Method: This study employed the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), and a 21 college students from a U.S. Midwestern university participated. This sampling frequency yielded an average of 45 ESM responses per participant over the one-week period, resulting in a total of 963 ESM reports that were used in the analysis. Thus, response rate was 93.5%. During the study, participants received randomly timed text messages 7 times a day from 9:00am to 9:00pm for a week, and they filled out a self-report form whenever they received messages from the researchers. In response to the text alerts, participants completed the Experience Sampling Form (ESF), in which they indicated what they were doing, who they were with, and how they were feeling at the time they received the text message. ESM has proven to be successful in capturing everyday experiences (Borrell, 1998).
Analysis/Results: A series of t and ANOVA tests were conducted to examine differences in SWB between different social contexts. The results showed that participants’ SWB was higher when they were with others than when by themselves. With regard to social context, being with family and being with friends also had positive associations with SWB. The participants’ SWB was significantly higher when they were engaged in active leisure, and lower levels of SWB were reported when they were involved in learning activities.
Conclusions: The findings of this study contribute to the more general empirical research into determinants of college students’ well-being. In addition, study results begin to reveal some insights about the self-reported wellbeing of students in relation to their daily activities. The results may be useful to university stakeholders such as campus student success divisions. Mindfully increasing opportunities to affect student happiness on and off campus can affect student wellbeing as happier students are more likely to be successful.