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Life Satisfaction

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Encyclopedia of Adolescence

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Adolescent life satisfaction is a key indicator of mental health and is positively related to a broad spectrum of positive personal, psychological, behavioral, social, interpersonal, and intrapersonal outcomes (see Proctor et al. 2008 for a review). Historically, however, adolescent life satisfaction has been overlooked and understudied along with various other positive indicators of optimal functioning among youth. Recently, with the advent of positive psychology, there has been resurgence of the study of optimal functioning and well-being. Traditionally, positive psychological function was informed from the absence of psychopathological symptoms. However, recent evidence suggests that high psychopathology can be accompanied by high subjective well-being (SWB), just as low psychopathology can be accompanied by low SWB (Greenspoon and Saklofske 2001). Therefore, as a separate and independent construct, SWB should not simply be placed at the opposite end from psychopathology...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Leicester, Lancaster Road, Leicester, LE1 9HN, UK

    Carmel Proctor & John Maltby

  2. Centre for Applied Positive Psychology, The Venture Centre, University of Warwick Science Park, Sir William Lyons Road, Coventry, CV4 7EZ, UK

    P. Alex Linley

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  1. Carmel Proctor
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  2. P. Alex Linley
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  3. John Maltby
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Correspondence to Carmel Proctor .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University, 302 Sycamore Hall, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Roger J. R. Levesque

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Proctor, C., Linley, P.A., Maltby, J. (2011). Life Satisfaction. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_125

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