Impact of Positive and Negative Life Events on SubjectiveWell-being and Self-esteem of EarlyAdolescents

Overview

Population studies in children oriented on relations between the life events and health are limited by the availablemeasures. Development of the Life Events Inventory (LEI) was recognised as an important part of the internationalcomparative intervention project „Promoting Mental and Emotional Health in the ENHPS“ realised in Slovakia.This study presents the investigation of relation between life events (positive and negative) and mental health(subjective well-being and self-esteem) in early adolescents.519 early adolescents from6th grades inKosice (mean age 11.5 years) participated in the project. The assessmentwas carried out in September 1999 by means of the following self-reported measures: the Life Events Inventory(LEI), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the Rosenberg's Self-esteem Scale (SeS).Less than 8 positive events were reported by 36.1% of children and 36.9% reported 5 or more negative events,which happened during the last year in their life. The subjective well-being of children with less than 8 positiveevents was worse and their self-esteem was lower in comparison to children with 8 ormore positive events reported.Also the children with 5 or more negative events had worse subjective well-being and lower self-esteem thanchildren with less than 5 negative events reported. The worst subjective well-being and the lowest self-esteem hadchildren (13.6%) with less than 8 positive and along with 5 or more negative events reported. All these differenceswere significant (p < 0.001).

Key words:
early adolescence, self-esteem, subjective well-being, life events