Existential Factors of Subjective Well-Being Among Student’s Youth

Abstract

The article examines different approaches to the study of subjective well-being, with a focus on existential aspects, namely the role of existential content for the emotional and cognitive components of subjective well-being. The empirical study was performed on a sample of student youth. 64 students of Kharkiv National University by V.N. Karazin, aged 17 to 23 years old took part in our research. Tests that were used in this research: the test of existential motivations of A. Lengle and P. Edhard, the scale of subjective well-being Perrudel-Badoux, Mendelsohn, the scale of life satisfaction E. Diener. The nature of the correlations between the four existential motivations and existential fulfillment with the level of subjective well-being and life satisfaction is established, as well as the coefficients of regression of existential motivations at the level of subjective well-being and life satisfaction. In general, existential fulfilment is a precondition for ensuring a high level of subjective well-being and life satisfaction. Existential fullness has been shown to have a greater effect on the emotional component of subjective well-being than on cognitive satisfaction with life, with a tendency for fundamental motivations to affect different components of subjective well-being. The nature of the connections between the four existential motivations and existential fullness in general with the indicators of subjective well-being and life satisfaction has been established. There have been constructed regression models that describe the importance of fundamental motivations for subjective well-being and life satisfaction in the studied age group. It is determined that existential motivations, which reflect the fundamental trust in the world and the formed image of a meaningful future, have a significant influence on the formation of subjective well-being and life satisfaction in student’s youth.