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Self-Construal and Psychological Wellbeing in Scottish and Italian Young Adults

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Abstract

The present study investigated the role of self-construal in explaining psychological wellbeing in two European countries. Eight hundred and fifteen Italian and Scottish students completed measures of life-satisfaction, optimism, subjective happiness and a scale measuring interdependent and/or independent self-construal. We obtained three main findings. First of all, scores on the scales of psychological wellbeing were positively associated with scores on the independent scale and independence was found to be the factor that best explained variance in psychological wellbeing. Second, and contrary to our prediction, the Italian group had significantly higher scores for the independence scale than Scots. Third, gender was found to have a significant effect with regard to interdependence of self, life satisfaction, and optimism.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from F.A.R.—2007 (University of Milano-Bicocca) to Prof. Ilaria Grazzani. We wish to thank Dr. Clare O’Sullivan for the English revision of the paper, and Dr. Alessandro Pepe for his assistance with the statistical analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Allied Health Sciences, School of Health and Life Science, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, G4 0BA, Scotland

    Elaine Duncan

  2. Faculty of Educational Sciences, Department of Human Sciences R. Massa, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Veronica Ornaghi & Ilaria Grazzani

  3. Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione, Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Piazza Ateneo Nuovo 1, U6, Quarto Piano, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Ilaria Grazzani

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  1. Elaine Duncan
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Correspondence to Ilaria Grazzani.

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Duncan, E., Ornaghi, V. & Grazzani, I. Self-Construal and Psychological Wellbeing in Scottish and Italian Young Adults. J Happiness Stud 14, 1145–1161 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-012-9372-0

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