The influence of trait meta-mood on subjective well-being in high school students: a random intercept cross-lagged panel analysis

Trait meta-mood refers to people’s conscious awareness of their own emotions. This reflexive process is relevant to developing a better adaptation to the environment, understanding the individual differences in how people perceive and attend to emotions, and how they can understand and regulate them in an optimal way. Previous research has indicated that trait meta-mood plays an important role in well-being. Accordingly, the main objective of this study was to analyse the prospective effects of trait meta-mood on levels of subjective well-being. A sample of 570 high school students (289 females), from 12 to 17 years (M?=?13.80, SD?=?1.45), completed measures of trait meta-mood, satisfaction with life, and positive and negative mood states across three waves separated by 1-year intervals. Random intercept cross-lagged panel analyses indicated that the dimensions of meta-mood accounted for a significant amount of variance in both cognitive and affective dimensions of well-being across time.