Adolescent well-being: associations with gender and age.

KLOS, MARÍA CAROLINA; BALABANIAN, CINTHIA; LEMOS, VIVIANA

Virtual

Conferencia; 32º International Congress of Psychology (ICP); 2021

Introduction.The perspective of positive youth development focuses its vision on the strengths of adolescents and highlights the multiple changes experienced at this stage (physical, physiological, cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social and institutional) that represent a period in the experimentally plastic development and the potential for positive functioning. It is important to know more precisely about the experience of psychological well-being of adolescents, and how it may differ according to gender or age ranges.Objetive. The objective that guided the study was to know if there are differences in the psychological well-being of Argentine adolescents according to gender and different age ranges.Methology. The study sample consisted of 510 Argentine adolescents aged 13 to 21 years (M = 15.71; SD = 1.70). The Ryff Psychological Well-being Scales adapted to the Argentine population were administered (Ryff, 1989b; Díaz et al., 2006; Meier & Oros, 2018). Multivariate analysis of variance were performed.Result. The results indicated the existence of statistically significant differences in psychological well-being according to sex (Hotelling's F (4; 501) = 5.73; p = .000). The male adolescents had significantly higher scores than women in total psychological well-being (F (1; 504) = 12.20; p = .001) and the dimensions of self-acceptance (F (1; 504) = 7.03; p = .008), positive relationships (F (1; 504) = 17.99; p = .000) and autonomy (F (1; 504) = 4.41; p = .036). On the other hand,no statistically significant differences were found in psychological well-being according to age (Hotelling's F (8; 501) = .56; p = .806).Conclusion. The results linked to gender coincide with several studies carried out in other countries that maintain that male adolescents have higher levels than women in psychological well-being (Booker et al., 2018; Meade & Dowswell, 2016; Inchley et al., 2016; Patalay & Fitzsimons, 2018), may possibly be related to social comparisons and the low self-acceptance that prevail in women. Deepening knowledge about psychological well-being in adolescents in Argentina provides key notions for the design of precise intervention strategies aimed at this population.