HealthResJ, health, medicine, nursing, research https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/HealthResJ/sitemap

Subjective well-being and its determinants in a sample of adolescents in Greece

PDF
Published: Apr 10, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/healthresj.39175
Keywords:
Subjective well-being adolescence socio-demographic characteristics BMI sedentary lifestyle
Efthymia Karava
Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Anastasia Barbouni
Department of Public & Community Health, School of Public Health, University of West Attica
Krystallia Niforou
Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
George Marinos
Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Elena Riza
Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Areti Lagiou
Department of Public & Community Health, School of Public Health, University of West Attica
Pagona Lagiou
Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Androniki Naska
Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Philippos Orfanos
Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Abstract

Background: Health professionals are increasingly interested in subjective well-being (SWB) as it can enhance their understanding of the health consequences of an individual’s physical, mental and cognitive state.


Method and Material: In a sample of 440 adolescent boys and girls (mean age 13.8 years), from 55 junior high schools in Athens (the capital city) and the greater Athens area in Greece, the association between personal characteristics and SWB was investigated. The latter was assessed by a modified version of the KIDSCREEN questionnaire and participants’ scoring was expressed as the percentage of optimal SWB achieved. Linear regression models were applied to assess the association between socio-economic, personal and anthropometric characteristics of adolescents and the achieved SWB.


Results: Girls achieved a lower SWB score compared to boys (74.3 versus 77.4%, p=0.005). Girls reached lower scores in the dimensions of physical and psychological well-being, moods and emotions, self-perception, and autonomy. Overall, being a girl (β= -3.67, 95%CI: - 5.78 to -1.57) of non-Greek origin (β=-3.65, 95%CI: -6.21 to -1.10), and member of a non-privileged household, was associated with lower subjective assessments of personal well-being. The feeling of lack of safety at personal level was also associated with lower SWB (β=-1.01, 95%CI: -1.38 to -0.64).


Conclusions: The recent unprecedented experience following the COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected several of the adolescents’ characteristics evaluated in this study but has also irreparably altered aspects of their daily lives. The findings of the present study could serve as a starting point to assess subjective well-being in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Article Details
  • Section
  • Original Articles

Copyright notice:

The journal "Health and Research Journal" reserves the rights for copyright of the content of the website and also the copyright of the articles published.

By virtue of their appearance in this journal, the articles are free to be used for non-commercial purposes. However, the articles cannot and must not be used in anyway, published elsewhere or modified without any reference to the author and the first publication of the article.

Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Miret M, Caballero FF, Olaya B, Koskinen S, Naidoo N, Tobiasz-Adamczyk B, Leonardi M, Haro JM, Chatterji S, Ayuso-Mateos JL. Association of experienced and evalua-tive well-being with health in nine countries with different income levels: a cross-sectional study. Global Health. 2017; 13(1): 65. doi: 10.1186/s12992-017-0290-0.
Stone AA, Mackie C, editors. Subjective Well-Being: Meas-uring Happiness, Suffering, and Other Dimensions of Expe-rience. Panel on Measuring Subjective Well-Being in a Pol-icy-Relevant Framework. Committee on National Statistics, Division on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. National Research Council. National Academies Press, Washington (US). 2013. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/18548/chapter/1#iii
Rüppel F, Liersch S, Walter U. The influence of psychologi-cal well-being on academic success. J Public Health. 2015; 23(1):15-24. doi: 10.1007/s10389-015-0654-y.
Cross MP, Hofschneider L, Grimm M, Pressman SD. Subjec-tive well-being and physical health. In Diener E., Oishi S., Tay L, editors. Handbook of well-being.Salt Lake City USA, UT: DEF Publishers. 2018. DOI: nobascholar.com.
Bücker S, Nuraydin S, Simonsmeier B, Schneider M, Luh-mann M. Subjective well-being and academic achieve-ment: A meta-analysis. J Res Pers. 2018; 74(5):83-84.doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2018.02.007.
Das VK, Jones-Harrell C, Fan Y, Ramaswami A, Orlove B, Botchwey N. Understanding subjective well-being: per-spectives from psychology and public health. Public Health Rev. 2020; 41(1):25. doi: 10.1186/s40985-020-00142-5.
Cabieses B, Obach A, Molina X. [The opportunity to incor-porate subjective well-being in the protection of children and adolescents in Chile]. Rev Chil Pediatr. 2020; 91(2):183-189. Spanish. doi: 10.32641/rchped.v91i2.1527.
Inchley J, Currie D, Budisavljevic S, Torsheim T, Jåstad A, Cosma A, Kelly C, Arnarsson AM, editors. Spotlight on adolescent health and well-being. Findings from the 2017/2018. Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey in Europe and Canada International re-port,vol.1 Key Findings. UN City, Copenhagen, Denmark: WHO Regional Office for Europe. 2020.(pp.44-45).
Okamoto S. Parental socioeconomic status and adolescent health in Japan. Sci Rep. 2021; 11(1):12089. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-91715-0.
Spencer N, Thanh TM, Louise S. Low income/socio-economic status in early childhood and physical health in later childhood/adolescence: a systematic review. Matern Child Health J. 2013; 17(3): 424-31. doi: 10.1007/s10995-012-1010-2.
Quansah F, Agormedah EK, Hagan JE Jr, Frimpong JB, Ankomah F, Srem-Sai M, Dadaczynski K, Okan O, Schack T. Subjective social status and well-being of adolescents and young adults in Ghanaian schools: conditional process analysis. BMC Psychol. 2023;11:122. doi: 10.1186/s40359-023-01158-7.
Lampropoulou A. [The role of the family in adolescents' subjective well-being]. Psychiatriki. 2018; 29(2):172-182. Greek, Modern. doi: 10.22365/jpsych.2018.292.172.
Currie CE, Elton RA, Todd J, Platt S. Indicators of socioeco-nomic status for adolescents: the WHO Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey. Health Educ Res. 1997; 12(3):385-397. doi: 10.1093/her/12.3.385.
Hardy LL, Booth ML,Okely AD. The reliability of the Adolescent Sedentary Activity Questionnaire (ASAQ). Prev Med. 2007;45(1):71-74. doi: 0.1016/j.ypmed.2007.03.014.
van den Eijnden RJ, Meerkerk GJ, Vermulst AA, Spijkerman R, Engels RC. Online communication, compulsive internet use, and psychosocial well-being among adolescents: A longitudinal study. Dev Psychol. 2008; 44:655-665. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.44.3.655.
Yarcheski A, Mahon NE, Yarcheski TJ. Validation of the PRQ85 social support measure for adolescents. Nurs Res. 1992; 41(6): 332-37. PMID: 1437581.
Tzavara C, Tzonou A, Zervas I, Ravens-Sieberer U, Dimitrakaki C, Tountas Y. Reliability and validity of the KIDSCREEN-52 health-related quality of life questionnaire in a Greek adolescent population. Ann Gen Psychiatry. 2012; 11(3):1-7. doi: 10.1186/1744-859X-11-3.
Strózik D, Strózik T, Szwarc K. The Subjective Well-Being of School Children. The First Findings from the Children's Worlds Study in Poland. Child Indic Res. 2016; 9(1):39-50. doi: 10.1007/s12187-015-9312-8.
Gómez-López M, Viejo C, Ortega-Ruiz R. Psychological Well-Being During Adolescence: Stability and Association with Romantic Relationships. Front Psychology. 2019 10:1772. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01772.
Kaye-Tzadok A, Kim SS, Main G. Children's subjective well-being in relation to gender -What can we learn from dissat-isfied children? Child Youth Serv Rev. 2017; 80(C): 96-104. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.06.058.
Pont SJ, Puhl R, Cook SR, Slusser W. Stigma Experienced by Children and Adolescents With Obesity. Pediatrics. 2017;140(6). doi: 10.1542/peds.2017-3034.
Thorpe KE, Allen L, Joski P. The Role of Chronic Disease, Obesity, and Improved Treatment and Detection in Ac-counting for the Rise in Healthcare Spending Between 1987 and 2011. Appl Health Econ Health Policy. 2015; 13(4):381-7. doi: 10.1007/s40258-015-0164-7.
Ragnarsdottir LD, Kristjansson AL, Thorisdottir IE, Allegran-te JP, Valdimarsdottir H, Gestsdottir S, Sigfusdottir ID. Cu-mulative risk over the early life course and its relation to academic achievement in childhood and early adoles-cence. Prev Med. 2017; 96: 36-41. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.12.019.
Varga S, Piko BF, Fitzpatrick KM. Socioeconomic inequali-ties in mental well-being among Hungarian adolescents: a cross-sectional study. Int J Equity Health. 2014; 13: 100. doi: 10.1186/s12939-014-0100-8.
Aldridge J, Fraser B, Fozdar F, Ala'i K, Earnest J, Afari E. Students' perceptions of school climate as determinants of wellbeing, resilience, and identity. Improv Sch. 2015; 19: 1-22. doi: 10.1177/1365480215612616.
Wu XY, Han LH, Zhang JH, Luo S, Hu JW, Sun K. The influ-ence of physical activity, sedentary behavior on health-related quality of life among the general population of children and adolescents: A systematic review. Plos One.2017; 12(11). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187668.
Sheldrick M.P.R., Tyler R., Mackintosh K.A., Stratton G. Relationship between Sedentary Time, Physical Activity and Multiple Lifestyle Factors in Children. J Funct Morphol Kinesiol.2018;3(1):15. doi: 10.3390/jfmk3010015.
Borghese MM, Tremblay MS, Katzmarzyk PT, Tudor-Locke C, Schuna JM Jr, Leduc G, Boyer C, Le Blanc AG, Chaput JP. Mediating role of television time, diet patterns, physical ac-tivity and sleep duration in the association between televi-sion in the bedroom and adiposity in 10-year-old children. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act.2015; 12:60. doi: 10.1186/s12966-015-0221-5.
Guo Y, Liao M, Cai W, Yu X, Li S, Ke X, Tan S, Luo Z, Cui Y, Wang Q, Gao X, Liu J, Liu Y, Zhu S, Zeng FF. Physical activi-ty, screen exposure and sleep among students during the pandemic of COVID-19. Sci Rep. 2021; 11(1): 8529. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-88071-4.
Fernandes B, Biswas UN, Tan-Mansukhani R, Vallejo A, Essau CA. The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on internet use and escapism in adolescents. Rev Psicol Clín Niños Adolesc.2020;7(3): 59-65. doi: 10.21134/rpcna.2020.mon.2056.
Orben A, Przybylski AK, Blakemore SJ, Kievit RA. Windows of developmental sensitivity to social media. Nat Com-mun.2022;13: 1649. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29296-3.
Soest TV, Bakken A, Pedersen W, Sletten MA. Life satisfac-tion among adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 2020. 140(10). doi:10.4045/tidsskr.20.0437.
Most read articles by the same author(s)