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Is personal growth initiative associated with later life satisfaction in Chinese college students? A 15‐week prospective analysis
Author(s) -
Chang Edward C.,
Yang Hongfei,
Yi Shangwen,
Xie Fei,
Liu Jiting,
Ren Haining,
Zhang Jiaqi,
Zhang Zhuoran,
Wu Runzhe,
Lin Yijing,
Li Mingqi,
Wu Kaidi,
Ip Ka,
Lucas Abigael G.,
Chang Olivia D.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
asian journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.5
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-839X
pISSN - 1367-2223
DOI - 10.1111/ajsp.12386
Subject(s) - life satisfaction , psychology , variance (accounting) , analysis of variance , clinical psychology , baseline (sea) , social psychology , developmental psychology , medicine , oceanography , accounting , business , geology
Personal growth initiative (PGI) is presumed to foster positive change leading to positive psychological adjustment. Accordingly, in this study we examined PGI as a predictor of life satisfaction 15 weeks later in a sample of 152 Chinese college students. Time 1 PGI was found to explain a significant amount of unique variance in Time 2 life satisfaction, even after controlling for Time 1 life satisfaction and Time 2 PGI. Specifically, (lower) intentional behavior and planfulness at baseline emerged as significant predictors of later life satisfaction. No evidence was found indicating that life satisfaction at Time 1 accounted for any significant amount of unique variance in PGI processes at Time 2, after controlling for baseline PGI processes and concurrent life satisfaction. Overall, the present findings are the first to demonstrate the importance of PGI as a prospective predictor of positive psychological adjustment in adults.