Using the Personal Wellbeing Index to Explore Subjective Wellbeing of High-School and College Students in Romania
7th ISQOLS Conference: “Prospects for Quality of Life in the New Millennium” Grahamstown, South Africa, 2006
23 Pages Posted: 23 Feb 2015
Date Written: July 19, 2006
Abstract
Global and domain satisfaction of 1155 high-school (age 14-19) and 851 college students (age 18-30) in Romania’s county Bihor were investigated using Personal Well-being Index (Cummins et. al, 1999?), and measures of satisfaction with friends and with family. Contrary to what we would expect conform to the general view that adolescence and youth is an age of deep and acute dissatisfaction, respondents reported higher positive levels of subjective well-being (with PWI and life as a whole around 75 of 100). These levels are also superior to those measured earlier by the same authors for general population in Romania, the suggested explanation being that parental economic and affective support have a buffering effect against the difficulties of socioeconomic transition. Structure and socio-demographic correlates and of Personal Wellbeing Index were also assessed. 14-16 year old students report higher levels of well-being than other age groups. Significant positive differences were found in favor of men. Subjective well-being is also positively correlated with socio-economic status of the young. The Index shows satisfactory psychometric proprieties, although the structure of domain satisfactions is different compared with countries like Australia, satisfaction with standard of living being the highest predictor for global subjective well-being.
Keywords: Personal Wellbeing Index, high-school students, college students, Romania
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation