Il benessere soggettivo in bambini tra gli 8 e gli 11 anni. L'impatto dell'intelligenza, della regolazione e dell'esperienza emotiva sulla soddisfazione di vita. The subjective well-being in children aged 8-11. Impact of intelligence, emotional experience and regulation on life satisfaction

This research was carried out within the theoretical and applied framework of Positive Psychology, which over the past ten years has highlighted the need to promote wellbeing through recognition of the potential and resources of the individual (Seligman, Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). The concept of wellbeing encompasses both “objective” aspects (e.g. state of health, socio-economic status, quality of living environment etc.) and “subjective” aspects relating to one’s self-perception of wellbeing (Diener, Oishi, Lucas, 2003). Within the field of Positive Psychology, subjective wellbeing has been studied from two different perspectives: the hedonic view, which holds the construct of wellbeing to be mainly related to emotions and life satisfaction (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999) and the eudaimonic view which attributes subjective wellbeing to the self-fulfillment (Ryff, 1989) and purposeful engagement (Delle Fave, 2007). Within the hedonic perspective, wellbeing has often been linked to positive emotions, especially happiness, while less attention has been devoted to life satisfaction. Furthermore, most of the research on wellbeing has been carried out with adults and adolescents rather than with children (Huebner, Laughlin, Ash et al., 1998). Given this background, the present study examined subjective wellbeing in 132 Italian children between the ages of 8 and 11, recruited on the basis of information supplied by their parents with regard to their psychological and physical health, in order to ensure that none of the participants displayed atypical development. The data were collected in two primary schools in Como (Northern Italy). The first aim of the research was to investigate the meaning children attribute to the term “wellbeing”. To this end, content analysis was carried out on the answers to two open questions (What makes you feel good? Why?) using T-lab software (version PRO 4.1.1; Lancia, 2004). Analysis of word associations showed that wellbeing was associated with family, school, friendships, sport, the emotion of happiness, enjoyment, company, relaxation, letting off steam and feeling loved and protected. Analysis of specific typical associations revealed that females were more likely to describe wellbeing in socio-emotional terms (typical word: love/feeling safe) and males in terms of play (typical word: play). The second research objective was to investigate whether certain individual factors predicted level of life satisfaction. Thus, the impact of emotional factors, namely intensity of positive/negative emotions and regulation of positive/negative emotions, and cognitive factor, specifically non-verbal intelligence, on life satisfaction (both total and linked to specific contexts such as self, family, friends, school and living environment) was examined. Participants completed the following self-report instruments: for life satisfaction, the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner, 1994); for intensity of emotions, Panas-c (Laurent, Catanzaro, Joiner et al., 1999); for emotion regulation, How I feel (Walden, Harris, Catron, 2003; in the Italian version by Antoniotti, Grazzani, Ciucci, 2008). As a measure of non-verbal intelligence, participants completed Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices (Raven, 1984). Multiple regression analyses were carried out, with intensity of positive/negative emotions, regulation of positive/negative emotions and non-verbal intelligence as predictors of life satisfaction (both total and linked to the specific contexts). Gender (male/female) was also included in the analysis as a predictor, given the differences between boys and girls which had emerged from the descriptive analysis. The overall results showed that positive emotions predict life satisfaction, while capacity to regulate emotions and non-verbal intelligence do not. Analyzing males and females separately, it was found that in boys positive emotions predicted satisfaction with self, while in girls total life satisfaction is predicted both by intensity of positive emotions and by lower intensity of negative emotions. Positive emotions also predict girls’ satisfaction with self, family and friends. In addition, for females regulation of positive emotions predicts satisfaction with family. The third aim was to investigate whether there were differences in life satisfaction between the children who obtained the “High”-est scores on non-verbal intelligence, intensity of positive/negative emotions and regulation of positive/negative emotions compared to those who obtained the “Low”-est scores. The T-tests were applied to a selection of the 20 children (10 boys and 10 girls) with the highest scores and the 20 children (10 boys and 10 girls) with the lowest scores. The results show that it is emotion intensity which predicts differences in life satisfaction. Specifically, “High” scores for positive emotion intensity predict greater life satisfaction: in males with regard to self and in females with regard to total satisfaction, self and the category “friends/school/environment”. Conversely, “High” scores for intensity of negative emotion determine lower life satisfaction: in males with regard to family and in females with regard to total satisfaction and the category “friends/school/environment”. In summary, the study shows that it is principally intensity of emotions, especially positive emotions, which is related to greater life satisfaction; it also points up the importance of gender differences in subjective wellbeing. It would be interesting in the future to investigate subjective wellbeing in children displaying atypical development, in particular those affected by disabilities, who have the right to a satisfactory level of wellbeing but are disadvantaged in terms of opportunity to attain it.