The Relationship Between School Satisfaction and Psychological Well-Being of Secondary School Students: The Mediating Role of Happiness at School

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the mediating role of happiness at school in the relationship between secondary school students' school satisfaction and psychological well-being. A total of 367 secondary school students, including 204 girls (55.6%) and 163 boys (44.4%), participated in the study. While collecting the data for the study, Personal Information Form, Overall School Satisfaction Scale for Children (OSSS-C), Stirling Children’s Well-Being Scale (SCWBS), and School Children's Happiness Inventory (SCHI) were used. First, descriptive statistics of the collected data were calculated and the relationships between the variables were determined by the correlation coefficient. Mediation analysis in the research was made using structural equation modeling. As a result of the analysis, it was seen that the school satisfaction of secondary school students positively predicted both their psychological well-being and their happiness at school. Similarly, secondary school students' happiness at school positively predicted their psychological well-being. In addition, as a result of the structural equation analysis, it was seen that happiness at school has a partial mediator role in the relationship between school satisfaction and the psychological well-being of secondary school students. Bootstrap confidence intervals (%95) were calculated to see if the mediation effect was significant, and it was determined that the results did not include zero and therefore the mediation result was significant. This result can be interpreted as secondary school students' school satisfaction increases their happiness levels at school, and their psychological well-being increases with the increase in their happiness at school. All these results reached in the research draw attention to how important school-based experiences are for the mental health of school-age children.