Life-Satisfaction, Values and Goal Achievement: The Case of Planned Versus by Chance Searches on the Internet

The relation between life domains satisfactionand overall life satisfaction, values,internal/external perceived control and theoption of planning or by chance searchinginformation on the Internet has been exploredin a sample of Spanish adolescents aged 12 to16 (N=968). Age and sex differences have beenexamined. Results clearly confirm a positiverelation between satisfaction with life domainsand overall satisfaction with life.Satisfaction with life as a whole shows also tobe positively correlated with non-materialisticvalues. Perceived control shows to be, onceagain, a key construct to understand bothlife-satisfaction of adolescents and theirbehavioural intentions to plan or not to plantheir action to fulfil intended goals. A clearpattern between external and internal perceivedcontrol stems from our analysis: subjectsreporting to rely on chance when searchinginformation show higher external perceivedcontrol while respondents who prefer to planshow higher internal perceived control. Themore satisfaction expressed with learningrelated items (satisfaction with schoolperformance, learning, and preparation forfuture), with family and with life as a whole,the more tendencies are observed among therespondents to plan their search. No directrelation has been observed between values andbehavioural intentions to plan or not to planaction to fulfil intended goals. Perceivedcontrol, but also satisfaction with some lifedomains and with life as a whole seem to act asmediating factors between behaviouralintentions and values.