Longitudinal Examination of Personal Well-Being: Validating Newly Developed Concepts

Abstract

Progress in education has, over the past decades, involved the study of personal well-being experiences at school. What is personal well-being? This theoretical construct is relatively complex in terms of its compositions, consisting of different academic and nonacademic components and attnbutes (e.g., the importance of choice). Inquiries into the operational nature of personal well-being are warranted, given that empirical findings may provide fruitful information for educational consideration. Drawing on from previous theoretical tenets (Fraillon, 2004; Soutter, 2011), we recently developed a theoretical framework of personal well-being (Prum, In press-2015), which consists of a number of components that reflect cognition, motivational patterns, interpersonal skills 1997), we focused on an examination of the interrelations between 'acadamic striving, effective functioning, personal resolve', and 'school experience' of secondary school students (N=352). Across two time points of data collection, using longitudinal structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques, we explored the central role of self-efficacy (e.g., Time 1 self-efficacy - Time 1 effective functioning). Results obtained indicated a one-factor congeneric model, whereby measured indicators loaded onto their respective latent factors. After controlling for Time 1 variance of the corresponding outcomes, we note that academic self-efficacy still sustained and contributed to the prediction of effective functioning and school experience. This evidence, collectively, indicates some practical merits and empirical support for further research development.