Cross-Sectional and Prospective Associations Between Positive Emotions and General Life Satisfaction in Adolescents

Informed by the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (PE), we tested a model of the origins of life satisfaction (LS) with a sample of 567 middle school students from the Southeastern United States. The pathways thinking domain of hope was proposed to mediate the relation between PE and general LS at a single time point, as well as over 1 year. At Time 1, pathways thinking was a significant mediator of PE and LS. In the prospective model, PE did not predict later LS after controlling for baseline LS. The findings have implications for theory and efforts to promote and sustain LS over time in adolescents.