How satisfied with life are adolescents of Maltese origin?

Life satisfaction of adolescents is an area of interest for academics, social scientists as well as members of the community. One of the questions that I addressed in my doctorate research project entitled “Life satisfaction of adolescents across cultures: A study in Malta and Australia” was “How satisfied are adolescents across cultures”? I examined this phenomenon among 3 ethnic groups – namely native Maltese (living in Malta), Maltese-Australians (living in Australia) and Anglo-Australians. The adolescents were between 14 and 18 years of age.

For that study, both quantitative and qualitative methods of enquiry were employed to explore the overall satisfaction with life in relation to the home environment, coping strategies and perceived social support. Maltese-Australian adolescents were expected to be less satisfied with life than native Maltese and Anglo-Australian adolescents due to acculturation issues.

According to the statistical findings, most adolescents, irrespective of their cultural background, are satisfied with life. The 5-point Likert Scale (with extremely satisfied on one end and extremely dissatisfied on the other) indicates that 8% of the sample fall within the extremely satisfied range and 29% fall within the satisfied range. However, 22% fall within the slightly satisfied range; while 6% fall within the neutral range. The remaining 35% are below the neutral range of life satisfaction (including 10% who are extremely dissatisfied).

The percentage of adolescents who are not satisfied with life raises some concern. The above statistics indicate that although most adolescents are satisfied with life, if we include those who are slightly satisfied with those who fall below the neutral range the figures are quite alarming. Indeed, the individual in-depth interviews among adolescents of Maltese background (both in Malta and Australia) in the current study indicate that most adolescents (95%) are far from satisfied with life. According to the literature, it is not uncommon that qualitative methods of inquiry portray a different picture from the statistical findings within the same area of investigation.

Adolescents who are not satisfied with life seem to be having problems in dealing with their challenges in life. Results in the present study, for example, show that those who are not satisfied with life significantly differ in constructive problem-solving strategies than those who are satisfied or fairly satisfied with life. Instead, they are using significantly more non-productive coping strategies (e.g. “Shut myself off from the problem so that I can avoid it”, “I have no way of dealing with the situation”, “Wish a miracle would happen”, etc…) than those who report higher levels of life satisfaction. These non-productive strategies can jeopardize their life satisfaction. Indeed, this study further indicates that there is a negative correlation between these strategies and life satisfaction – that is the more adolescents use non-productive coping strategies the less satisfied they are with life.

According to the findings of the current study, adolescents who lack satisfaction with life also have problems in reaching out to others in times of need. They also experience less emotional support from others (including parents and friends). These adolescents come from families that lack cohesion. Indeed, the study shows that those who are dissatisfied with life report significantly lower levels of family cohesion than those who are satisfied or fairly satisfied with life. In addition, they are less likely to experience religious practices.

Interestingly, (but not surprisingly) dissatisfied adolescents are mostly females. They significantly use more non-productive coping strategies than males. Although female adolescents report higher levels of perceived social support and have more people in their support network than male adolescents (as indicated by the current study), it is possible that the amount of support that they are receiving is not enough to meet their needs. They are also not reaching out to others in times of need as much as male adolescents do. Another interesting observation that emerged from the qualitative study is that girls are having many problems in relation to friends. These problems  relate mostly to defamation and stealing boyfriends. One participant commented that she prefers to have a male as a friend than a female “because females are jealous of each other”. A close related issue is lack of trust among friends.

The above findings are just a snapshot of a much bigger picture of life satisfaction of adolescents as depicted by the overall findings of the current study. The experience of life satisfaction among adolescents of Maltese origin (both in Malta and Australia) is both complex and intriguing. A number of cultural, psychological and psychological issues have been identified.

One such example is the notion of ‘l-għaqda fil-familja’ (family unity) that requires a close examination in order to understand the subjective well-being, such as life satisfaction of Maltese adolescents. The literature consistently shows that the Maltese family is characterised by a strong sense of family cohesion. However, this high cohesion is likely to be (at least in part) enmeshment. Indeed, Maltese parents (both in Malta and Australia) are reported to be very psychologically controlling (this is different from behavioural control) as indicated by the findings of the current study. This psychological control is not allowing adolescents (and other members of the family) to express their subjective sense of individuality. In addition, there is a Maltese cultural issue in relation to the concepts of cohesion and enmeshment. The Maltese language is limited in comparison to the English language. For example, there is no word equivalent to ‘enmeshment’. The only word available is ‘għaqda’ (unity) which is always considered as positive in relation to the Maltese family. However, the qualitative study in the current investigation shows that this is not always the case. The individual in-depth interviews identified not only emotional distance among family members, but also passive anger amongst both parents and children, thereby generating feelings of anxiety and depression among adolescents.
In order to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the psychological implications of ‘l-għaqda fil-familja’ on the subjective well-being of adolescents we need to differentiate between enmeshment and cohesion within the Maltese family and examine these constructs both at individual and collective levels.

In addition, the notion of trust in relation to the Maltese family also requires further understanding within a cultural context. Indeed, the study indicates that this construct has a different meaning than that experienced in predominantly individualistic societies, such as Australia. Trust within the Maltese family is not synonymous with disclosing. Maltese adolescents find it difficult to disclose to parents because “they lack listening skills”.It is important to point out that the concept of listening is not so familiar to the Maltese, especially to older generations. This is partly because the Maltese language does not have an equivalent word. Whether a person needs to hear or listen it is always ‘tisma’. Also, as a predominantly collectivistic oriented society, such a psychological need of the individual within the Maltese society may not be so important, especially for older generations. This is a by-product of our long history of colonisation and the primary need for survival. Therefore, the need to listen to another person is historically overlooked. This lack of need is being unconsciously passed on from one generation to another. However, the need to be listened to and understood by the parents is quite salient for adolescents in contemporary society. It was continuously echoed during the individual in-depth interviews of the current study.

As with the notion of care giving within the Maltese family, trust is more related to protection, instrumental support (more specifically material aid) and provision of food and shelter. In this sense, parents are highly trustworthy. For Maltese parents, trust also means surrendering yourself totally to parents, thereby idealizing them in all aspects of life. Any deviance, including questioning parents’ views, would mean lack of trust and respect as indicated by the findings of the current study. This parallels the notion of trust in relation to God as taught by religious denominations, such as the Catholic Church, that are highly conservative. Indeed, Birgerard and Granqvist (2004) found a correspondence between attachment to parents and God. Expressions such as “għax hekk għidt”  [because I said so; also meaning “Whatever I say goes”] suggest (among other things) a parental expectation of ‘blind faith’ in adolescents. This response came up many times within the context of parent-child conflicts during the in-depth interviews.

Although this doctoral research project examined an aspect of subjective well-being in relation to adolescents, the Maltese cultural, psychological and psychosocial issues that it identified shed lot of insights into other underlying issues behind other social and health related problems that members of the Maltese community are facing in contemporary society.

Dr. Victoria Borg is a lecturer at Victoria University, Melbourne. She specialises in mental health across cultures. She is also the founder of  “The Maltese Connections Project – http://www.malteseconnections.com”. Victoria University and The Public Library in Vajringa St. Gozo hold a copy of Dr. Borg’s doctoral research project.