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A Pathway Towards Subjective Well-Being for Turkish University Students: The Roles of Dispositional Hope, Cognitive Flexibility, and Coping Strategies

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Abstract

The aim of the current study was to test a model that consisted of dispositional hope, cognitive flexibility, and coping strategies (avoidance, problem-focused coping, and seeking social support) towards subjective well-being of university students. The sample of the study included 1222 undergraduate students (601 females and 621 males) from a public university in Ankara, Turkey. In order to collect data, Dispositional Hope Scale, Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, Coping with Stress Scale, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and a demographic information form were administered. Structural equation modeling was employed in order to test the proposed model. The results showed that the proposed model fitted the data along with explaining 57% of the total variance in subjective well-being. According to the findings, cognitive flexibility and problem-focused coping failed to have direct effects on subjective well-being, whereas dispositional hope, avoidance, and seeking social support had significant direct effects on subjective well-being. That is, university students who had higher levels of dispositional hope and engaged in more avoidance and seeking social support while coping with stress had higher levels of subjective well-being. Moreover, the findings presented non-significant indirect effects of dispositional hope and cognitive flexibility on subjective well-being through coping strategies. Findings, possible implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies were discussed.

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Acknowledgements

The first author was financially supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu). The first author would like to acknowledge Mehmet Ali Yılık and Alev Coskun Muyan for their encouragement and support throughout this study.

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  1. Department of Educational Sciences, Izmir Democracy University, Izmir, Turkey

    Mine Muyan-Yılık

  2. Department of Educational Sciences, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    Ayhan Demir

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This study is part of the first author’s Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Sciences, Middle East Technical University in 2017 under the supervision of the second author.

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Muyan-Yılık, M., Demir, A. A Pathway Towards Subjective Well-Being for Turkish University Students: The Roles of Dispositional Hope, Cognitive Flexibility, and Coping Strategies. J Happiness Stud 21, 1945–1963 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00162-2

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