Fifty-two men who had suffered a first episode ischemic heart disease reported their degree of life satisfaction, the strategies they used to adjust to the illness, and the symptoms of anxiety and depression they felt. The multiple regression analyses carried out indicated that emotional distress was associated with a lower level of life satisfaction. In the analyses of anxiety symptoms, the use of negative adjustment strategies was also a significant predictor. Lastly, a significant Life Satisfaction x Type of Adjustment interaction was obtained. According to this, the patients who felt more satisfaction with their lives used more positive strategies to adjust to the illness and fewer negative ones, than the group of patients who were less satisfied. In conclusion, life satisfaction predicts emotional well-being of patients with ischemic heart disease and it enhances the implementation of appropriate strategies to cope with the disease. Moreover, although life satisfaction has been considered a stable measure, we suggest it may change as the experience of illness limits individuals' important goals.

The aim of this essay has been the evaluation of three orientations towards happiness: pleasure, meaning and engagement, as well as their relation to life satisfaction and the perception of happiness in a sample of 320 university students. The results show that the most used kind of orientation towards happiness is pleasure, followed by meaning, and finally engagement. It has also been found that pleasure is the orientation most closely associated to happiness while engagement seems to be more related to life satisfaction. These findings aim to the distinction between the concepts of happiness and life satisfaction and lead the attention to the actions which can improve the levels of happiness.

This study is aimed at exploring daily and desired activity patterns in a sample of older people living in a rural context, as well as at examining the effect of some influential factors and their relationships with life satisfaction. Our sample was made of 216 retired people and was recruited from 12 villages from Catalonia and Valencia with populations of less than 1000 inhabitants. Data were gathered by means of an interview that included daily and ideal activities and life satisfaction (by applying the Life Satisfaction Index). Our results show that yesterday's pattern of activities is similar to an ideal pattern, although in the ideal day, our sample allocated more time to social activities and less time to passive activities such as watching TV or resting. In both cases, leisure activities and time spent working seem to play an important role in older people's life. Gender has a remarkable influence on patterns of activity, as women devoted more time to instrumental activities and less time to leisure. In general, differences between yesterday's and ideal activities were not related to life satisfaction.

The present study aims to analyze the relationships between community involvement, perception of family and school climate, and emotional and social problems in adolescents (satisfaction with life, non-conformist social reputation, and school violence). The sample was composed of 1884 (52% boys and 48% girls) adolescents aged from 11 to 17 years old (M = 13.7, SD = 1.4) from the Valencia Community and Andalusia. A structural equation model was calculated to analyze the data. The results indicated that adolescent community involvement was associated with positive perceptions of family and school climate, and school violence. Associations between the variables of the study included in the structural model were also analyzed as a function of gender. The relationship between school climate and social reputation was significant only for boys. Likewise, the association between community involvement and violent behavior was found to be significant only for boys. Finally, the results and their possible implications are discussed.