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less distress, better quality of life, better health outcomes, and lower
diastolic blood pressure reactivity in stressful situations than a more
pessimistic style (King, Rowe, Kimble, & Zerwic, 1998). Chang
(1998) found that optimism serves as a moderator between stress
and psychological well-being and also has a direct impact on
psychological adjustments. Optimists are psychologically welladjusted and satisfied with life, engaged in adaptive behaviours, and
tend to have better physical health (Rasmussen, Scheier &
Greenhouse, 2009). Optimists and pessimists differ in their
secondary appraisals of stressful situations, and an individual who is
more optimistic reports low level of perceived stress (Chang, Rand
& Strunk, 2000). Optimism is one positive trait that is strongly
associated with satisfaction of life (Myers & Diener 1995). In
another study conducted by Creed, Patton and Bartrum (2002), the
dimensionality of the Life Orientation Test-Revised (Scheier,
Carver & Bridges, 1994) was examined in a sample of high school
students. They also studied the relationship of optimism and
pessimism independently with career-related variables like career
maturity, career decision making and goals and found that students
with higher levels of optimism showed better career planning, career
exploration, conviction in their career decisions and career goals. On
the other hand, those high in pessimism were found to have lower
levels of clarity regarding career-related variables and reported low
school achievement. Furthermore, the literature supports the notion
that optimism serves as a strong resilience factor during certain
stages of life, especially adolescence (Tusaie-Mumford, 2001).
In literature it has been found that optimism is one positive trait
that is associated with life satisfaction. Life satisfaction is defined as
a cognitive, global appraisal that people make when considering
their contentment with their life as a whole or in regard to specific
domains of life such as family, environment, friends and self
(Suldo, Riley & Shaffer, 2006). Life satisfaction is a relatively stable
component, and this makes it an ideal indicator in studying the
perceived quality of life of the youth. A majority of studies on
childrens' life satisfaction have studied the role of family
functioning and intrapersonal variables such as temperament and
cognitions (Huebner, Suldo, Smit & McKnight, 2004). Higher
levels of life satisfaction are seen to predict a range of adaptive and
42
Method
Participants
The authorities of the selected schools for the study were contacted
and formal permission from the concerned schools were obtained.
Prior to data collection, students were informed about the purpose
and objectives of the study and asked for their consent. They were
given assurance that their responses will be kept confidential and that
their participation is voluntary. The students who agreed to
participate in the study were asked to fill out the questionnaires
silently and individually. The students were asked to fill the
Personal-Data Sheet, where their personal information was taken
and after which they were asked to complete the Student Life Stress
Scale, Revised Life Orientation Test and Multidimensional Life
Satisfaction Scale. On completion of all these questionnaires, the
researcher collected back the questionnaires from the students. The
current study was conducted on students of class VIII to X, aged
between 13 to 15 years in Assam. Only students studying in private
schools included. Data was collected from four private schools of
Assam were selected through random sampling. A total number of
145 (78 boys and 67 girls) students participated in the current study.
Instruments
Students Life Stress Inventory (SLSI): by Gadzella (1994). The scale
is having 23 items with five dimensions and it is a 5 point scale. The
options are 1= never, 2=seldom, 3= occasionally, 4= often, and 5=
most of the time. There were two sections of the scale: stressors and
reactions. Only the former part is included in this study to fit the
current research needs. There were five types of stressors:
frustrations, conflicts, pressure, changes and self imposed stressors.
Statistical analysis
The current study is a correlational study. Pearson's correlational
analysis was conducted to assess the relationships between life
stress, optimism, and life satisfaction. Further, t-test was also
conducted to see if there were any differences between boys and
girls. The data was explored to see the mean, standard deviation and
standard error mean of the variables. The statistical analyses were
carried out using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)
versions 16.0 for Windows.
Results
The objectives of this study was to examine the relationship between
life stress, optimism and life satisfaction among adolescents and to
explore the gender differences that exist with regard to these variables.
43
Table 1: Relationship between life stress, optimism and life satisfaction among school students
Variables
Frustration
Conflict
Pressure
Changes
Self imposed
Life Stress
Optimism
Optimism
Family
Friends
School
Living environment
Self
Life satisfaction
-.185*
-.130
-.131
-.042
-.199*
.078
-.128
-.027
-.034
-.016
.006
-.095
.043
-.029
.047
-.245**
-.113
-.019
-.427**
-.176*
-.289**
.062
-.004
-.067
-.035
-.105
-.045
-.078
.124
.245**
.132
.085
.132
.248**
.245**
-.005
-.048
-.065
.002
-.232**
.081
-.081
1
.258**
.222**
.221**
.187*
.045
.278**
Table 2: Difference between boys and girls on life stress, optimism and life satisfaction
Gender
Frustration
Mean
Boys
78
20.44
Girls
67
20.13
Conflict
Boys
78
9.19
Girls
67
9.52
Pressure
Boys
78
12.71
Girls
67
11.37
Changes
Boys
78
9.62
Girls
67
9.22
Self imposed
Boys
78
21.71
Girls
67
22.03
Life Stress
Boys
78
73.65
Girls
67
72.27
Optimism
Boys
78
13.83
Girls
67
14.60
Family
Boys
78
30.33
Girls
67
36.39
Friends
Boys
78
37.38
Girls
67
39.03
School
Boys
78
37.49
Girls
67
39.48
Living environment Boys
78
35.64
Girls
67
37.96
Self
Boys
78
30.22
Girls
67
20.58
Life satisfaction
Boys
78
171.06
Girls
67
183.43
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Std. deviation
3.712
4.569
2.629
2.318
3.117
2.822
2.534
2.540
4.307
3.312
9.574
8.582
3.237
3.912
5.096
4.677
6.681
5.936
6.646
6.236
6.757
5.719
6.111
5.745
20.707
19.027
.420
.558
.298
.283
.353
.345
.287
.310
.488
.405
1.084
1.048
.367
.478
.577
.571
.756
.725
.753
.762
.765
.699
.692
.702
2.345
2.325
.438
.796
2.679**
.927
.503
.911
1.286
7.408**
1.556
1.850
2.205*
.368
3.722**
44
Table 2 shows the difference between boys and girls on life stress,
optimism, life satisfaction. The results show that there is a significant
difference between boys and girls on life satisfaction (t= 3.722,
p<0.01), where in girls reported higher life satisfaction (M= 183.43,
SD= 19.027) when compared to boys (M= 171.06, SD= 20.707).
