Life Satisfaction And Subjective Happiness In Adolescents From Salamanca (Spain)

Life satisfaction and subjective happiness in a sample of 310 school-aged adolescents from the province of Salamanca (Spain) and the relationship between these variables with gender and educational level are analyzed. Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS, Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin, 1985) and Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS: Lyubomirsky and Lepper, 1999) were used. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) of these scales in this study was .88 and .72, respectively. A significant correlation is obtained between both variables. No significant differences are found in subjective well-being or satisfaction with life or in terms of sex or educational level, although there is a significant interaction between both factors, which indicates a lower life satisfaction in women enrolled in professional training. Results are discussed and improvements for further studies are proposed.