engleski

Flourishing and life events: what experiences antecede our personal growth

The aim of the study was to explore the differences in the occurrence and evaluations of life events that antecede extreme alterations in flourishing in one-year time. Study was conducted as a part of the Croatian longitudinal well-being study funded by Croatian Science Foundation. Studied variables were flourishing assessed at two time points (1-year interval) as a measure of wellbeing, life events experienced between the two time points, evaluations of positivity and negativity of experienced events and demographic variables. Out of total N=2465 who completed both initial survey (2016=T1) and the 1st follow up (2017=T2) we selected two extreme groups of participants with biggest change in flourishing from T1 to T2. Group 1 consisted of 5.6% of participants with biggest drop in flourishing (N= 138, flourishing change: M=-13.79, SD=4.39), while Group 2 consisted of 5% of participants with biggest improvement in flourishing (N= 123, flourishing change: M=12.76, SD=4.15). At time 1, Group 1 showed significantly higher levels of flourishing compared to Group 2 (∆M= 12.13, t(246)= 13.74, p=.00). At T2 Group 2 showed higher results at flourishing compared to group 1 (∆M= -14.83, t(246)=-16.78, p=.00). In both groups majority of participants were women, with at least high school diploma, half of them where married. Participants in Group 1 more often had kids (χ²(2)=10.3, p=.00) and were on average 5.6 years older (t(246)=3.5, p=.00). Regarding experienced life events, Group 1 experienced on average 6.67 of all events, compared to Group 2 with 8.54 events on average. If top 10 events are taken into consideration, group 1 experienced six positive events, two negative events and two ambivalent. Group 2 experienced eight positive events and two ambivalent. Additionally, two groups did not differ in average positivity of experienced events (F(1)=0.45, p>.05) or average negativity (F(1)=0.34, p>.05), but group 1 rated positive events more negative (F(1)=7.11, p<.05) compared to group 2. Results are discussed in the framework of broaden-and-build theory.

flourishing ; life events ; personal growth ; well-being

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