Abstract
Few research studies have focused on global life satisfaction and its relation to positive daily experiences among Japanese adolescents. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relation between daily positive events and life satisfaction in early adolescents. From diaries kept by junior high school students (N=20) for 2 weeks, positive events in their daily lives were collected. A short-term longitudinal assessment of 763 students investigated a bidirectional causal relation between positive life events and life satisfaction. It was found that positive occasions were triggered not only by socializing with friends, but also by being alone, and that the intensity of positive emotions varied, depending on the content of the events. Analysis of the longitudinal data revealed that a lagged model, as well as a cross-lagged model, showed a satisfactory fit to the data. Although the cross-lagged effects were not large, after consideration of the temporal stability of these 2 variables, reciprocal effects between positive events and life satisfaction could not be denied. Effective interventions for increasing early adolescents’ life satisfaction were discussed.