There is also a significant difference between boys and girls on
pressure, dimension of life stress (t=2.679, p<0.01), where in boys
score high on pressure (M= 12.71, SD= 3.117) when compared to
girls (M= 11.37, SD= 2.822). Further, a significant difference was
found between boys and girls on family satisfaction, dimension of
life satisfaction (t=7.408, p<0.01). Girls score higher on family
satisfaction (M= 36.39, SD= 4.677) when compared to boys (M=
30.33, SD= 5.096). The mean score of living environment for boys
and girls was found to be 35.64 and 37.96 and t-score of 2.205, at the
level of 0.05 indicates that there is a significant difference between
boys and girls on the dimension of living environment.
Discussion
The results of the study indicate that optimism has a significant
positive relationship with life satisfaction. Thus, this indicates that if
the individual is optimistic he is more likely to be satisfied with life
and that optimism helps in improving life satisfaction of the
individual. Generally, we see that individuals with an optimistic
outlook tend to perceive live as satisfying and that optimism can also
be viewed as an important psychological strength which can help in
facilitating adaptive behaviour and development. It may be so
because life satisfaction reflects conscious inner pleasant
experiences which motivate people to pursue goals and this kind of
behaviour, in turn, would make the individual optimistic. Lin, et al.
(2010) found that there is positive correlation between optimism and
life satisfaction.
A significant negative relationship was found between life stress
and living environment. This indicates that if the individual is very
stressed out, his level of satisfaction with his living environment will
be quite low. Stressful individuals are really not happy with their
living environment. As stressful events increase in their lives, it
becomes more evident that they do not like their neighborhood and
wish to live in different place with different people. Results also
show that optimism has a significant negative relationship with
frustration, a dimension of stress, and positive relationship with
some of the dimensions of life satisfaction. Optimism is a positive
behaviour of an individual and individuals who are very optimistic
are able to deal with all kinds of frustration that they face in their life.
For example, in job performance, literature revealed that workers
who do not possess an optimistic outlook will become frustrated
easily. Individuals with positive attitude enjoy being at home, and
like spending time with their parents and also like the company of
their friends. They also found their school life very interesting,
enjoyed the activities in school and felt that they are learning a lot
from their school, and that they are more satisfied with their
surroundings.
Life satisfaction is significantly correlated with some of
dimensions of life stress like pressure and self-imposed stressors.
There is a significant negative correlation between life satisfaction
and pressure, which indicates that more an individual is satisfied in
life, the amount of pressure experienced by individual would be less.
A significant positive relationship was found between life
satisfaction and self-imposed stressors, which indicates that an
individual who is satisfied with his life experiences has a desire to
Conclusion
Optimistic individuals are satisfied with their families, friends,
schools and living environments too. Children who experience high
levels of stress are not happy with their lives and they are dissatisfied
with their living environments. Children who are loved in their close
relationships and are able to compete with everyone are more
satisfied with their life, family and themselves. Frustrated
individuals are not satisfied with their living environment and
individuals experiencing greater familial pressure are also
dissatisfied with their living environment, family and, also with their
own self. Girls are more satisfied with their life, living environment
and family when compared to boys, and boys reported experiencing
more pressure when compared to girls.
It is recommended that measures like counseling can be used to
improve their life satisfaction and stress reduction techniques can
also be taught to them to help them cope with the pressure they
experience. Maintaining strong social support networks with family
and peers will also help improve their level of life satisfaction.
References
Andersson, G. (1996). The benefits of Optimism: A Meta-analytical Review of the Life
Orientation Test. Personality and Individual Differences, 21, 719-725.
Basch, C.E., & Kersch, T.B. (1986). Adolescent perceptions of stressful life events.
Health education June/July, 4-7.
Chang, E. C. (1998). Dispositional optimism and primary and secondary appraisal of a
stressor: controlling for confounding influences and relations to coping and
psychological and physical adjustment. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 74, 1109-1120.
Chang, E. C., Rand, K. L., & Strunk, D. R. (2000). Optimism and risk for job burnout
45
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