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This study aims to investigate whether students in childhood and adolescence are happy, and if so, how the characteristics of happiness are manifested. The research was conducted with an interest in these questions. Using data from the 10th, 13th, and 16th supplementary child surveys of the Korean Welfare Panel, this study examined the causal relationships and changes in academic achievement, self-esteem, happiness, and suicidal thoughts during the developmental process from elementary school through middle school to high school. In Korean society, where a significant amount of time is dedicated to academic activities during childhood and adolescence, academic achievement is an important factor to explore. Furthermore, as childhood and adolescence are critical periods for self-development, self-esteem was selected as a major variable. The analysis data came from panel data of students in grades 4 to 6 of elementary school in the 10th supplementary child survey of the Korean Welfare Panel who responded up to the 1st to 3rd year of middle school in the 13th survey and the 1st to 3rd year of high school in the 16th survey, with 307 participants (144 males and 163 females) who did not drop out during the three surveys selected as the final analysis sample. The verification method introduced academic achievement as an exogenous variable and self-esteem as a mediating variable, with happiness as the ultimate dependent variable. Specifically, to concretely verify the causal relationship of happiness, the characteristic behind happiness, suicidal thoughts, was hypothesized to analyze and compare its causal relationship. The analysis results showed that both happiness and suicidal thoughts are significantly influenced by self-esteem rather than academic achievement, with the effect of academic achievement appearing when mediating through self-esteem. In other words, academic achievement is an important influence on self-esteem, and self-esteem clearly shows a positive effect on happiness and a negative effect on suicidal thoughts. Moreover, it was found that changes in academic achievement and self-esteem are factors that significantly induce changes in happiness rather than suicidal thoughts. The results of this study can confirm the impact of academic achievement and self-esteem on happiness and suicidal thoughts during childhood and adolescence. It can also be used as information to promote healthy development of a young age individual.
Kwak et al. (Sun,) studied this question.