The Role of Basic Beliefs and Life-Management Strategies in Students' Subjective Well-Being

This research aimed to investigate the relationship of basic beliefs and life-management strategies with subjective well-being. 467 university students (255 boys and 212 girls), selected through multistage cluster sampling, filled Basic Beliefs Inventory, Life-management Strategies Questionnaire, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and Positive and Negative Affects Scales. Results showed that belief in meaningful world, belief in favorable self, and life management strategies related positively and significantly to subjective well-being. Belief in meaningful world (β=0.43), strategy of optimization (β=0.13), and belief in favorable self accounted (β=0.12) for 32 percent of subjective well-being’s variance. Selection and compensation strategies could not contribute significantly to predict subjective well-being. In short, these results, in line with CEST and SOC, indicate that favorable beliefs about self and world and use of life management strategies are associated to higher levels of satisfaction with life and positive affect.