**Preface to "Life Satisfaction and Psychological and Physical Well-Being"**

The literature has seen a tremendous upsurge of interest in concepts such as life satisfaction, happiness, subjective well-being, and quality of life. These concepts are not just of interest from an academic point of view, but there is grea<sup>t</sup> interest in tracking indices pertaining to happiness as indicated by the publication of The World Happiness Report annually since 2012, a publication of the "Sustainable Development Solutions Network, powered by the Gallup World Poll data" (https: //worldhappiness.report/faq/).

In March 2021, we invited scholars from around the world to contribute to a Special Issue of the *International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health* on life satisfaction and the related aspects of psychological and physical well-being. The effort resulted in 14 articles from various countries: China, Sweden, Norway, France, Peru, New Zealand, the USA, and Italy. All articles, except one, are based on empirical studies. One article is a systematic review of literature on adolescents and reviews literature from many countries. Only one article is based on an experimental study. The samples in these studies reflect wide diversity: university students and faculty, nurses, entrepreneurs, adolescents, national databases, refugees, and community samples recruited through social media. We hope that this collection of articles, being issued in a book form, will help stimulate work internationally.

> **V. K. Kumar and Jasmin Tahmaseb-McConatha** *Editors*

#### *Article* **The Role of Stress Experience and Demographic Factors for Satisfaction with Life in Norwegian Adolescents: Cross-Sectional Trends over a Ten-Year Period**

**U. K. Moksnes 1,\*, S. T. Innstrand 2, M. Lazarewicz 3 and G. A. Espnes 1**


**Abstract:** Background: The individual's perception of life satisfaction (LS) is regarded as a key indicator of one's overall experience of wellbeing, sensitive to the broad spectrum of functioning. Adolescence is particularly an important period for assessing LS and factors associating with LS. The present study investigated cross-sectional trends in adolescents' LS levels across three time points over a 10-year period, as well as the role of stress experience and socio-demographic differences in association with LS. Methods: The study used cross-sectional data from three time points: 2011 (n = 1239), 2016 (n = 1233), and 2022 (n =311), including adolescents from lower and upper secondary public schools, with an age range of 13–20 years. Results: There were relatively high and stable mean scores on LS across all time points; however, significant differences were found between 2011 and 2016. Results from the multivariate linear regression analysis showed that sex and age were moreover weakly associated with LS, where LS decreased slightly between the ages of 13 and 18 years and increased from 19 to 20 years. Of the stress domains, interpersonal and school-related stressors showed the strongest negative and significant association with LS; significant interaction effects of sex by stress domains were found, but not with sex by time. Conclusion: This study supports the relatively high and stable level of LS in adolescents across the investigated time points. Demographic factors were moreover weakly associated with LS. The findings also contribute by showing the significant role of interpersonal and school-related stressors in association with LS.

**Keywords:** wellbeing; life satisfaction; youth; adolescence; normative stressors; interpersonal stressors; school stressors
