Cognitive ability, gender, and well-being in school contexts: longitudinal evidence from Sweden

Abstract

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While well-being does generally constitute a moderate predictor of school achievement, research on the predictive validity of cognitive ability for well-being in school contexts remains scant. The current study analyzed longitudinal relations between cognitive ability measured at age 13 (Grade 6) and well-being measured at age 18 (Grade 12, valid N = 2,705) in a Swedish sample, using several multivariate model techniques. The results indicate that cognitive ability was not a statistically significant predictor when several predictors were entered in a multiple regression model. However, gender was a significant covariate as girls and young women have a substantially lower degree of self-reported well-being. This casts light on the limitations of cognitive ability as a construct for some non-cognitive outcomes, at least in shorter and narrower spatial–temporal contexts.

Keywords

• cognitive ability
• well-being
• intelligence
• gender
• longitudinal analysis