The Prevalence of Positive Affect over Negative Affect in Adolescents’ Well-being: Moderating Role of Individualism

Emotional experiences (positive and negative affect) profoundly influence adolescents’ health and psycho-social functioning. Both positive and negative affect are important for well-being. However, few studies have examined different contributions of positive and negative affect to adolescents’ well-being in a global context. Using a dataset derived from the PISA 2018 survey, this study examined the association between emotional experiences and adolescents’ well-being (physical, hedonic, and eudaimonic well-being), and the moderating role of individualistic cultural value in the abovementioned relationships. The sample sizes (69,502 adolescents from 8 societies when physical well-being was the outcome,413,974 adolescents from 66 societies when eudaimonic well-being was the outcome, and 421,136 adolescents from 67 societies when hedonic well-being was the outcome) were large enough for sound conclusions. The results showed that positive affect was positively associated with all well-being indicators (physical, hedonic, and eudaimonic well-being), while negative affect was negatively associated with all well-being indicators. The results of the relative weighting analyses showed that positive affect contributed more strongly to adolescents’ well-being than negative affect. In addition, multilevel analyses showed that individualism increases the association of positive affect, but decreases the association of negative affect, and adolescents’ eudaimonic and hedonic well-being. These findings suggest that positive affect may be more closely associated with adolescents’ well-being than negative affect. The effects of emotional experiences on well-being can be moderated by culture.