Positive and Negative Emotional Experiences in Adolescents across 32 Countries: Cross-National and Gender Differences

Citation

Jovanovic V, Adams S, Aritio-Solana R, Billy Aryanto C, Avsec A, Bakhsi A, Bender M, Berjot S, Betancourth Zambrano S, Brajsa-Zganec A, Broche-Perez Y, Buzea C, Cabello R, Cassibba R & Roberts SC (2025) Positive and Negative Emotional Experiences in Adolescents across 32 Countries: Cross-National and Gender Differences. Applied Research in Quality of Life. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-025-10486-2

Abstract
Despite a growing interest in adolescent subjective well-being, cross-cultural research on positive and negative affect in adolescents has been surprisingly scarce. Moreover, a cross-cultural evaluation of affective well-being measures in adolescents has lagged behind research in adults. The present study evaluated the cross-national and gender invariance of the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE), using adolescent samples from 32 countries (N = 17,489; age range = 14–19) spanning five continents. The original two-factor structure of the SPANE was supported in 29 of the 32 countries. We could establish partial metric invariance of the SPANE across countries and full or partial scalar invariance across gender in 18 and 11 countries, respectively. The alignment method showed evidence for approximate invariance across countries, allowing for cross-national means comparisons of positive and negative affect. In most countries, girls reported higher levels of negative affect, and no substantial gender differences in positive affect were observed. Cross-national differences in mean levels of positive and negative affect yielded complex findings. Our results suggest that the SPANE is a solid candidate for measuring emotional experiences among adolescents in large-scale cross-national studies.

Keywords
Emotions; Culture; Adolescence; Positive affect; Negative affect; Gender; Measurement invariance

Notes
Additional authors: Judith Cavazos-Arroyo, Fatemeh Daemi, Diego D. Díaz-Guerra, Marija Džida, Mona Eidelsburger, Pablo Fernández-Berrocal, Evelyn Fernández-Castillo, Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero, Tomasz Frackowiak, Teresa Freire, Vesna Gavrilov-Jerković, Biljana Gjoneska, Jesús Guerrero-Alcedo, Md Jamil Hossain, Jessie Hillekens, Stefan Höfer, Tareq Mahmud, Naved Iqbal, Szilvia Jámbori, Mohsen Joshanloo, Ljiljana Kaliterna Lipovčan, Tina Kavčič, Marta Kowal, Marija Krstevska Taseva, Kwok Kit Tong, Milica Lazić, Denisse Manrique-Millones, Alessia Mariano, Michal Misiak, Pasquale Musso, Vojana Obradović, Javier Ortuño Sierra, Ioana Orzea, Ahmet Özaslan, Joonha Park, Marija Pašić, Rasa Pilkauskaitė Valickienė, Rogelio Puente-Díaz, Lizbeth Puerta-Sierra, Gordana Ristevska Dimitrovska, Puji Tania Ronauli, Shazly Savahl, Danielius Serapinas, Sok Ian Kuan, Agnieszka Sorokowska, Piotr Sorokowski, Dijana Sulejmanović, Mst Sadia Sultana, Sze Man Yuen, Erzsébet Szél, Dušana Šakan, Henri Tilga, Aleksandar Tomašević, Wenceslao Unanue, Jesús Unanue, Marieke van Egmond, Murat Yıldırım, Gaja Zager Kocjan, Laura Zamarian & Marija Zotović-Kostić

Journal
Applied Research in Quality of Life