Orientations to Happiness and Subjective Well-Being in Chinese Adolescents

Abstract

The present study investigated Chinese adolescents’ use of orientations to happiness (i.e., meaning and pleasure), and examined the relationships between orientations to happiness and subjective well-being. A total of 2082 Chinese adolescents in 7th, 8th, 10th, and 11th grades (43 % boys; M age = 15.32, SD = 1.96) participated in the study. The results showed that Chinese adolescents used pleasure and meaning to a similar extent, and no gender differences were found in either orientation. Adolescents’ use of both orientations increased from 7th to 8th grade and did not change from 8th to 11th grade. Both orientations to happiness contributed to adolescents’ subjective well-being, but meaning was a stronger contributor than pleasure. Adolescents with a full life (using both orientations) enjoyed the greatest subjective well-being; adolescents with a meaningful life (using only the meaning orientation) enjoyed the second highest level of subjective well-being; adolescents with a pleasurable life (using only the pleasure orientation) reported the third highest level of subjective well-being; adolescents with an empty life (using neither meaning nor pleasure) reported the lowest well-being. Additionally, we revealed the distribution of the four life types in Chinese adolescents. The proportion of empty life in Chinese adolescents was larger than that in adults.