Profiles of School-Related Well-Being and Their Links to Self-Esteem and Academic Achievement

Abstract

Abstract. School represents an essential developmental context for adolescents. Accordingly, understanding well-being in school is of utmost importance. While it has long been common to measure well-being on a general level, more recent conceptualizations emphasize its multidimensionality and context-specificity. Therefore, the present study took a person-oriented approach and investigated how profiles of adolescents’ school-related well-being differ regarding two relevant goals of schooling: academic achievement and self-esteem. School-related well-being was assessed along five dimensions: engagement, perseverance, optimism, connectedness, and happiness among Austrian students ( N = 1,484). By applying latent profile analyses, we obtained four profiles that differed primarily regarding their total school-related well-being scores and the expression of connectedness. Generally, groups with a higher total score displayed higher academic achievement and self-esteem. However, there are also exceptions standing out from that pattern. Different constellations are discussed, aiming to contribute to further differentiating research on well-being in the school-context.