Trajectories of life satisfaction across the transition to post-compulsory education: Do adolescents follow different pathways?

Journal of Youth and Adolescence

Volumn 39, Issue 8, 2010, Pages 870-881

  Salmela Aro, Katariina ^a   Tynkkynen, Lotta ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI   (Finland)

^b UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ   (Finland)

Author keywords

Adolescence; Educational transition; Gender; Growth mixture modeling; Life satisfaction; Longitudinal; Trajectories

Indexed keywords

ACHIEVEMENT; ADOLESCENT; ARTICLE; CHILD BEHAVIOR; DECISION MAKING; EDUCATION; FEMALE; FINLAND; HUMAN; LIFE EVENT; MALE; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; SATISFACTION; SELF CONCEPT; SEX RATIO; STUDENT; ADOLESCENT BEHAVIOR; EPIDEMIOLOGY; PSYCHOLOGY;

ACHIEVEMENT; ADOLESCENT; ADOLESCENT BEHAVIOR; DECISION MAKING; EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT; FEMALE; FINLAND; HUMANS; LIFE CHANGE EVENTS; MALE; PERSONAL SATISFACTION; SELF CONCEPT; SEX DISTRIBUTION; STUDENTS;

EID: 77954243628     PISSN: 00472891     EISSN: 15736601     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s10964-009-9464-2     Document Type: Article

References (90)

