Predictors of subjective well-being among college youth in Lebanon.
Author: Ayyash Abdo H, Alamuddin R.
Source:
The Journal of Social Psychology, 147(3), 265-284.
The authors investigated the prevalence and predictors of subjective well-being
(SWB) in a particular Middle Eastern culture: that of Lebanon. The authors
examined personality constructs of self-esteem, optimism, and positive affect in
relation to SWB. The authors surveyed a sample of 689 individuals between the
ages of 17 and 24 by using four instruments with established cross-cultural
validity: (a) the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; E. Diener, R. Emmons, R. J.
Larsen, & S. Griffin, 1985), (b) the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule
(PANAS; D. Watson, L. Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), (c) the Rosenberg
Self-Esteem Scale (RSE; M. Rosenberg, 1965), and (d) the revised Life Orientation
Test (LOT-R; M. F. Scheier, C. S. Carver, & M. W. Bridges, 1994). The results
indicated that college youth's SWB was positively correlated with self-esteem,
optimism, and positive affect. Examining the demographic variable of gender, the
authors found that men had higher scores on positive affect than did women. A
trend emerged that suggested that language dominance and socioeconomic status
were associated with SWB levels. The results suggest that internal personality
constructs are more predictive of satisfaction with life than are demographic
variables.