Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Ed. Specalist

Degree

*Ed.S.

Degree Name

Education Specialist (Ed.S.)

Degree Granting Department

Educational and Psychological Studies

Major Professor

Shannon Suldo, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Stacy-Ann January, Ph.D.

Committee Member

John Ferron, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Sarah Fefer, Ph.D.

Keywords

adolescents, caregivers, mental health, positive psychology

Abstract

Historically, self-report has been the predominant method for assessing the subjective well-being of adolescents (SWB). Regarding the use of secondary reporters, especially parental/caregiver reports, in assessing adolescent SWB, there is a gap in the literature. Gaining a better understanding of how to best evaluate adolescent SWB can assist in the identification of adolescents who may be at risk for mental health concerns or who could benefit from increased well-being. It may also assist in the development of future interventions in positive psychology for adolescents. This validity study explored (1) What is the reliability of a newly developed parent report measure of child life satisfaction (SLSS-P), and existing measures of positive affect and negative affect (PANAS-C-10-P)? (2) To what extent does parent report of life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect (measured using the SLSS-P and PANAS-C-10-P) correspond with youth ratings of the same construct (measured using the SLSS and PANAS-C-10)? This study entailed a secondary analysis of data extracted from a larger study evaluating a school- based positive psychology intervention, wherein half of the sample was randomized to intervention and half to no-treatment control. Participants include 643 fifth through eighth-grade students from eight middle schools in two states (Florida and Massachusetts) and their caregivers (parent or guardian; one caregiver per participant). Youth and caregivers completed assessments of youth SWB at three time points in one school year—pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 4-month follow-up. Caregivers (one per student) of 420 to 514 of those students participated across time points. Values for Cronbach's alpha across raters at each time-point range from .77 to .90 (youth) and .76 to .92 (caregiver), with all values above .76, indicating strong internal consistency for each measure of SWB. To evaluate the second research question, a correlational analysis was conducted between each primary study variable (SLSS and SLSS-P; PANAS-C-10 and PANAS-C-10-P) at each time point. Values for correlations across raters at each time point were statistically significant (p < .01) and ranged from .27 to .31 for life satisfaction, .13 to .20 for positive affect, and .20 to 27 for negative affect. In general, associations were largest in magnitude at the third time point, and for students in 6th grade. This study also found that caregivers tended to overestimate their middle school students’ subjective well-being. In particular, the average caregiver ratings of adolescent life satisfaction and positive affect were significantly higher than student ratings of their own life satisfaction and positive affect, and caregiver ratings of adolescent negative affect was significantly lower than student ratings of their own negative affect. Integration of these findings with prior research, and implications for future research and practice, are discussed.

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