Browsing by Subject "positiiviset tunteet"

Research on adolescents’ life satisfaction has increased only in recent years. Previous research has indicated that many variables are in association with life satisfaction. However, there has been need for more research on variables that affect adolescents’ life satisfaction and overall subjective well-being. In this thesis, it is researched how positive emotions, sense of belonging at school, self-efficacy, gender, and socioeconomic status affect life satisfaction of Finnish adolescents by way of the PISA 2018 research data. In addition, the differences between girls and boys in life satisfaction, positive emotions, sense of belonging at school, and self-efficacy are examined. The data used in this study were the answers to the PISA 2018 student questionnaire. The data represented the entire Finland, and the sample size was large (n = 5649). Analyses of the data were carried out with IBM SPSS 27 and the IEA International Database Analyzer (version 4.0.39). Analytical methods used in this study were linear regression analysis and independent samples t-test. According to the regression analysis, independent variables explained 39 % of the variance of life satisfaction, in which case the effect size was quite large. All variables, except socioeconomic status, had statistically significant effects on life satisfaction. The most predictive of all independent variables seemed to be positive emotions (β = .42, p < .001). As for the t-tests, they showed statistically significant differences between girls and boys’ mean values in both life satisfaction and sense of belonging at school. However, effect sizes were quite small. According to the results, positive emotions, sense of belonging at school, self-efficacy and gender affect adolescents’ life satisfaction. There are also differences in life satisfaction and sense of belonging at school between genders.