Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction in Selangor, Malaysia: The Effect of Demographic Differences

Chiong Hoe Nee,Siti Nor Yaacob,Rozumah Baharudin,Tan Jo-Pei

doi:10.5539/ass.v12n2p1

Abstract

<p>This present study aims to describe the level of overall and domains-specific life satisfaction and to determine how differences in demographic variables can influence life satisfaction among adolescents in Selangor, Malaysia. The sample of the study consisted of 416 school-going adolescents, aged between 14 to 17 years old, who were selected through multi-stage cluster sampling from 12 secondary schools. The findings showed that adolescents generally reported positive level of life satisfaction. Differences in life satisfaction by age, gender and family structure were compared by t-test analysis. Younger adolescents display higher life satisfaction compared to older adolescents. Males reported higher level of life satisfaction in school domain and lower score in living environment domain compared to females. Respondents who were living in intact family arrangement also reported to have higher life satisfaction than those who were living with other types of family arrangements. In conclusion, cognitive judgment of adolescents’ life satisfaction differ with respect to their biological age, gender, and family structure.</p>

Highlights

Life satisfaction incorporates wide range of functioning (Suldo & Huebner, 2006)
“I think I am good looking” from self domain had the lowest percentage of agreement, which was 64.4%, indicating a large proportion of them was dissatisfied with their physical appearance
Majority of the adolescents agreed to all items in multi-dimensional scale of life satisfaction

Summary

Introduction

Life satisfaction incorporates wide range of functioning (Suldo & Huebner, 2006). It is an important subjective factor for health and is defined as the cognitive judgment of the quality of a person’s life as a whole or with specific domains (Deiner et al, 1999). Life satisfaction of a person is likely to alter over results of different life events, many life circumstances remain stable over time and making life satisfaction cognitive judgments to have certain level of continuity (Huebner, Funk, & Gilman, 2000). People who perceived higher level of life satisfaction generally experience more positive feelings than negative ones (Suldo & Huebner, 2006)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion