Unique Contributions of Positive Schemas for Understanding Child and Adolescent Life Satisfaction and Happiness

The Longitudinal Stability and Predictive Capability of Positive and Negative Self-Schemas in a Multi-Informant Study of Child and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms and Life Satisfaction

“…Current research has signaled self-schemas may also provide pertinent information about child and adolescent well-being (Caprara et al 2006;Mak et al 2011;Robinson and Kirkeby 2005;Tomlinson et al 2016). In keeping with hypotheses, positive selfschemas at Time 1 were significantly and positively related to child and adolescent life satisfaction at Time 2.…”

“…The five positive self-schema themes include: optimism (e.g., "I believe things will turn out well"), trust (e.g., "I trust other people"), selfefficacy (e.g., "I can respond well to challenges"), success (e.g., "If I try hard I can usually do well"), and worthiness (e.g., "I believe in myself"). The PSQ has demonstrable face, predictive, and discriminant validity and strong reliability (Keyfitz et al 2013) and has been used successfully to measure positive self-schemas in children and adolescents (Friedmann et al 2016;Keyfitz et al 2013;Tomlinson et al 2016). In this study, the PSQ showed good internal consistency (T1 α = .94, T2 α = .95).…”

“…However, negative selfschemas emerged as the only unique predictor of youths' ratings of life satisfaction in a multivariate analysis. This finding is particularly surprising given positive variables tend to predict positive outcomes (e.g., Fredrickson 2001) and Tomlinson et al's (2016) cross-sectional finding that positive self-schemas explained 38% of the variance in adolescents' life satisfaction beyond negative self-schemas, age, and gender. However, there are some potential explanations.…”

“…The utility of positive self-schemas in predicting positive outcomes may be tempered relative to negative self-schemas over time, and may have stronger associations with positive outcomes in cross-sectional models (Tomlinson et al 2016). Indeed, Friedmann et al (2016) found negative self-schemas to be more potent predictors of youths' resilience across time compared to positive self-schemas.…”

“…An additional study found positive thinking (e.g., optimism and self-esteem) predicted happiness over time in a sample of over 600 adolescents (Caprara et al 2006). Finally, findings from a recent cross-sectional study suggest positive selfschemas are uniquely associated with youths' ratings of life satisfaction, beyond negative self-schemas (Tomlinson et al 2016). Indeed, Renshaw and colleagues (Renshaw et al 2014, p. 15) suggest a fundamental goal of the positive psychology paradigm is to understand the development of positive self-schemas in relation to youths' ability to thrive.…”