Academic Achievement and Subjective Well-being: A Representative Cross-sectional Study

Formal education is a very important, time-intensive, and highly consequential aspect of adolescents’ everyday life. School as well as education can influence adolescents’ well-being in both the short- and long-term. In return, adolescents’ well-being in- and outside school may affect their educational achievement. The objective of the present study is to investigate how self-reported dimensions of adolescents’ subjective well-being (SWB) in an educational context (i.e., academic self-concept, school anxiety, social and emotional inclusion) relate to educational pathways (regular vs. irregular school transitions; attendance of more vs. less prestigious secondary school tracks) and standardized assessment scores in key academic areas (i.e., mathematics and languages). Drawing on representative data emerging from the Luxembourg School Monitoring Programme “Épreuves Standardisées” (academic year 2018/2019), the relationship between academic achievement and students’ self-reported well-being was analysed cross-sectionally for the entire student cohorts of 5th and 9th graders. Result indicated that grades and educational pathways affect SWB, whereby in general lower ratings of SWB were observed in older students, students that experienced grade retention and students in lower secondary school tracks. Furthermore, ratings of SWB explained a significant proportion of variance in academic achievement in bot Grade 5 and Grade 9. These findings highlight the importance of student´ SWB in education. SWB may not only affect academic achievement, but also impact motivation and engagement and hence long-term educational success. Implications of the findings for research and educational debate are discussed.