1. Adelman, H. S., Taylor, L., & Nelson, P. (1989). Minors' dissatisfaction with their life circumstances. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 20, 135-147.
2. Angold, A., Costello, E. J., Erkanli, A., & Worthman, C. M. (1999). Pubertal changes in hormone levels and depression in girls. Psychological Medicine, 29, 1043-1053.
3. Ash, C., & Huebner, E. S. (2001). Environmental events and life satisfaction reports of adolescents. School Psychology International, 22, 20-36.
4. Bandura, A. (1982). Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. American Psychologist, 37, 22-147.
5. Barker, E. T., & Galambor, N. L. (2003). Body dissatisfaction of adolescent girls and boys: Risk and resource factors. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 23, 141-165.
6. Bauer, B. J., & Curran, P. J. (2003). Distributional assumptions of growth mixture models: Implications for overextraction of latent trajectory classes. Psychological Methods, 8, 338-363.
7. Bergman, L. R., Magnusson, D., & El-Khouri, B. M. (2003). Studying individual development in an interindividual context. A person-oriented approach. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
8. Broderick, P. C. (1998). Early adolescent gender differences in the use of ruminative and distracting coping strategies. Journal of Early Adolescence, 18, 173-191.
9. Burwell, R. A., & Shirk, S. R. (2007). Subtypes of rumination in adolescence: Associations between brooding, reflection, depressive symptoms, and coping. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 36, 56-65.
10. Caspi, A. (2002). Social selection, social causation and developmental pathways: Empirical strategies for better understanding how individuals and environments are linked across the life course. In L. Pulkkinen & A. Caspi (Eds.), Paths to successful development. Personality in the life course (pp. 281-301). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
11. Cole, D. A., Martin, J. M., Peeke, L. A., Seroczynski, A. D., & Fier, J. (1999a). Children's over- and underestimation of academic competence: A longitudinal study of gender differences, depression and anxiety. Child Development, 70, 459-473.
12. Cole, D. A., Peeke, L., Dolezal, S., Murray, N., & Canzoniero, A. (1999b). A longitudinal study of negative affect and self-perceived competence in young adolescents. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 851-862.
13. Compas, B. E., Hinden, B. R., & Gerhard, C. A. (1995). Adolescent development: Pathways and processes of risk and resilience. Annual Review of Psychology, 46, 265-293.
14. Costello, D. M., Swendsen, J., Rose, J. S., & Dierker, L. C. (2008). Risk and protective factors associated with trajectories of depressed mood from adolescence to early adulthood. Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, 76, 173-183.
15. Crick, N. R., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (2003). The development of psychopathology in females and males: Current progress and future challenges. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 719-742.
16. Crockett, L. J., Peterson, A. C., Graber, J. A., Schulenberg, J. E., & Ebata, A. (1989). School transitions and adjustment during early adolescence. Journal of Early Adolescence, 9, 181-210.
17. Crosnoe, R., Riegle-Crumb, C., & Muller, C. (2007). Gender, self-perception, and academic problems in high school. Social Problems, 54, 118-138.
18. Crystal, D. S., Chen, C., Fuligni, A. J., Stevenson, H. W., Hau, C.-C., Ko, H.-J., et al. (1994). Psychological maladjustment and academic achievement: A cross-cultural study of Japanese, Chinese, and American high school students. Child Development, 65, 738-753.
19. Dew, T., & Huebner, E. S. (1994). Adolescents perceived quality of life: An exploratory investigation. Journal of School Psychology, 32, 185-199.
20. Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satifaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.
21. Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276-302.
22. Eccles, J. S. (2004). Schools, academic motivation, and stage-environment fit. In R. M. Lerner & L. D. Steinberg (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (2nd ed., pp. 125-153). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
23. Eccles, J. S., & Midgley, C. (1989). Statge/environment fit: Developmentally appropriate classrooms for early adolescents. In R. Ames & C. Ames (Eds.), Research on motivation in education (Vol. 3, pp. 139-181). New York: Academic Press.
24. Education in Finland. (1999). Statistics and indicators. Helsinki, Finland: Statistics Finland.
25. Ehrhardt, J. J., Saris, W. E., & Veenhoven, R. (2000). Stability of life-satisfaction over time. Analysis of change in ranks in a national population. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1, 177-205.
26. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. Oxford, UK: Norton & Co.
27. Frisch, M. B. (2000). Improving mental and physical health care through quality of life therapy and assessment. In E. Diener & D. R. Rahtz (Eds.), Advances in quality of life theory and research (pp. 207-241). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer.
28. Fujita, F., & Diener, E. (2005). Life satisfaction set point stability and change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 158-164.
29. Funk, B. A., III, Huebner, E. S., & Valois, R. F. (2006). Reliability and validity of a brief life satisfaction scale with a high school sample. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7, 41-54.
30. Ge, X., Conger, R. D., & Elder, G. H., Jr. (2001). Pubertal transition, stressful life events, and the emergence of gender differences in adolescent depressive symptoms. Developmental Psychology, 37, 404-417.
