Abstract
This study explored whether the university environment provides similar well-being enhancing elements to those that have been found in the workplace and school contexts. Whether psychological inflexibility accounts for well-being over and above personality and environmental influences was also explored. A representative sample of 163 undergraduate university students in an Australian university completed an online survey measuring the key constructs. Environmental influences assessed included financial resources, physical security, opportunity to use new skills, externally generated goals, variety, environmental clarity, interpersonal contact, and valued social position. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses were then conducted to test for predictors of three domains of subjective well-being: positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction. The results suggested that university context contributes significantly to undergraduate students’ well-being by providing a valued social role, externally generated goals, and variety. Students’ perception of their physical security was also an important influence on their well-being. These results are consistent with the literature on well-being and employment. Neuroticism significantly predicted negative affect, while psychological inflexibility accounted for unique variance in life satisfaction and negative affect even when personality and environmental influences were taken into account. The implications of these findings for enhancing undergraduate university students’ well-being are discussed.
Highlights
The well-being of university students is an important research endeavour
Since the demographic variables of age and gender and the environmental influence of financial resources were not found to be significantly associated with the dependent variables they were excluded from the analyses
When psychological inflexibility was added to the model neuroticism failed to contribute variance to satisfaction with life (SWL), but continued to contribute unique variance to negative affect (NA). These findings suggest that the relationship between neuroticism and positive affect (PA) is mediated by environmental factors, that the relationship between neuroticism and SWL is mediated by psychological inflexibility, and that there is a direct link between neuroticism and NA
Summary
The well-being of university students is an important research endeavour. The well-being of students at university is important for influencing students’ later attitudinal and career outcomes, and outcomes that benefit communities and society at large. Subjective well-being (SWB) is described as a broad category of human experience made up of two distinct components: an affective component that consists of the relative frequency of positive and negative affect, and a cognitive component that is concerned with judgements of life and global satisfaction (Diener 1984; Diener et al 1999). People with high levels of SWB report frequent positive affect, infrequent negative affect and high levels of satisfaction (Diener 1994; Diener et al 1991)
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