Relationships between valued action and well-being across the transition from high school to early adulthood

Abstract

Well-being promotes positive outcomes, which may include the ability to live according to one’s values, and values-congruent living may be a source of well-being. The current longitudinal study tested bi-directional relationships between subjective well-being and the extent to which values are seen as personally important, pressured by others, activated and successfully enacted. Participants were 468 young people (51.9% female) who responded to questionnaires in the final year of high school (Grade 12) and again approximately one year later. Regression analyses showed that life satisfaction predicted increasing value importance, activity and successful enactment. Valued action did not predict later well-being, when baseline levels of well-being were controlled. Positive changes in well-being over time were correlated with increased value importance, decreased pressure and greater success in enacting values. The findings build on a small body of research exploring the reciprocal interaction of well-being and valued action, and have implications for interventions.

Keywords:

• values
• well-being
• adolescence
• ACT
• broaden-and-build
• self-determination