Life Satisfaction and Subjective Well-Being on the Road to Happiness: An Application of Structural Equation Modeling

This study aims to elucidate the relationships between happiness, life satisfaction, and subjective vitality among student-athletes. Conducted using a correlational survey method, the research included a total of 400 students (149 female and 251 male) enrolled in sports sciences programs across three different universities (Mean age = 21.31 ± 2.32). The data collection tools employed were the “Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS)”, the “Subjective Vitality Scale (SVS)”, and the “Life Satisfaction Scale (LSS)”. The suitability of the data for analysis was determined based on skewness and kurtosis values. The data were analyzed using IBM AMOS V25 software (Chicago, USA), and the relationships among happiness, life satisfaction, and vitality were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The structural equation model revealed that the path coefficient between vitality and happiness was β1 = 0.541, p = 0.001, and the path coefficient between life satisfaction and happiness was β1 = 0.441, p = 0.001, both of which were statistically significant. In other words, life satisfaction explains 44% of subjective well-being, while subjective vitality accounts for 54% of subjective well-being. The results suggest that increasing individuals' levels of life satisfaction and subjective vitality may also enhance their level of happiness.