ABSTRACT
In recent years, theories of human development have increasingly focused on interactions among individual development, social conditions, and historical contexts (Baltes, 1986; Flammer, 1996; Goulet & Baltes, 1970; Lerner, 1982). This is of special importance in adolescence because during this life period, young people are facing decisive choices regarding their identities and futures, and their emerging developmental pathways are closely tied with the historical, social, and economic conditions of their lives. An important question concerns the factors that can support or impede the transition of young men and women into adulthood. For example, what is the role that subjective well-being plays in successfully managing the life tasks facing adolescents? How much does subjective well-being depend on living conditions and personality characteristics of an individual? These and similar questions have been barely studied in recent research. This study addresses the specific question of how well adolescents feel in different sociocultural context, and whether antecedents of their subjective wellbeing are the same across these contexts.
