Relationships between valued action and well-being across the transition from high school to early adulthood

Abstract

Well-being promotes positive outcomes, which may include the ability to live according to one's values, and values-congruent living may be a source of well-being. The current longitudinal study tested bi-directional relationships between subjective well-being and the extent to which values are seen as personally important, pressured by others, activated and successfully enacted. Participants were 468 young people (51.9% female) who responded to questionnaires in the final year of high school (Grade 12) and again approximately one year later. Regression analyses showed that life satisfaction predicted increasing value importance, activity and successful enactment. Valued action did not predict later well-being, when baseline levels of well-being were controlled. Positive changes in well-being over time were correlated with increased value importance, decreased pressure and greater success in enacting values. The findings build on a small body of research exploring the reciprocal interaction of well-being and valued action, and have implications for interventions.

Perceived Parenting Styles and Values Development: A Longitudinal Study of Adolescents and Emerging Adults

“…Examples of items are “Having genuine, close friends” (Relationship), “Having authority, being in charge” (Power), “Being curious, discovering new things” (Self Direction), and “Having an enjoyable, leisurely life” (Hedonism). The SGP links in theoretically expected ways to suicidal ideation (Bahraini et al, ), personality (Veage et al, ), workplace burnout (Veage et al, ), and adolescent well‐being (Williams, Ciarrochi, & Heaven, ).…”

“…Participants were asked how successful they felt they had been at living according to each value (success), on a scale from 1 (not at all successful) to 5 (highly successful) . Three items were excluded to avoid confounding with well‐being measures used in analyses published elsewhere (Williams, Ciarrochi, & Heaven, ). They were: “enjoying positive mood states,” “feeling good about myself,” and “leading a stress‐free life.”…”

Clarity of Personal Values and Committed Action: Development of a Shorter Engaged Living Scale

“…Trompetter and colleagues (2013) indicated that this may be an important contribution due to the possibility that individuals might interpret engaged living distinctively by different age groups. Furthermore, young adulthood is considered a critical period for the development of values and behaving consistently with those values (Salmera-Aro, 2009;Williams, Ciarrochi, & Heaven, 2014), which are associated with life satisfaction in later life stages (e.g., Sheldon, 2008). Therefore, the validation of engaged living scales and the study of this topic in young-adult populations seems to be of particular importance for future research and clinical practise.…”

The strength of pursuing your values: Valued living as a path to resilience among college students

“…Further, the current study contributes to the understanding of the mental health and well‐being of college students by demonstrating that valued living may potentially mitigate the impact of SLEs that can dominate the college experience. Previous studies indicated that valued living contributes to well‐being, positive affect, and life satisfaction (Ciarrochi, Bilich, et al, ; Williams et al, ). In keeping with these findings, the current study supports the importance of valued living to stress resilience.…”

“…Several lines of research have empirically demonstrated the benefits of valued living. Williams, Ciarrochi, and Heaven () conducted a longitudinal study of valued living in emerging adults in Australia and found that increased success at enacting values (i.e., valued living) was associated with increased positive affect and satisfaction with life. Similarly, Ciarrochi, Fisher, and Lane () examined the role values played in the lives of 107 adults with a variety of cancer diagnoses.…”