What Makes Children Happy? A Longitudinal Examination of Happiness During Development

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

What makes children happy? One popular view may be that children need to fulfill their desires to be happy. The philosophical view, however, holds that the attainment of happiness is about eudaimonia, involving the expression of moral virtue, the realization of one’s true potential, and having positive relationships with others. These eudaimonic factors have been demonstrated to predict happiness among adults (e.g., Dunn, Aknin, & Norton, 2014; Demir, Özdemir, & Weitekamp, 2007; Walsh, Boehm, & Lyubomirsky, 2018), but little is known about the origin of these links, i.e., whether they only emerge relatively late in life when adults develop psychological needs beyond hedonic pleasures. To examine this question, the current study investigates whether and how eudaimonia factors (i.e., morality, academic achievement, and peer-relationships) may be related to happiness in primary school children. Adopting a longitudinal approach, our study not only illuminates the concurrent links between happiness and these factors, but also sheds light on their bidirectional relationships over time.
To address these questions, we examined the relations between happiness and these eudaimonic factors concurrently and longitudinally, in a sample of 2144 Chinese primary students (initial M age = 9 years; 48.4% are boys). Two waves of panel data have been collected in 2013 and 2014 from multiple sources. Happiness was measured by both self-report and peer-observation. Moral behavior and peer-relationship were measured through peer nomination. Academic achievement was obtained from school records.
We found that moral behavior, academic achievement, and peer-relationship were related to both self-report happiness and peer-observed happiness within the same year, for both Time 1 and Time 2. We then conducted cross-lagged panel analysis to examine whether these factors contribute to happiness (and vice versa). Morality, peer-relationship, and academic achievement predicted both self-reported and peer observed happiness over a year, over and above the stability happiness (Figures 1 and 2). On the other hand, peer-observed happiness (but not self-reported happiness) predicted higher levels of moral behaviors, peer-relationship, and academic achievement (Figure 2). The magnitudes for the relations are small but the patterns are consistent. Children who behave more morally, have better grades and peer relationships become happier, and those who are viewed as being happier also behave more morally, become more popular, and have better grades over time.
Most parents would like their children to be happy. Our findings show that children’s happiness is significantly influenced by eudaimonia factors related to moral, intellectual, and social virtues (i.e., morality, academic achievement, and peer relationship), which illuminates the potential mechanisms to promote happiness and wellbeing in childhood. From the reverse perspective, our findings also suggest that happiness is not only a valued end in itself, but also plays significant roles in facilitating the development of eudaimonic characteristics--foundations for living a good life.

Authors

• Yanwen Yu, University of Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Xinyin Chen, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dan Li, Shanghai Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Junsheng Liu, East China Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Fan Yang, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author