Accounting for the gender gap in adolescents’ life satisfaction: evidence from nationally representative samples of school attendees in Luxembourg

ABSTRACT

Research on gender differences in adolescents’ life satisfaction has reported inconsistent findings to date. The present study aimed to (a) ascertain whether a gender gap in life satisfaction exists in Luxembourg, (b) estimate the predictive power of gender when controlling for well-identified predictors of life satisfaction, and (c) assess potential gender differences in our predictors’ influence on life satisfaction. We used data from 2006 to 2022 pertaining to nationally representative samples of school attendees in Luxembourg (n = 46,937) to achieve our first research goal. We relied on data collected in 2022 (n = 9,432) to achieve our two other research goals. We found boys to consistently report higher life satisfaction than girls over time. However, gender did not predict life satisfaction when controlling for our other predictors. Moreover, the influence of most of the examined factors on life satisfaction did not vary with gender.

KEYWORDS:

• Life satisfaction
• gender gap
• adolescents
• Cantril’s ladder
• HBSC

Disclosure statement

The authors reported no potential conflict of interest.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2023.2283563

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Romain Brisson

Romain Brisson obtained his Ph.D. in social science at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He is currently working as a postdoc researcher at the University of Luxembourg.

Felipe G. Mendes

Felipe G. Mendes obtained his Ph.D. in physical education at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. He is currently working as a postdoc researcher at the University of Luxembourg.

Carolina Catunda

Carolina Catunda obtained her Ph.D. in psychology at both the University of Brasilia, Brazil, and the University of Lorraine, France. She is currently working at the University of Luxembourg as principal investigator of the HBSC study in Luxembourg.