Happiness and its relation to psychological well-being of adolescents Haleh Heizomi a , Hamid Allahverdipour b, *, Mohammad Asghari Jafarabadi c , Abdolrasul Safaian d a Department of Health Education & Promotion, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz 14711, Iran b Clinical Psychiatry Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz 14711, Iran c Medical Education Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz 14711, Iran d Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz 14711, Iran 1. Introduction Mental disorders among adolescents and pupils are known as one of the common health problems with many serious consequences and impacts such as substance abuse, social detachment, decreased academic achievement and increase of students’ drop outs (Bahrami et al., 2011; Saban et al., 2013). Numerous research evidences exist that reported progressive development of mental disorders among adolescents (Magsodi et al., 2010; Power, 2010; Bayera et al., 2010). Based on a report of the World Health Organization (WHO) mental health problems among children and adolescents have increased in recent years and will continue to rise up to 50% until 2020 (Bayera et al., 2010). It was also estimated that three quarters of psychiatric disorders will appear in adolescence or early adulthood ages (Aires et al., 2011; Chisholm et al., 2012; Jacka et al., 2011). Furthermore, The National Co-morbidity Survey Replication’s report has recently indicated that more than 22% of adolescents had already experienced a clinical mental health problem (Jacka et al., 2011). In general, poor mental health may have negative effect on physical health as well as subjective well-being. Consequently lack of mental well-being could lead to the development of mental disorder and the loss of functional ability. Achieving the optimum health among adolescents is strongly related to mental health status of young people that reflects importance of promoting mental health of adolescents in their critical ages (Kimber et al., 2008; Patel et al., 2010). A healthy mental status greatly affects the lives of individuals and communities due to a higher quality of life, better physical health, social integration and overall well-being (Morasae et al., 2012). Happiness is known as one of the important determinants of subjective well-being (Honkanen et al., 2005). Happiness is a remarkable trait for people and has effects on mental health status and also is influenced by the integrity of mental capabilities. (Fowler and Christakis, 2008). Happiness is a key factor of human daily life and was introduced as a main component of health by the World Health Organization (Cohn et al., 2009). There are research evidences that indicate significant correlations between happiness and general health outcomes such as commitment to have higher levels of physical exercise, having a healthy sleeping pattern, healthy diet and commitment to abstain from smoking or drinking alcohol excessively (Bloodworth and McNamee, 2007; Kawada Asian Journal of Psychiatry 16 (2015) 55–60 A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 3 January 2015 Received in revised form 15 May 2015 Accepted 19 May 2015 Keywords: Happiness Psychological well-being Adolescents A B S T R A C T In the present decade, adolescents’ mental problems are known as critical problems which have many destructive consequences. This study aimed to measure students’ happiness and psychological well- being status in a sample of high school students. The cross sectional study consisted of 403 randomly selected high school students in Tabriz, Iran. Numerous variables including general health status, happiness, self-efficacy, perceived stress, hopefulness and life satisfaction were measured by using self- reported written questionnaires. Significant relation observed between happiness and psychological well-being (r = 0.48). Those students with good relationship and those who had reported to enjoy attending social events indicated better mental health status. No causal inferences were investigated due to the non-experimental nature of the study. The findings also revealed that students with higher happiness score have a better school performance. Integration of happiness promotion initiatives into the comprehensive school health programs is recommended to have pleasant environments for a healthy population of adolescents. ß 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 9143147363; fax: +98 3334 4731. E-mail address: allahverdipourh@tbzmed.ac.ir (H. Allahverdipour). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Asian Journal of Psychiatry jo u rn al h om epag e: ww w.els evier.c o m/lo cat e/ajp http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2015.05.037 1876-2018/ß 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.