Alternative theories of happiness in early adolescents.

The purpose of this study was to examine a set of variables representing enabling mechanisms vis-à-vis a set of variables representing personality characteristics in relation to happiness in early adolescents: these two theoretical perspectives were assessed using hierarchical analyses of sets that determined which of the two has greater explanatory power in relation to happiness. The final sample consisted of 127 early adolescents, ages 12 to 14, who responded to instruments measuring happiness, self-esteem, future time perspective, optimism, vigor, change, and social support in classrooms. Using hierarchical analyses of sets, the results indicated that the enabling mechanisms set explained more variance in happiness when entered first (65%) or second (22%) than did the personality characteristics set when entered first (50%) or second (7%) in the analyses. Implicationsfor nursing are addressed.