Are You Happy Now? Agreement of Self-, Father-, and Mother-Reports on Judgments of Life Satisfaction of Filipino College Students

Abstract

How satisfied are Filipino college students with their lives and do their respective fathers and mothers accurately gauge this? In an empirical demonstration of self-other agreement in a family context, we investigated self-reports of global life satisfaction vis-a-vis father - and mother-judgments in a sample of N= 68 student-mother-father triads using Diener et al’s (1985) Satisfaction With Life Scale validated using Sycip et al. (2000) measure of Filipino well -being. Results showed moderate convergence for self vs mother-reports, with a general overestimation bias for both fathers and mothers. Multiple regression analysis suggested that mother-reports, compared to father -reports, appeared to be better predictors of adolescent children's self-reported levels of life satisfaction, Students with mothers and fat hers who made less discrepant judgments also tended to have higher self-reported life satisfaction. Results are discussed using the Realistic Accuracy Model (RAM) of personality judgment (Funder, 1995) as well as findings in family psychology.