Character as a predictor of life satisfaction in Czech adolescent sample: 3-Year follow-up study

Abstract

The study examined personality predictors (based on Cloninger’s psychobiological model of temperament and character – TCI) of life satisfaction in a sample of 15-year-old Czech adolescents (N=173) and subsequently 3years after. The focus of the study was to determine the personality dimensions that predict life satisfaction and how those change over 3years of adolescence. Of all dimensions, significant differences between the two age groups were found only in the character dimensions Self-Directedness and Self-Transcendence. Using stepwise regression analysis, the character scale Self-Directedness alone accounted for 15% of the variance in life satisfaction among 15-year-old adolescents, whereas in the 18-year-old group, 30% of the variance in life satisfaction was explained by the character dimension Self-Directedness and the temperament dimensions Harm Avoidance and Reward Dependence. In both age groups, only Self-Directedness seems to make a unique contribution towards explaining life satisfaction. The results demonstrate that character changes might also account for a great amount of variance in life satisfaction.