IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v16y2015i6p1401-1421.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Infant Happiness Forecast Adult Life Satisfaction? Examining Subjective Well-Being in the First Quarter Century of Life

Author

Listed:
  • John Coffey
  • Michael Warren
  • Allen Gottfried

Abstract

Few empirical studies have focused on young children’s happiness (high positive affect and low negative affect) and specifically whether it is related to adult well-being. Adult well-being indices (e.g., life satisfaction, workplace hope, and optimism) may have developmental roots in early affect. In the 28-year Fullerton Longitudinal Study (N = 129) we examined positive affect and negative affect as independent constructs during infancy (parent report) and adolescence (self-report) to determine their relationship to global adult life satisfaction (self-report). In addition, we tested the generalizability of the effects of positive and negative affect in relation to domain-specific adult well-being constructs (i.e., workplace hope and optimism), which hold utility for concurrent and prospective well-being. Structural equation modeling revealed that positive affect during infancy and adolescence each uniquely predicted adult life satisfaction. In a separate model for a subsample of employed adults, infant positive affect showed significant positive associations with workplace hope and optimism. Neither infant nor adolescent negative affect predicted any adult well-being outcomes. Our results highlight the need for more developmental studies examining the relationship between children’s positive and negative affect and long-term well-being. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • John Coffey & Michael Warren & Allen Gottfried, 2015. "Does Infant Happiness Forecast Adult Life Satisfaction? Examining Subjective Well-Being in the First Quarter Century of Life," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(6), pages 1401-1421, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:16:y:2015:i:6:p:1401-1421
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-014-9556-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10902-014-9556-x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-014-9556-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Craig Olsson & Rob McGee & Shyamala Nada-Raja & Sheila Williams, 2013. "A 32-Year Longitudinal Study of Child and Adolescent Pathways to Well-Being in Adulthood," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 1069-1083, June.
    2. Mark Holder & Ben Coleman, 2009. "The Contribution of Social Relationships to Children’s Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 329-349, June.
    3. Antonella Delle Fave & Ingrid Brdar & Teresa Freire & Dianne Vella-Brodrick & Marié Wissing, 2011. "The Eudaimonic and Hedonic Components of Happiness: Qualitative and Quantitative Findings," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 100(2), pages 185-207, January.
    4. Mark Holder & Andrea Klassen, 2010. "Temperament and Happiness in Children," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 419-439, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fabio Alexis Rincón Uribe & Cristian Ariel Neira Espejo & Janari da Silva Pedroso, 2022. "The Role of Optimism in Adolescent Mental Health: A Systematic Review," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 815-845, February.
    2. Elizabeth A Simpson & Lauren M Robinson & Annika Paukner, 2019. "Infant rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) personality and subjective well-being," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-23, December.
    3. Aysun Gündoğan, 2022. "“Hear my Voice”: Subjective Well-Being Scale for Young Children (SWB-YC)," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(3), pages 747-761, June.
    4. Avinash Auliah & Lei Mee Thien & Siaw Hui Kho & Nordin Abd Razak & Hazri Jamil & Mohammad Zohir Ahmad, 2021. "Exploring Positive School Attributes: Evidence From School Leader and Teacher Perspectives," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, December.
    5. Susan L. Prescott & Alan C. Logan, 2016. "Transforming Life: A Broad View of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Concept from an Ecological Justice Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-44, November.
    6. Xinwen Bi & Shuqiong Wang & Yanhong Ji, 2022. "Parental Autonomy Granting and Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction: The Mediating Roles of Emotional Self-Efficacy and Future Orientation," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 2113-2135, June.
    7. Panagiotis E. Petrakis & Anna-Maria Kanzola, 2022. "On the Micro-Foundations of Creative Economy: Life Satisfaction and Social Identity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-17, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anne M. Gadermann & Martin Guhn & Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl & Shelley Hymel & Kimberly Thomson & Clyde Hertzman, 2016. "A Population-Based Study of Children’s Well-Being and Health: The Relative Importance of Social Relationships, Health-Related Activities, and Income," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 1847-1872, October.
