Keywords
subjective well-being
Happiness
life satisfaction
positive emotions
negative emotions
satisfaction with specific life domain
How to Cite
Abstract
The main objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between different sociodemographic characteristics, optimism and subjective well-being (SWB) in a sample of Mexican undergraduate students from the University of San Luis Potosi. Additionally, we have tried to identify which specific life domains influenced more on global wellbeing and how the optimism could explain well-being. Data were from 299 participants aged between 17 and 49 years old (M= 19.38; SD= 3.19) through a semi structured interview, considering different relevant sociodemographic characteristics. Dispositional optimism was evaluated using the Life Orientation Test Revised (LOT-R; Scheier, Carver & Bridges, 1994). Subjective well-being included the following measures: Happiness (Subjective Happiness Scale de Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999), Life Satisfaction (Satisfaction with Life Scale from Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985), Positive and Negative Emotions (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule from Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988) and Satisfaction with different Life Domains: Job/ Studies, Partner, Health and Leisure (Marrero, Carballeira & Rodríguez, 2007). Through the Test for Kendall’s Tau-b, the relationship between sociodemographic variables, optimism and the well-being indicators was analysed. The results showed moderate associations between gender and studies satisfaction, life satisfaction, happiness and optimism. Also, the fact of having a sentimental relationship was related to partner satisfaction; and the job situation was associated with life satisfaction. Pearson correlational analyses between the eight well-being indicators and the optimism showed that all the well-being variables were related each other. Optimism was more associated to all the measures of SWB than to the sociodemographic variables; and the relationships of optimism with global measures of well-being were greater than those with the specific life domains. In order to deep in this association between optimism and well-being, the sample was split in three groups in function of the level of optimism. A MANOVA was made to compare the means of well-being, finding that those participants with high and medium optimism, vs. those with low optimism, reported more life satisfaction and positive emotions, less negative emotions and more satisfaction in all the Specific life domains. The MANCOVA, taking the gender as a covariant, showed similar findings. Finally, Multiple Regression Analyses were applied to know the influence of the different specific life domains on the global components of well-being: happiness and life satisfaction. The results showed that all the specific domains were relevant for both criteria variables, but studies satisfaction was the more powerful predictor. In the new multiple regression analyses, the optimism was included and explained a higher percentage of variance than the measures of satisfaction with life domains, especially in the case of happiness as the criteria. These findings suggested that optimism is a relevant personality trait to improve subjective well-being of individuals.This journal is registered under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License. Thus, this work may be reproduced, distributed, and publicly shared in digital format, as long as the names of the authors and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana are acknowledged. Others are allowed to quote, adapt, transform, auto-archive, republish, and create based on this material, for any purpose (even commercial ones), provided the authorship is duly acknowledged, a link to the original work is provided, and it is specified if changes have been made. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana does not hold the rights of published works and the authors are solely responsible for the contents of their works; they keep the moral, intellectual, privacy, and publicity rights. Approving the intervention of the work (review, copy-editing, translation, layout) and the following outreach, are granted through an use license and not through an assignment of rights. This means the journal and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana cannot be held responsible for any ethical malpractice by the authors. As a consequence of the protection granted by the use license, the journal is not required to publish recantations or modify information already published, unless the errata stems from the editorial management process. Publishing contents in this journal does not generate royalties for contributors.