The Evolution of Positive and Negative Affect in a Longitudinal Sample of Children and Adolescents

Abstract

This article explores the evolution of Positive and Negative Affect (PA and NA) and their relationship with a single-item measure of overall life satisfaction (OLS) through a five-year longitudinal study on 1696 ten to eighteen-year-olds in Catalonia (Spain). The results, which were obtained through structural equation modelling with a cross-lagged panel, show that mean scores for both PA and the OLS scale decrease with age, while an asymmetrical increasing-with-age trend occurs for NA. These results challenge one aspect of the homeostatic model of well-being, according to which subjective well-being (SWB) remains on a stable baseline. Mean scores for PA and NA tend to moderately predict next year’s scores, prediction capacity being weaker the more years of difference – although it appears to be much weaker for the OLS than for PA and NA. Relationships between affect and the OLS vary only slightly over a 5-year period. The results obtained here shed new light on the role that PA and NA play in children and adolescents’ SWB from a developmental perspective, not only contributing to scientific knowledge in the field but also opening the door to designing interventions that promote their SWB considering how affects evolve during this period of the life cycle.