The Relationship between Adolescents’ Psychosocial Development and Life Satisfaction: A Cross-Lag Study

Abstract

Objective: To explore the relationship between adolescents’ psychosocial development and life satisfaction from the perspective of personality development according to the theory of psychosocial development stage and social ecosystem theory. Methods: The one-year interval tracking design was adopted to analyze the cross-lagged relationship between psychological development and life satisfaction of 526 junior students in middle school: 44.5% girls and 55.5% boys. Results: In early adolescence, the level of individual psychosocial development and life satisfaction decreased with the increase of age. There is a significant cross lag between the degree of psychosocial development and life satisfaction: the psychosocial development in December 2017 (the first assessment, T1) positively predicts the life satisfaction in December 2018 (the second assessment, T2); T1’s life satisfaction can predict T2’s psychosocial development. Conclusion: The degree of psychosocial development and life satisfaction of adolescents will decline over time. Psychosocial development will affect their life satisfaction, and life satisfaction will also affect their psychosocial development.