Abstract
Positive internal characteristics and social relations have been investigated for their effects on global life satisfaction in adolescence. However, their relative importance to life satisfaction and developmental differences in their effects on life satisfaction have not been uncovered. The present study tested a model which assumed that internal characteristics and social relations were directly related to life satisfaction, and that at the same time social relations were associated with internal characteristics even after controlling for the effects of gender and parents' educational backgrounds. Responses on self-report measures by 7th grade (n = 254) and 10th grade (n = 368) students were utilized in SEM analyses. The results supported the model, and subsequent multi-group analysis showed that the relationships and degrees of association among factors were comparable between the two cohorts. One exception to this cross-age finding was that the link between family relationship and internal characteristics were significantly stronger for 7th grade students, implying that the family environment has a more important role in enhancing positive internal characteristics in early adolescence.
