Subjective well-being and academic performance among middle schoolers: A two-wave longitudinal study

Introduction: Previous studies have suggested that present subjective well-being promotes students' academic achievement. However, adolescents' subjective well-being tends to be future-oriented; for example, when adolescents think about the future, they have hopeful expectations, feel energized, or confused. Therefore, this 14-month follow-up study conducted in China aimed to establish the longitudinal relationships between present- and future-oriented well-being and academic achievement. Methods: Using two waves of data, this longitudinal study explored the bidirectional relationships between present- and future-oriented well-being and academic achievement among 189 Chinese middle school students (102 girls, 82 boys, 5 unknown) whose mean age was 13.76 at Time 1 and 14.78 at Time 2. The Adolescent Well-being Scale, which has six dimensions (present life satisfaction, present positive affect, present negative affect, hopeful future expectations, positive affect toward future life, and negative affect toward future life) was administered to all students at Time1 and Time 2, and academic scores were collected two weeks later. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Results: Cross-lagged analyses revealed that present life satisfaction, present positive affect, and positive affect toward future life at Time 1 were positively correlated with academic achievement at Time 2. Conclusions: These findings suggest that both present- and future-oriented well-being are associated with later academic achievement. Teachers and parents should cultivate students' well-being by targeting not only present life satisfaction and positive affect but also positive feelings toward the future.