    2. Lotta Uusitalo-Malmivaara, 2012. "Global and School-Related Happiness in Finnish Children," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 601-619, August.
    3. Mònica González-Carrasco & Ferran Casas & Ferran Viñas & Sara Malo & M. Eugènia Gras & Lívia Bedin, 2017. "What Leads Subjective Well-Being to Change Throughout Adolescence? An Exploration of Potential Factors," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 10(1), pages 33-56, March.
    4. Lotta Uusitalo-Malmivaara & Juhani Lehto, 2013. "Social Factors Explaining Children’s Subjective Happiness and Depressive Symptoms," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 111(2), pages 603-615, April.
    5. R. M. Tomlinson & L. Keyfitz & J. S. Rawana & M. N. Lumley, 2017. "Unique Contributions of Positive Schemas for Understanding Child and Adolescent Life Satisfaction and Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 1255-1274, October.
    6. Roberto Baiocco & Valeria Verrastro & Lilybeth Fontanesi & Matteo Pio Ferrara & Jessica Pistella, 2019. "The Contributions of Self-Esteem, Loneliness, and Friendship to Children’s Happiness: The Roles of Gender and Age," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(4), pages 1413-1433, August.
    7. Simone P. Nguyen & Cameron L. Gordon, 2020. "The Relationship Between Gratitude and Happiness in Young Children," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(8), pages 2773-2787, December.
    8. Wei Cui & Zhihui Yang, 2022. "Association Between Connection to Nature and Children’s Happiness in China: Children’s Negative Affectivity and Gender as Moderators," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 47-63, January.
    9. Andrew E. Clark, 2015. "SWB as a Measure of Individual Well-Being," Working Papers halshs-01134483, HAL.
    10. Erik Carlquist & Pål Ulleberg & Antonella Delle Fave & Hilde E. Nafstad & Rolv M. Blakar, 2017. "Everyday Understandings of Happiness, Good Life, and Satisfaction: Three Different Facets of Well-being," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 481-505, June.
    11. Munevver MertoÄŸlu, 2020. "Factors Affecting Happiness of School Children," Journal of Education and Training Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 8(3), pages 10-20, March.
    12. Olivia Hornung & Stefan Smolnik, 2022. "AI invading the workplace: negative emotions towards the organizational use of personal virtual assistants," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(1), pages 123-138, March.
    13. Hezhi Chen & Zhijia Zeng, 2023. "Seeking Pleasure is Good, but Avoiding Pain is Bad: Distinguishing Hedonic Approach from Hedonic Avoidance Orientations," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(7), pages 2377-2393, October.
    14. Jacky C. K. Ng & Algae K. Y. Au & Helen S. M. Wong & Carmen K. M. Sum & Victor C. Y. Lau, 2021. "Does Dispositional Envy Make You Flourish More (or Less) in Life? An Examination of Its Longitudinal Impact and Mediating Mechanisms Among Adolescents and Young Adults," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1089-1117, March.
    15. Jihye Choi & Youjeong Park & Hye-Eun Kim & Jihyeok Song & Daeun Lee & Eunhye Lee & Hyeonjin Kang & Jeeho Lee & Jihyeon Park & Ji-Woo Lee & Seongeun Ye & Seul Lee & Sohee Ryu & Yeojeong Kim & Ye-Ri Kim, 2021. "Daily Life Changes and Life Satisfaction among Korean School-Aged Children in the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-17, March.
    16. Rocío Calvo & Mariana Arcaya & Christopher Baum & Sarah Lowe & Mary Waters, 2015. "Happily Ever After? Pre-and-Post Disaster Determinants of Happiness Among Survivors of Hurricane Katrina," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 427-442, April.
    17. Mohsen Joshanloo & Dan Weijers, 2019. "A two-dimensional conceptual framework for understanding mental well-being," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-20, March.
    18. Wenceslao Unanue & Eduardo Barros & Marcos Gómez, 2021. "The Longitudinal Link between Organizational Citizenship Behaviors and Three Different Models of Happiness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-20, June.
    19. L. Lambert & Z. A. Draper & M. A. Warren & M. Joshanloo & En-Ling Chiao & A. Schwam & T. Arora, 2022. "Conceptions of Happiness Matter: Relationships between Fear and Fragility of Happiness and Mental and Physical Wellbeing," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 535-560, February.
    20. Aaron Jarden & Annalise Roache, 2023. "What Is Wellbeing?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-4, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:16:y:2015:i:6:p:1401-1421. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.