Daily Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being in Adolescence: The Role of Self- and Other-Oriented Self-Efficacy

Adolescence is marked by emotional instability and reduced well-being (López-Pérez & Zuffianò, 2021). Well-being includes Hedonic (HWB; life satisfaction and happiness) and Eudaimonic components (EWB; life-meaning, and social connections; Deci & Ryan, 2008). Both benefit from other-oriented competencies (Caprara & Steca, 2006), like Empathic and Social Self-Efficacy (PESE; PESSE), reflecting beliefs about understanding others’ emotions and engaging in social interactions (Di Giunta et al., 2010). Well-being may also depend on self-oriented regulatory strategies, such as Self-Efficacy in Regulating Negative Emotions (SRN; Caprara et al., 2008). While other-oriented self-efficacy benefits well-being, self-oriented regulation serves to preserve emotional stability; it remains unclear how they influence daily experiences. We assessed whether HWB and EWB are predicted by PESE, PESSE, or SRN, or their interaction, in a sample of 77 adolescents (14-16yrs; 72.6% Male) who completed a 28-day daily diary. To this end, we used Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling (DSEM). Results showed autoregressive effects of HWB and EWB and tested baseline PESE, PESSE, SRN, and their interaction as between-level predictors. SRN positively predicted HWB (b=.30, p<.001), whereas day-to-day persistence of HWB was stronger for adolescents with lower PESE (b=1.02, p<.001) and weaker for those with higher PESE (b=.83, p<.001). These findings highlight the protective role of SRN in sustaining adolescents' HWB by reducing the duration or intensity of negative affect, and the role of PESE in heightening the sensitivity to other emotions, increasing adolescents' fluctuations in HWB. In contrast, EWB was not explained by these predictors, suggesting it may be driven by other factors.