Abstract
Despite the salient impacts of daily experiences, scarce research has measured various daily minor experiences and evaluated their influences on adolescent well-being in their daily life. This study assessed the exposure to multiple aspects of daily hassles and uplifts in adolescents’ daily lives, and examined the links between the level, types, and diversity of these exposures and adolescents’ daily physical and mental well-being. Ninety-nine adolescents (12–17 years old, M = 14.6, 51.5% White, 53.5% female) completed a 30-day daily diary study. Multilevel modeling revealed different associations between the level and types of daily hassles and uplifts and adolescent well-being on the same day. Experiencing diverse daily hassles was linked with more emotional problems, and experiencing diverse daily uplifts was related with lower negative affect. The findings underscore the importance of including level, types, and diversity of both daily hassles and uplifts in research to better characterize adolescents’ daily experiences. The findings also highlight the concurrent and potential cumulative effects of daily minor social events and mundane experiences in adolescent development in their daily lives.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge all the participants, Elk Island and St. Albert public schools, and our research assistants.
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HZ contributed to the study design, conducted the statistical analysis, interpreted the findings, and drafted the manuscript; EC contributed to the design of the study, statistical analysis, and interpretation of the findings, and made critical revisions to the manuscript; KL contributed to the statistical analysis and interpretation of the findings; YZ designed the study, contributed to the interpretation of the findings, and made critical revisions to the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This research was supported partly with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (IDG 430-2018-00317 and 409-2020-00080) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (RGPIN-2020-04458 and DGECR-2020-00077) of Canada, as well as a Mitacs Accelerate grant (IT18227) awarded to Dr. Yao Zheng.
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Appendices
Appendix A
Intraclass correlations and frequencies of the daily hassles scale items
Frequency (%) without Missing | |||
|---|---|---|---|
ICC | No | Yes | |
A. Health | |||
Had your sleep disturbed | 0.61 | 0.76 | 0.25 |
Not getting enough rest | 0.65 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
B. Social Activity | |||
Was lonely | 0.70 | 0.76 | 0.24 |
Had too many social obligations | 0.62 | 0.91 | 0.09 |
Was misunderstood | 0.64 | 0.81 | 0.19 |
Had difficulty with friends | 0.70 | 0.83 | 0.17 |
Not enough time for hobbies/ entertainment/recreation | 0.70 | 0.76 | 0.24 |
C. Practical Consideration | |||
Too many things to do | 0.67 | 0.69 | 0.31 |
Wasted time | 0.70 | 0.60 | 0.40 |
Forgot something | 0.57 | 0.79 | 0.21 |
Was unorganized | 0.68 | 0.77 | 0.23 |
Had trouble making decisions | 0.68 | 0.79 | 0.21 |
Did something you did not want to do | 0.59 | 0.89 | 0.11 |
D. Study | |||
Hurried to meet a deadline | 0.68 | 0.78 | 0.22 |
Performed poorly at a task | 0.64 | 0.81 | 0.19 |
Interrupted during task/ activity | 0.64 | 0.78 | 0.22 |
Removed items | |||
Worried about your physical appearance | 0.86 | 0.65 | 0.35 |
Had emotional worries | 0.66 | 0.65 | 0.35 |
Heard some bad news | 0.57 | 0.87 | 0.13 |
Appendix B
Intraclass correlations and frequencies of the daily uplifts scale items
Frequency (%) without Missing | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
ICC | Not Applicable | No | Yes | |
A. Health | ||||
Felt healthy | 0.68 | 0.04 | 0.25 | 0.71 |
Stayed or worked in good physical shape | 0.75 | 0.05 | 0.28 | 0.67 |
Ate well | 0.61 | 0.02 | 0.17 | 0.81 |
B. Social Activity | ||||
Was accepted | 0.69 | 0.09 | 0.08 | 0.83 |
Spent time with friends in person | 0.64 | 0.05 | 0.25 | 0.70 |
Expressed yourself well | 0.76 | 0.04 | 0.22 | 0.75 |
Socialized | 0.61 | 0.02 | 0.13 | 0.85 |
Did leisure activity (e.g., hobbies) | 0.68 | 0.02 | 0.13 | 0.85 |
Met new people | 0.70 | 0.06 | 0.47 | 0.46 |
Talked or shared feelings with friends through internet, phone, texts, etc | 0.78 | 0.05 | 0.21 | 0.74 |
C. Practical Consideration | ||||
Laughed | 0.65 | 0.01 | 0.07 | 0.92 |
Developed a new skill | 0.59 | 0.12 | 0.51 | 0.38 |
Was efficient | 0.65 | 0.05 | 0.24 | 0.72 |
D. Study | ||||
Completed a new task | 0.63 | 0.03 | 0.26 | 0.71 |
Understood classes or homework/ studying | 0.78 | 0.21 | 0.12 | 0.67 |
Removed items | ||||
Had recreation or entertainment | 0.66 | 0.02 | 0.07 | 0.91 |
Did things or spent time with my family members | 0.68 | 0.02 | 0.15 | 0.83 |
Spent time with pets | 0.76 | 0.34 | 0.09 | 0.58 |
Was rested/relaxed | 0.65 | 0.01 | 0.19 | 0.80 |
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Zheng, H., Cooke, E.M., Li, K. et al. Capturing Hassles and Uplifts in Adolescents’ Daily Lives: Links with Physical and Mental Well-Being. J Youth Adolescence 52, 177–194 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-022-01682-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-022-01682-6