Student Well-being Factors: A Multilevel Analysis of PISA 2015 International Data

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to determine whether student well-being is correlated mainly with individual, school- or system-level factors. Paper aims to fill gap in understanding wellbeing by developing a model of student subjective well-being that separates relations at different levels and controls for a variety of personal and education-related factors. Design/Methodology/Approach: We develop a multilevel model to explain variation at the individual and school level in student subjective life satisfaction. We use newly constructed variables that are strongly associated with student well-being. We estimate variance components at the student and school level. Findings: The results show that individual factors play the most important role in explaining wellbeing - positive relationships with parents and peers are crucial. Practical Implications: Improving discipline, limiting bullying and test-related anxiety might have positive impact on student life satisfaction, but the results suggest that individual and family factors, which are usually beyond education policy, play much more important role in this area. Originality/Value: Well-being is one of the key issues in education and it refers to the psychological, cognitive, social and physical factors to live a fulfilling life. At the same time this issue is extremely hard to measure and uncover. This paper proposes a new look at the student well-being data from PISA 2015.