Cross-Country and Gender Differences in Factors Associated with Population-Level Declines in Adolescent Life Satisfaction

Abstract

AbstractAdolescent subjective well-being, including life satisfaction, has shown declines at national level across many countries in recent years. Although several possible explanatory factors have been identified, there is a lack of research on whether these may be similar or different across countries. Using data on 15-year-old adolescents from the Programme for International Student Assessment study in Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the United States, Japan, Ireland and France in 2015 and 2018, we find that changes in school well-being and, to a lesser extent, the use of Information and Communication Technologies and material well-being were associated with observed declines in life satisfaction. Although there are similarities across some countries, cross-country differences in factors associated with decreasing life satisfaction emerged, notably between Western nations and Japan, with some gender differences also evident.