Predictors of Family, School and Neighbourhood Domain on Life Satisfaction in Chilean Adolescents

Abstract

Adolescents live in constant interaction with their family, school and neighbourhood domains, affecting them and being affected by them, playing an active role in their subjective well-being. The aim of the study was to determine the influence of family, school and neighbourhood domains on the life satisfaction of Chilean adolescents. The sample consisted of 1392 adolescents who participated in the International Survey on Children's Well-Being (ISCWeB) in Chile. The results showed that a structural equation model configured with five dimensions referring to family, school and neighbourhood jointly contributed to explain 41% of the variance in students' life satisfaction. When adding the variables gender, age and school vulnerability index to the model, no influence on life satisfaction was observed. An unexpected finding, contradictory to other studies, was that satisfaction with school had no influence on this model. The implications of the study are that the results can serve as a diagnostic for proposing subjective well-being interventions based on strengthening students' family, school or neighbourhood domains.