U.S. students satisfied with life, but some foreigners happier

WASHINGTON The good news: American high school students are generally satisfied with their lives. But many of their peers in other countries are happier.

Asked to rank their life satisfaction on a scale from 0 to 10, American 15year-olds gave an average mark of 7.4, according to a study conducted by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which was released Wednesday.

American students scored close to the average of 7.3 among OECD’s 35 member countries. But students in some member countries are doing markedly better: an average Mexican high schooler rated life satisfaction at 8.2 out of 10. The Netherlands and Iceland had a level of 7.8 and Finland had 7.9. American students also reported higher levels of anxiety over tests, bullying or a feeling of not belonging at schools, compared with many of their peers.

What makes students feel good? According to the study, teacher and parental support, spending time with friends and being physically active make it more likely that a student will be satisfied with life. On the other hand, feeling anxiety over grades and spending too much time online are predictors of feeling dissatisfied. “In happy schools, teacher support — as perceived by students — tends to be much greater,” said Andreas Schleicher, one of the authors of the report.

Does studying hard mean being miserable? Not always. In China, Korea and Japan, for example, students score well on reading and math, but are less satisfied with life, according to the study. And then there’s Turkey, Greece or United Arab Emirates, where students scored poorly and aren’t too happy.

But the authors highlight the cases of Netherlands, Finland and Switzerland, where good grades and high spirits exist side by side.

There are also some gender differences. Feeling very satisfied with one’s life is more widespread among boys, while feeling low life satisfaction is more common among girls across most countries and cultures. Why that was the case was unclear from the report.