Background

In recent decades, more researchers have recognized the importance of subjective well-being and put forth more effort into identifying factors that promote subjective well-being (Suldo & Shaffer, 2008). Life satisfaction is one core indicator of subjective well-being, which is defined as an individual’s subjective, cognitive evaluation of their life that is based on their own personal standards of a good life (Diener, 1984). Stress has been consistently found to predict lower life satisfaction (Holinka, 2015), but less is known about what protects life satisfaction from the adverse effects of stress.

Aims

The current study examined if one new positive psychological strength factor, personal growth initiative, functions as a buffer protect to emerging adults’ life satisfaction in the context of university stress. Personal growth initiative (PGI) is defined as the cognition and behaviors initiated by individuals to purposefully better one’s skills needed for self-improvement (Robitschek et al., 2012). University stressors include academic, interpersonal relationship, practical, equity, and health stressors.

Method

Data via online self-reports were collected from 353 undergraduate students (age range 18-23, 73.9% female) at a public university in the United States. 

Results

Results showed that PGI significantly moderated the relation between practical stressors and life satisfaction. Specifically, the negative effect of practical stressors on life satisfaction decreased as PGI levels increased. The interaction was not significant in models with other types of stressors (i.e., academic, relationship, equity, and health), but the main effect of PGI was significant in three of the four remaining models.  Overall, results supported the positive association between PGI and college students’ life satisfaction and highlighted the protective function of PGI in the context of practical stressors faced by emerging adults. 

Conclusion

The findings suggested that higher education institutions should pay attention to the saliency of PGI in college students’ coping process with practical stressors and offer support that targets PGI to protect their well-being. Implications and future research directions will be discussed.