Predictors of older schoolchildren's psychological well-being

With the number of teenagers’ mental disorders increasing, there arises an interest in pupils’ psychological wellbeing. The study aims to fill the gap in the research of psychological wellbeing of this sample and expands the understanding of the prognostic factors of psychological wellbeing of Lithuania’s senior pupils. The dimensions of psychological wellbeing of Lithuania’s senior pupils were investigated (self-reception, the purpose of life, environment control, personal growth, positive relations with others, autonomy) and, having interviewed 655 Lithuanian pupils from 21 general education and vocational training schools, the study established that the psychological wellbeing of senior pupils does not depend on the family structure, their place of residence, and participation in after-school activities. We cannot draw a definite conclusion regarding independency of gender, age, economic resources and psychological wellbeing. The values of boys’ environment control, purpose of life and self-reception dimensions exceed those of girls; the values of personal growth and purpose of life of pupils aged 18 exceed those of younger pupils, and pocket money received by pupils from their parents were not related to these two dimensions of psychological wellbeing. More successful learning significantly predicted greater values of autonomy, personal growth and purpose of life. Personality-related variables more strongly than socio-demographic ones predicted the psychological wellbeing of pupils. Socio-demographic and personality-related prognostic variables analysed in this study explain only a small part of dispersion of the dimensions of psychological wellbeing. Future studies should search for other prognostic variables that explained the remaining larger part of dispersion