Subjective Well-Being of Students and Teachers in Uruguay: Life Satisfaction, Affective Profiles and Academic Emotions

Although affect and well-being occupy a central place in educational discourse, resources and evidence are still scarce. This study sought to analyze the psychometric properties of brief instruments, identify affective profiles and explore the emotions that students associate with their institution. The participants were teachers (n = 350), middle school students (n = 357) and high school students (n = 375) from Uruguay, who completed subjective well-being scales (SWLS and PANAS) and an open-ended question processed through automated text analysis. Factor, reliability and correlation analyses suggest the validity of both scales; cluster analysis suggests the existence of four affective profiles similar to Norlander et al.'s (2002) model: self-fulfilling, self-destructive, high-affective and low-affective. Although the educational institution is predominantly associated with unpleasant experiences (such as stress, tiredness, sadness and anxiety), it is also associated with joy and happiness. Differences were identified depending on the affective profile: for example, associations with interest, motivation and curiosity are distinctive of the self-fulfilling profile, while disappointment, displeasure and loneliness are distinctive of the self-destructive profile. The results suggest that the conjunction of scales and text analysis allows for insights into well-being in educational contexts.