Cross-National Adolescent Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Reports: Analyses of Mean Scores and Response Style Differences

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Tập 37 - Trang 142-154 - 2007
Rich Gilman1, E. Scott Huebner2, Lili Tian3, Nansook Park4, Jenny O’Byrne5, Miriam Schiff6, Dina Sverko7, Heather Langknecht8
1Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA
2Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA
3Department of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, P.R. China
4Department of Psychology, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, USA
5Dublin Business School, Dublin 2, Ireland
6The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
7Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
8Psychological Services, Virginia Beach Public Schools, Virginia Beach, USA

Tóm tắt

Although numerous cross-national studies have assessed life satisfaction among adults, similar studies using adolescent samples have been rare. To address this shortage of research, a total of 1338 youth adolescents from two individualistic nations (Ireland, USA) and two collectivistic nations (China, South Korea) were administered the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS: Huebner, 1994) to assesses general life satisfaction and satisfaction with family, friends, school, self, and living environment. Responses were analyzed to assess potential cross-national differences in (a) mean levels of life satisfaction, and (b) response styles, specifically acquiescence and extreme responding. Mean scores revealed positive ratings by adolescents from all four nations across all domains, with the exceptions of satisfaction with school experiences (Ireland, South Korean, USA), living environment (China, South Korea), self (South Korea), and general life satisfaction (South Korea). Results also revealed significant response style differences across all MSLSS domains. Significant gender and gender-by-nation effects were observed for both mean score and response style differences, although the effect sizes were small. The implications of these findings were discussed, particularly with respect to “individualistic” vs. “collectivistic” cultural differences.

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