Does Infant Happiness Forecast Adult Life Satisfaction? Examining Subjective Well-Being in the First Quarter Century of Life

• Published in: Journal of happiness studies Vol. 16; no. 6; pp. 1401 - 1421
• Main Authors: Coffey, John K., Warren, Michael T., Gottfried, Allen W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.12.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescents; Adults; Babies; Behavior; Child development; Children; Developmental psychology; Economics; Emotions; Happiness; Interpersonal relationship satisfaction; Investigations; Life satisfaction; Longitudinal studies; Optimism; Parent-child relations; Personality and Social Psychology; Philosophy; Physiology; Positive Psychology; Quality of Life Research; Research Paper; Social Sciences; Well being; Workplaces; New York; United States > US; Happiness; Development; Positive affect; Hope; Negative affect; Life satisfaction; Optimism
• ISSN: 1389-4978; 1573-7780
• DOI: 10.1007/s10902-014-9556-x

Few empirical studies have focused on young children’s happiness (high positive affect and low negative affect) and specifically whether it is related to adult well-being. Adult well-being indices (e.g., life satisfaction, workplace hope, and optimism) may have developmental roots in early affect. In the 28-year Fullerton Longitudinal Study ( N  = 129) we examined positive affect and negative affect as independent constructs during infancy (parent report) and adolescence (self-report) to determine their relationship to global adult life satisfaction (self-report). In addition, we tested the generalizability of the effects of positive and negative affect in relation to domain-specific adult well-being constructs (i.e., workplace hope and optimism), which hold utility for concurrent and prospective well-being. Structural equation modeling revealed that positive affect during infancy and adolescence each uniquely predicted adult life satisfaction. In a separate model for a subsample of employed adults, infant positive affect showed significant positive associations with workplace hope and optimism. Neither infant nor adolescent negative affect predicted any adult well-being outcomes. Our results highlight the need for more developmental studies examining the relationship between children’s positive and negative affect and long-term well-being.