RESEARCH PAPER Adolescent Life Satisfaction and Personality Characteristics: Investigating Relationships Using a Five Factor Model Shannon M. Suldo • Devon R. Minch • Brittany V. Hearon Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Abstract The current study investigated the relationships among personality factors and life satisfaction in high school students (N = 624), who completed self-report measures of global life satisfaction and personality characteristics consistent with a Five Factor Model (i.e., extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and agree- ableness). Analyses indicated that approximately 47 % of the variance in adolescents’ life satisfaction scores was accounted for by their levels of the Big Five personality factors. Neuroticism emerged as the strongest predictor. Openness, conscientiousness, and extra- version were also significant and unique predictors of life satisfaction. Regarding gender differences, a higher level of agreeableness was related to higher life satisfaction for girls, but not for boys. Findings support the importance of including all Big Five personality factors in exploratory models of life satisfaction, and contribute to an understanding of gender-specific models of predictors of life satisfaction. Keywords Personality Á Life satisfaction Á Adolescents Á Youth Á Five Factor Model Á Big Five A growing body of literature demonstrates the salience of life satisfaction to children and adolescents’ psychological, educational, social, and physical functioning (Suldo et al. 2009), meriting a complete understanding of the stable and malleable predictors of life satisfaction among youth. Personality is one such predictor that is viewed as a relatively stable factor. Extraversion and neuroticism yield consistent correlations with adolescent life satisfaction (Heaven 1989; Huebner 1991b; McKnight et al. 2002), but relatively little is known about the relationship between life satisfaction and three less-studied personality factors—agreeableness, openness to experience, and conscientiousness. Given the ease S. M. Suldo (&) Á D. R. Minch Á B. V. Hearon Department of Educational and Psychological Studies, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, EDU 105, Tampa, FL 33620, USA e-mail: suldo@usf.edu 123 J Happiness Stud DOI 10.1007/s10902-014-9544-1