Creative Education, 2019, 10, 947-961
http://www.scirp.org/journal/ce
ISSN Online: 2151-4771
ISSN Print: 2151-4755
DOI: 10.4236/ce.2019.105071 May 21, 2019 947 Creative Education
Life Satisfaction, and Anxiety Levels among
University Students
George Tsitsas
1*
, Panagiotis Nanopoulos
2
, Antonia Paschali
3*
1
Counseling Center, Ηarokopio University, Athens, Greece
2
Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece
3
Faculty of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Abstract
University or College years seem to be a stressful time for students due to
many challenges: academic, personal adjustment to a new life, and socially
building new friendships. Life satisfaction is considered one of the basic
components of psychological well-being. Studies have supported that lower
levels of life satisfaction have been related to high levels of anxiety. Also the
constructs of assertiveness and empathy seem to be related with life satisfac-
tion. The present study compares 1
st
and 4
th
-year undergraduate students in
relation to variables such as life satisfaction (The Life Satisfaction Index),
stress, (STAI) assertiveness (Rathus Assertiveness Schedule) and empathy
(Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)). The participants were in total 410, 1
st
year (N = 205) and 4
th
year (N = 205) undergraduate students. All findings
are discussed in detail; some main results showed that: 1) Independently of
sex students had similar anxiety levels; life satisfaction was significantly high-
er among those with low state anxiety but not with low trait anxiety; 2) Trait
anxiety score analysis revealed nonsignificant results; 3) Young women are
more life satisfied compared to young men among 1
st
year students; 4) The
percent of students with high life satisfaction is significantly higher among
those that grew up in urban and semi-urban regions compared to those that
grew up in other regions. The findings of the present study emphasize the
need to explore ways to help undergraduate students to adjust during their
academic years and life at the University.
Keywords
University Students, Life Satisfaction, Stress, Assertiveness, Empathy
1. Introduction
University years, can be considered as a period of negotiation with new aca-
*
Contribute equally.
How to cite this paper: Tsitsas, G., Nano-
poulos, P., & Paschali, A. (2019). Life Satis-
faction, and Anxiety Levels among Univer-
sity Students. Creative Education, 10,
947-961.
https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2019.105071
Received: February 11, 2019
Accepted: May 18, 2019
Published: May 21, 2019
Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access