The Effects of Positive Emotions on School Satisfaction Among Adolescents

The relationship between positive emotions and school satisfaction was studied in 19 adolescents aged 13,57 to 15,17 years (M=14,45, SD=0,446), of these 50% were female. The subjects were all Caucasian native Swedish speakers. Schools satisfaction, life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect and gratitude was measured at the beginning of the study and again fourteen days later. During the fourteen days, the subjects were given a task to carry out each day. The control condition was asked to list up to five things that had affected them during the last day. The experimental condition was asked to list up to five things they were grateful for in the last day. The results did not show any relationship between positive affect and school satisfaction. It is suggested that the results might be caused by either too little time for the intervention to cause a significant effect, by the subjects failing to carry out the given task each day or by too few subjects to rule out random effects