Examination Of The Relationship Between High School Students Problem Solving Skills; Perceived Stress; And Life Satisfaction
INTRODUCTION Living a ‘happy life is one of the most important life goals of almost every human being. From the earliest times to the present; every human being has questioned this notion in various ways; such as how to achieve happiness; what meaning happiness has and what it is affected by. Because of this curiosity; the concept of happiness and questions about how happiness can be achieved have constantly been the focus of attention for people and researchers and the issue has remained an important topic which is always current (Çivitçi; 2012). Happiness is a phenomenon which contains the effects of countless variables for every individual. It can be said that all kinds of knowledge; skills and experience that an individual encounters or has in life have a significant effect on his or her individual happiness. From a comprehensive perspective; Ivey et al. (1993) stated that happiness can be individual or relational; it includes both positive and negative situations due to its structure. In life; every individual face various difficulty; problems and obstacles which must be overcome and uses different problem-solving techniques to cope with them all. All people devote a large part of their energy and time for problem solving and decision making (cited by Korkut; 2002: 177). In recent decades; happiness has been conceptually investigated in the context of similar concepts such as psychological wellbeing; subjective well-being; quality of life; life satisfaction and positive emotions (Dost; 2007). Happiness is affected by the stresses which can be encountered frequently in everyday private or business life. Every person has encountered stress or been in a stressful environment at some point because stress is an absolute reality which in inevitable in every person s life. It is an important mechanism in human life and is an integral part of life (Selye; 1956). However; stress; like every other emotion; has a beneficial effect if it is experienced at an appropriate level; and when it is experienced at an excessive level; it can have harmful effects on the individual. It can be said that problem-solving processes are a skill which an individual will use throughout his/her whole life to achieve happiness and can affect life completely. It is a finding supported by many studies that for every individual with high problem-solving skills; these skills are closely related to many other life skills. From this point of view; solving the problems which people encounter in their life processes will be an important skill that can be used both to increase their level of happiness and to reduce the stress which they experience in this process. In this context; it is thought that conducting studies on the problem-solving skills of individuals will contribute to increasing the satisfaction which people derive from life and reducing the stress which they experience. On the other hand; when the relevant literature was examined; it was seen that there was no study in which these variables were evaluated together. Therefore; determining the relationships between these variables will help fill the gap in the literature In this study; it was aimed to examine the relationships between high school students problemsolving skills; perceived stress; and life satisfaction scores; to reveal whether these variables differ according to the socio -demographic data of the participants; and to obtain information about the participants problem-solving skills; stress and life satisfaction levels.