31. Ge, X., Lorenz, F. O., Conger, R. D., Elder, G. H., Jr, & Simons, R. L. (1994). Trajectories of stressful live events and depressive symptoms during adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 30, 467-483.
32. Gerard, J. M., & Buehler, C. (2004). Cumulative environmental risk and youth maladjustment: The role of youth attributes. Child Development, 75, 1832-1849.
33. Gilman, R., & Huebner, E. S. (2003). A review of life satisfaction research with children and adolescents. School Psychology Quarterly, 18, 192-205.
34. Gilman, R., & Huebner, S. (2005). Characteristics of adolescents who report very high life satisfaction. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35, 293-301.
35. Goldbeck, L., Schmitz, T. G., Besier, T., Herschbach, P., & Henrich, G. (2007). Life satisfcation decreases during adolescence. Quality of Life Reserach, 16, 969-979.
36. Graber, J. A., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1996). Transitions and turning points: Navigating the passage from childhood through adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 32, 768-776.
37. Hirsch, B. J., & Rapkin, J. I. (1987). The transition to junior high school: A longitudinal study of self-esteem, psychological symptomatology, school life, and social support. Child Development, 58, 1235-1243.
38. Hoffmann, M. L., Powlishta, K. K., & White, K. (2004). An examination of gender differences in adolescent adjustment: The effect of competence on gender role differences in symptoms of psychopathology. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 50, 795-810.
39. Holopainen, L., & Savolainen, H. (2005). Unpublished raw data. Finland: University of Joensuu and University of Jyväskylä.
40. Huebner, E. S. (2004). Research on assessment of life satisfaction of children and adolescents. Social Indicators Research, 66, 3-33.
41. Huebner, E. S., Drane, W., & Valois, R. F. (2000a). Levels and demographic correlates of adolescent life satisfaction reports. School Psychology International, 21, 281-292.
42. Huebner, E. S., Funk, B. A., & Gilman, R. (2000b). Cross-sectional and longitudinal psychosocial correlates of adolescent life satisfaction reports. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 16, 53-64.
43. Jose, P. E., & Ratcliffe, V. (2004). Stressor frequency and perceived intensity as predictors of internalizing symptoms: Gender and age differences in adolescence. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 33, 145-154.
44. Jung, T., & Wickrama, K. A. S. (2008). An introduction to latent class growth analysis and growth mixture modeling. Social and Personality Compass, 2(1), 302-317.
45. Kessler, R. C., & McLeod, J. D. (1984). Sex differences in vulnerability to undesirable life events. American Sociological Review, 49, 620-631.
46. Lefkowitz, E. S. (2005). 'Things have gotten better' developmental changes among emerging adults after the transition to university. Journal of Adolescent Research, 20, 40-63.
47. Lerner, R. M., & Steinberg, L. (Eds.). (2004). Handbook of Adolescent Psychology (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
48. Lucas, R., & Donnellan, M. B. (2007). How stable is happiness? Using the STARTS model to estimate the stability of life satisfaction. Journal of Research in Personality, 41, 1091-1098.
49. Lyubomirsky, S. (2001). Why are some people happier than others? The role of cognitive and motivational processes in well-being. American Psychologist, 56, 239-249.
50. Marsh, H. W., Ludtke, O., Trautwein, U., & Morin, A. J. S. (2009). Classical latent profile analysis of academic self-concept dimensions: Synergy of person- and variable-centered approaches to theoretical models of self-concept. Structural Equation Modeling, 16, 191-225.
51. Masten, A. S., Hubbard, J. J., Gest, S. D., Tellegen, A., Garmezy, N., & Ramirez, M. (1999). Competence in the context of adversity: Pathways to resilience and maladaptation from childhood to late adolescence. Development and Psychopathology, 11, 143-169.
52. Matud, M. P. (2004). Gender differences in stress and coping styles. Personality and Individual Differences, 37, 1401-1415.
53. Murberg, T. A., & Bru, E. (2004). School-related stress and psychosomatic symptoms among Norwegian adolescents. School Psychology International, 25, 317-332.
54. Muthén, B. (2001). Second-generation structural equation modelling with a combination of categorical and continuous latent variables. New opportunities for latent class/latent growth modelling. In L. M. Collins & A. Sayer (Eds.), New methods for the analysis of change (pp. 291-322). Washington, DC: APA.
55. Muthén, B. (2003). Statistical and substantive checking in growth mixture modeling: Comment on Bauer and Curran (2003). Psychological Methods, 8, 369-377.
56. Muthén, B. (2004). Latent variable analysis: Growth mixture modelling and related techniques for longitudinal data. In D. Kaplan (Ed.), Handbook of quantitative methodology for the social sciences (pp. 345-368). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
57. Muthén, L., & Muthén, B. O. (1998-2007). Mplus user's guide & Mplus Version 5. http://www. statmodel. com/index2. html.
58. Muthén, B., & Muthén, L. K. (2000). Integrating person-centered and variable-centered analyses: Growth mixture modeling with latent trajectory classes. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 24, 882-891.
59. Muthén, B. O., & Shedden, K. (1999). Finite mixture modelling with mixture outcomes using the EM algorithm. Biometrics, 55, 463-469.
60. Nagin, D. S. (1999). Analyzing developmental trajectories: A semiparametric, group-based approach. Psychological Methods, 4, 139-157.
