Orientations to Happiness and Subjective Well-Being in Chinese Adolescents

The present study investigated Chinese adolescents’ use of orientations to happiness (i.e., meaning and pleasure), and examined the relationships between orientations to happiness and subjective well-being. A total of 2082 Chinese adolescents in 7^th, 8^th, 10^th, and 11^th grades (43 % boys; M_age = 15.32, SD = 1.96) participated in the study. The results showed that Chinese adolescents used pleasure and meaning to a similar extent, and no gender differences were found in either orientation. Adolescents’ use of both orientations increased from 7^th to 8^th grade and did not change from 8^th to 11^th grade. Both orientations to happiness contributed to adolescents’ subjective well-being, but meaning was a stronger contributor than pleasure. Adolescents with a full life (using both orientations) enjoyed the greatest subjective well-being; adolescents with a meaningful life (using only the meaning orientation) enjoyed the second highest level of subjective well-being; adolescents with a pleasurable life (using only the pleasure orientation) reported the third highest level of subjective well-being; adolescents with an empty life (using neither meaning nor pleasure) reported the lowest well-being. Additionally, we revealed the distribution of the four life types in Chinese adolescents. The proportion of empty life in Chinese adolescents was larger than that in adults.