The subjective wellbeing of middle and secondary schoolchildren in Malta

Abstract

Adolescence is characterised by rapid development (see Löfstedt et al., 2020). The experiences, competences and beliefs formed during adolescence impact people’s adolescence, their adulthood, and the next generations (Patton et al., 2016). Subjective wellbeing is necessary for adolescents’ positive development, health, goal achievement and improved prospects (Patton et al., 2016; Tikkanen, 2016). Differences in adolescent wellbeing persist both between and within countries (Cavallo et al., 2015; Patton et al., 2016). Understanding Malta’s situation is important to be able to better support and enhance services for adolescents. This paper presents 3456 Year 7, Year 9, and Year 11 students’ beliefs about their own life satisfaction, self‐esteem, resilience and hope and worry for the future. The research explores the correlations among these variables and draws comparisons between genders and school years. Regression models were developed to facilitate interpretation of the results. Findings show that Maltese adolescents generally have positive scores for life satisfaction, resilience and hope but show signs of some challenges with self‐esteem and particularly with concerns for the future. When analysing the data, notable differences in subjective well‐being between different age groups and genders were also observed.