Croatian Longitudinal Study on Well-Being

We intend to launch on-line longitudinal research on well-being. The goal of the project is twofold. First, to examine the degree to which well-being fluctuates over time and whether patterns of well-being fluctuations are different for different types of people. Second, we aim to examine whether well-being can be considered not only as an indicator of good life, but also as a precondition of positive outcomes and favourable life events, as proposed in the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. We posit that high levels of well-being enable the creation of later favourable life events and conditions by effective affect regulation strategies. During the four year project period, we plan to conduct on-line four-wave panel survey. Study sample will consist of adult internet users in Croatia. Through the survey, data on socio-demographic variables, personality traits, different components of well-being, affect regulation strategies and life events will be collected. Focus groups will be used as pilot tests to develop instruments. In order to recruit as many respondents as possible and to minimize attrition over the course of the consecutive waves lots of effort will be put into project promotion and advertising, as well as into informing and motivating participants to continue with the research. By following people through longer periods of time we would be able to better explain the relationships between well-being and life outcomes, as well as fluctuations in well-being.