The Relative Importance and Performance of Key Life Domains on Global Life Satisfaction in Early Adolescents

Objective To investigate the relative importance of key life domains of early adolescents and to explore the heterogeneities across age cohorts and countries at different levels of economic development. Methods The repeated cross-sectional survey data for 10 countries (England, Israel, Romania, Norway, Malta, Nepal, Estonia, Ethiopia, South Korea and Germany) from the second (2013-2014) and third (2016-2019) waves of the International Survey of Children’s Well-being study were used. Early adolescents from the 10-year and 12-year age groups. A total of 14 key life domains were investigated on their influence to the global life satisfaction. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used and an importance performance map analysis was conducted. Results A total of 23,732 respondents in wave 2 (49% from 10-year-old group) and 22,265 respondents in wave 3 (50% from 10-year-old group) were studied. On average, possessions and safety are the top two most important domains within the second wave for 10-year-olds. When split based on country-income groups however, health comes out on top for low-to-middle income countries followed by possessions, with safety domain ranking much lower at seventh. For the 12-year-old group, possessions and safety rank highest on average irrespective of the country’s level of income. While areas of priority varied across countries, future came out as one of the most important areas adolescents considered needing improvement across age groups and over time. Conclusion Findings from this study revealed substantial heterogeneity across nations and provide important information for prioritising policy implementation to improve subjective wellbeing among early adolescents.