School‐related subjective well‐being promotes subsequent adaptability, achievement, and positive behavioural conduct

Abstract

Background Previous studies have shown that subjective well‐being and adaptability are linked to adaptive educational outcomes, including higher achievement and lower anxiety. It is not presently clear, however, how school‐related subjective well‐being and adaptability are related, or predict behavioural outcomes such as student conduct. Aim The aim of the present study was to test a bidirectional model of school‐related subjective well‐being and adaptability, and how they relate to achievement and behavioural conduct. Method Data were collected from 539 Year 12 students over four waves. Achievement and behavioural conduct were measured in the first wave of data collection (T1), school‐related subjective well‐being and adaptability at the second and third waves (T2 and T3), and achievement and behavioural conduct again in the fourth wave of data collection (T4). Results A structural equation model showed that T2 school‐related subjective well‐being predicted higher T3 adaptability, but not vice versa. T3 school‐related subjective well‐being predicted greater T4 achievement and positive behavioural conduct, and T3 adaptability predicted greater T4 positive behavioural conduct. Conclusion School‐related subjective well‐being promotes adaptability, achievement, and positive behavioural conduct, and adaptability is also related to positive behavioural conduct. Attempts to foster well‐being and adaptability could show educational gains for students.

A Rasch Analysis of the School-Related Well-Being (SRW) Scale: Measuring Well-Being in the Transition from Primary to Secondary School

“…A few studies considered subjective well-being and school achievement, indicating positive associations between the two variables, mostly through cross-sectional designs [27][28][29]. Similar associations were identified also through some longitudinal studies [5,13,[30][31][32].…”

“…Notwithstanding the large number of studies on test anxiety, research focusing on its relation with subjective well-being is scarce [30,33]. The studies which examined the relations between well-being at school and achievement emotions [5,13,32] revealed that school-related well-being was positively associated with pleasant emotions such as enjoyment and pride, while it was negatively associated with unpleasant emotions such as anxiety, anger, shame, boredom, and hopelessness.…”

“…Together with a lack of consistency in the conceptualization of well-being at school, current literature is characterized also by a lack of consistency in measurement [5]. From a methodological perspective, there is a need for developing instruments to assess wellbeing in reasonably short assessment sessions, given both cognitive (e.g., attentional, metacognitive) and organizational (e.g., reduced time) constraints typical of research in the schools.…”

“…Taking this into account, short instruments that can be administered rapidly assume a great relevance. An example of such short questionnaires is the SRW scale, a six-item instrument designed to assess students' overall judgements on their well-being at school [5,13,32]. Previous data demonstrated the internal validity of the scale through confirmatory factor analyses which supported its one-factor structure.…”

“…However, there is still a lack of consistency in the conceptualization of subjective well-being across different life domains. In addition, notwithstanding documented variations in subjective well-being in different contexts, not much attention has been paid at assessing it using measures pertaining specifically to school [5]. School is the context in which children and adolescents pass almost one third of their waking time, and as a consequence it plays a privileged role for impacting their overall well-being: It is therefore a key environment for positive cognitive, emotional, and relational experiences, but also for negative ones such as academic failure, school anxiety, or bullying [6].…”