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The Subjective Wellbeing of Indigenous Australian Adolescents: Validating the Personal Wellbeing Index-School Children

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Abstract

By almost all measures of objective life quality, Indigenous Australians are disadvantaged relative to the general population. However, no measures of their Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) have been published. This paper presents the first such data, norm-referenced to the general Australian population. A total of 519 Indigenous adolescents, aged between 12 and 19 years, were administered the Personal Wellbeing Index-School Children, which measures SWB. This scale is a parallel form of the Personal Wellbeing-Adult. The PWI-SC exhibited adequate psychometric properties. Moreover, consistent with SWB Homeostasis theory, participants’ mean SWB was within the Australian adult normative range. However, female SWB was lower than males. These results suggest that Indigenous adolescents are resilient.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to knowledge the Australian Federal Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) who funded this research and data collection as part of the Youth Connections program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health Sciences, Discipline of Psychology, RMIT University, Bundoora, Australia

    Adrian J. Tomyn & Jacolyn M. Norrish

  2. School of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

    Robert A. Cummins

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  1. Adrian J. Tomyn
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  2. Jacolyn M. Norrish
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  3. Robert A. Cummins
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Correspondence to Adrian J. Tomyn.

Appendix

Appendix

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Table 5 Wording of PWI-A and PWI-SC
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Tomyn, A.J., Norrish, J.M. & Cummins, R.A. The Subjective Wellbeing of Indigenous Australian Adolescents: Validating the Personal Wellbeing Index-School Children. Soc Indic Res 110, 1013–1031 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-011-9970-y

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