life. Aims: To assess (1) the impact of a patient’s suicide on therapists distress and well-being over time, (2) which factors contribute to the reaction, and (3) which subgroup might need special interventions in the aftermath of suicide. Methods: A 63-item questionnaire was sent to all 185 Psychiatric Clinics at General Hospitals in Germany. The emotional reaction of therapists to patient’s suicide was measured immediately, after 2 weeks, and after 6 months. Results: Three out of ten therapists suffer from severe distress after a patients’ suicide. The item “overall distress” immediately after the suicide predicts emotional reactions and changes in behavior. The emotional responses immediately after the suicide explained 43.5% of the variance of total distress in a regression analysis. Limitations: The retrospective nature of the study is its primary limitation. Conclusions: Our data suggest that identifying the severely distressed subgroup could be done using a visual analog scale for overall distress. As a consequence, more specific and intensified help could be provided to these professionals.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 555-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veljko Jovanović

Abstract. The present research aimed at examining measurement invariance of the Serbian version of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) across age, gender, and time. A total sample in Study 1 consisted of 2,595 participants from Serbia, with a mean age of 23.79 years (age range: 14–55 years). The final sample in Study 2 included 333 Serbian undergraduate students ( Mage = 20.81; age range: 20–27 years), who completed the SWLS over periods of 6 and 18 months after the initial assessment. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the modified unidimensional model of the SWLS, with correlated residuals of items 4 and 5 tapping past satisfaction. The results of the multigroup confirmatory factor analysis supported the full scalar invariance across gender and over time and partial scalar invariance across age. Latent mean comparisons revealed that women reported higher life satisfaction than men. Additionally, adolescents reported higher life satisfaction than students and adults, with adults showing the lowest life satisfaction. Our findings indicate that the SWLS allows meaningful comparisons in life satisfaction across age, gender, and over time.


1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (4II) ◽  
pp. 947-957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahrukh Rafi Khan

This paper has a two-fold objective: first, to examine the terms on which Pakistan receives aid and whether its debt situation is sustainable, and second, to examine the impact of aid and debt on economic growth. It is found that there is little encouraging that can be said about how the terms on which Pakistan has received aid over time have changed, and its current debt situation is not sustainable. Also reported is the analysis done elsewhere which shows that aid has a negative (Granger) causal impact on GDP, and aid has a robust negative impact on economic growth after controlling for supplyside shocks. We provide various reasons for this negative association.


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