Korean Adolescents' Life Satisfaction Cohort Differences Caused by Mental Health Intervention and Social Disaster Accident

This study examined life satisfaction trajectories over time in the seventh, ninth, and tenth grade periods, and analyzed whether there were any differences in association of the trajectories and their predictors between the two cohort groups that are three years apart. For these purposes, we used the latent growth curve modeling and the multi-group analysis involving 2092 students (fourth grade cohort) and 2350 students (seventh grade cohort) who participated in the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey. Major findings are as follows. The trajectories of life satisfaction were varied by the cohort; this is known as the cohort effect. Specifically, the difference in the generation of adolescent's life satisfaction has become better in recent generation. However, the difference in life satisfaction between the two cohorts decreased over time. This cohort effect seems to be caused by the social environment changes such as Korea's active intervention system (Children Problem-Behavior Screening Questionare) in mental health problems or the Sewol Ferry Disaster accident in 2014 in Korea. Based on such findings, implications for adolescents are discussed.