Gallery Presentation International Positive Psychology Association 7th IPPA World Congress 2021

What is most important for wellbeing? The implication of psychological need satisfaction and strengths for life satisfaction and flourishing (#368)

Mengya Xia 1 , Yurou Wang 1
  1. University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, ALABAMA, United States

Background

Life satisfaction and flourishing are two essential indicators—subjective and psychological aspects—of wellbeing. Previous studies have demonstrated that both psychological need satisfaction and character strengths are positively associated with individual wellbeing1,2. However, little is known about the degree of importance among these factors and whether their importance would differ between subjective and psychological wellbeing.

Hypotheses/Research Questions

This study aimed to 1) identify significant indicators of wellbeing among psychological need satisfaction and strengths related to interpersonal relationships and performance, and further 2) explore the degree of importance among these significant indicators on life satisfaction and flourishing, respectively.

Sample Characteristics and Sample Size

The sample was 448 US undergraduate students (ages: 18 to 25, 84% females, 80% White).

Design

Participants completed an online survey on psychological need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy support, competence use, and relatedness to family and friends), strengths related to interpersonal relationships (i.e., gratitude, empathy, social competence, and love) and performance (i.e., goal orientation, growth mindset, problem-solving, and self-efficacy), along with individual characteristics of age, gender, and temperament (i.e., emotionality, shyness, sociability, and activity). Structural equation modeling (SEM) and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression were used on the above variables to identify the significant indicators and their degree of importance on life satisfaction and flourishing.

Results

Results showed that the shared significant indicators of life satisfaction and flourishing are gratitude, and relatedness to family and friends. For life satisfaction, gratitude was the most important indicator, followed by relatedness to family, emotionality, goal orientation, relatedness to friends, and social competence. For flourishing, relatedness to friends was the most important indicator, followed by self-efficacy, competence use, gratitude, relatedness to family, and activity.

Scientific Contribution

Findings indicates that gratitude and relatedness are most important for wellbeing, but their degree of importance for life satisfaction and flourishing are different.

 

  1. 1. Gillham, J., Adams-Deutsch, Z., Werner, J., Reivich, K., Coulter-Heindl, V., Linkins, M., ... & Contero, A. (2011). Character strengths predict subjective well-being during adolescence. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 6(1), 31-44. 2. Sheldon, K. M., & Bettencourt, B. A. (2002). Psychological need‐satisfaction and subjective well‐being within social groups. British Journal of Social Psychology, 41(1), 25-38.
  • Keywords: Family, Meaning and Purpose, Positive emotions, Relationships, Strengths