Children’s and Adolescents’ Conceptions of Happiness at School and its Relation with their own Happiness and their Academic Performance

Lopez-Perez, B. and Fernandez-Csatilla, B. (2017) Children’s and Adolescents’ Conceptions of Happiness at School and its Relation with their own Happiness and their Academic Performance. Journal of Happiness Studies. ISSN 1389-4978

Text Lopez-Perez & Fernandez Castilla 2017.pdf - Accepted Version Download (711kB)

Abstract

Previous research on children’s and adolescents’ well-being at school has been focused on the possible determinants. However, no previous research has analysed children’s and adolescents’ lay-beliefs or conceptualizations of happiness at school. In the present work, we studied children’s (N = 104, 9-10-year-olds) and adolescents’ (N = 113, 15-16-year-olds) conceptualizations of happiness at school and its link with self-reported happiness (assessed three months later) and academic achievement (assessed seven months later). For both samples, seven conceptualizations emerged: happiness as ‘being with friends’, ‘being praised’, ‘getting good grades’, ‘learning’, ‘leisure’, ‘enjoyment’, and ‘helping’. Age differences appeared for the conceptualizations of ‘being friends’ and ‘helping’, as children mentioned significantly more the former and adolescents the latter. No gender differences emerged. For adolescents, the conceptualizations of happiness at school as ‘being with friends’, ‘being praised’, ‘helping’, and not ‘having leisure time’ were positively related to self-reported happiness, which was positively related to academic achievement. For children, none of the conceptualizations were positively related to self-reported happiness. The conceptualization of happiness as ‘learning’ was positively related to academic achievement. The results are discussed in regards to their implications for children’s and adolescents’ well-being at school.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: (Lopez-Perez, B. & FernandezCastilla, B. Children’s and Adolescents’ Conceptions of Happiness at School and its Relation with their own Happiness and their Academic Performance. Published in the Journal of Happiness Studies. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with the Springer Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. Published version available at https://link.springer.com/journal/10902
Keywords:	happiness; conceptualizations; children; adolescents; school; academic achievement.
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Human and Digital Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User:	Belen Lopez-Perez
Date Deposited:	06 Jun 2017 13:28
Last Modified:	29 Jun 2020 14:12
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/2007

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