61. Nagin, D. S., & Land, K. C. (1993). Age, criminal careers, and population heterogeneity: Specification and estimation of a nonparametric, mixed Poisson model. Criminology, 31, 327-362.
62. Nagin, D. S., & Tremblay, R. E. (1999). Trajectories of boys' physical aggression, opposition, and hyperactivity on the path to physically violent and non violent juvenile delinquency. Child Development, 70, 1181-1196.
63. Neto, F. (1993). The satisfaction with life scale: Psychometric properties in an adolescent sample. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 22, 125-134.
64. Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1994). An interactive model for the emergence of gender differences in depression in adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 4, 519-534.
65. Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Girgus, J. S. (1994). The emergence of gender differences in depression during adolescence. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 424-443.
66. Nurmi, J.-E., Niemivirta, M., & Salmela-Aro, K. (2003). The satisfaction with educational track scale. Finland: University of Jyväskylä and University of Helsinki.
67. Oakes, J., Gamoran, A., & Page, R. N. (1992). Curriculum differentiation: Opportunities, outcomes, and meanings. In P. W. Jackson (Ed.), Handbook of research on curriculum (pp. 570-608). New York: Macmillan.
68. OECD. (1998). Getting started, settling in: The transition from education to the labour market. Employment Outlook, 60, 81-122.
69. Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (1993). Review of the satisfaction with life scale. Psyhological Assessment, 5, 164-172.
70. Pomerantz, E. M., Altermatt, E. R., & Saxon, J. L. (2002). Making the grade but feeling distressed: Gender differences in academic performance and internal distress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 396-404.
71. Powers, S. I., Hauser, S. T., & Kilner, L. A. (1989). Adolescent mental health. American Psychologist, 44, 200-208.
72. Rich, G. J. (2003). The positive psychology of youth and adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 32, 1-3.
73. Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
74. Rutter, M. (1990). Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms. In J. E. Rolf, A. Masten, D. Cicchetti, K. H. Neucherterlein, & S. Weintraub (Eds.), Risk and protective factors in the development of psychopathology (pp. 181-214). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
75. Salmela-Aro, K., Kiuru, N., & Nurmi, J.-E. (2008a). The role of educational track in adolescents' school burnout. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 78, 663-689.
76. Salmela-Aro, K., Kiuru, N., Pietikäinen, P., & Jokela, J. (2008b). The role of school context in adolescents' school-related burnout. European Psychologist, 13, 12-23.
77. Salmela-Aro, K., & Tuominen-Soini, H. (in press). Adolescents' life satisfaction during the transition to post-comprehensive education: Antecedents and consequences. Journal of Happiness Studies.
78. Salokangas, R. K. R., Poutanen, O., & Stengård, E. (1995). Screening for depression in primary care. Development and validation of the depression scale, a screening instrument for depression. Acta Psychiarica Scaninavica, 92, 10-16.
79. Schimmack, U., & Oishi, S. (2005). The influence of chronically and temporarily accessible information on life satisfaction judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 395-406.
80. School Statistics. (2003). http://www. stat. fi/til/khak/2005/khak_2005_2006-12-21_tie_001. html. Helsinki: Central Statistical Office of Finland.
81. Schulenberg, J. E., Bryant, A. L., & O'Malley, P. M. (2004). Taking hold of some kind of life: How developmental tasks relate to trajectories of well-being during the transition to adulthood. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 1119-1140.
82. Schulenberg, J. E., Maggs, J. L., & O'Malley, P. M. (2003). How and why the understanding of developmental continuity and discontinuity is important: The sample case of long-term consequences of adolescent substance abuse. In J. T. Mortimer & M. J. Shanahan (Eds.), Handbook of the life course. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
83. Schulenberg, J., O'Malley, P. M., & Bachman, J. G. (2005). Early adult transitions and their relation to well-being and substance use. In R. A. Settersten Jr., F. F. Furstenberg Jr., & R. G. Rumbaut (Eds.), On the frontier of adulthood: Theory, research, and public policy (pp. 417-453). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
84. Shaffer, D. R. (2002). Developmental psychology: Childhood and adolescence (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
85. Shanahan, M. J. (2000). Pathways to adulthood in changing societies: Variability and mechanisms in life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 667-692.
86. Shin, D., & Johnson, D. (1978). Avowed happiness as an overall assessment of the quality of life. Social Indicators Research, 5, 475-492.
87. Shiner, R. L., & Masten, A. S. (2002). Transactional links between personality and adaptation from childhood through adulthood. Journal of Research in Personality, 36, 580-588.
88. Steger, M. F., & Kashdan, T. B. (2007). Stability and specificity of meaning in life and life satisfaction over one year. Journal of Happiness Studies, 8, 161-179.
89. Tram, J. M., & Cole, D. A. (2006). A multimethod examination of the stability of depressive symptoms in childhood and adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115, 674-686.
90. Verkuyton, M. (1996). The impact of ethnic and sex differences on happiness among adolescents in the Netherlands. Journal of Social Psychology, 126, 259-264.