TITLE:
Life Satisfaction, and Anxiety Levels among University Students
AUTHORS:
George Tsitsas, Panagiotis Nanopoulos, Antonia Paschali
KEYWORDS:
University Students, Life Satisfaction, Stress, Assertiveness, Empathy
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.10 No.5,
May
21,
2019
ABSTRACT: University or College years seem to be a stressful time for students due to many challenges: academic, personal adjustment to a new life,andsocially building new friendships. Life satisfaction is considered one of the basic components of psychological well-being.Studies have supported that lower levels of life satisfaction have been related to high levels of anxiety. Also the constructs of assertiveness and empathy seem to be related with life satisfaction. The present study compares 1stand4th-year undergraduate students in relation to variables such as life satisfaction (The Life Satisfaction Index), stress, (STAI) assertiveness (Rathus Assertiveness Schedule) and empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)). The participants were in total 410, 1styear (N = 205) and 4thyear (N = 205) undergraduate students. All findings are discussed in detail;some main results showed that: 1) Independently of sex students had similar anxiety levels;life satisfaction was significantly higher among those with low state anxiety but not with low trait anxiety;2) Trait anxiety score analysis revealed nonsignificant results;3) Young women are more life satisfied compared to young men among 1styear students;4) The percent of students with high life satisfaction is significantly higher among those that grew up in urban and semi-urban regions compared to those that grew up in other regions. The findings of the present study emphasize the need to explore ways to help undergraduate students to adjust during their academic years and life at the University.