Confinements and social distancing measures during COVID-19 pandemic were particularly challenging to adolescents, impacting significantly their life and routines. Following a longitudinal design, this study sought to compare adolescents' cognitive well-being-satisfaction with life, social support, and quality of life-before (T1) and during (T2) the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, it aimed to clarify the predictive value of the three dimensions of the cognitive well-being to the satisfaction of basic psychological needs of adolescents at school at T2. One thousand ninety-nine Portuguese adolescents participated, showing generally increased scores in satisfaction with life, social support, and quality of life at T2. Even so, girls revealed lower changes in cognitive well-being components compared with boys, between T1 and T2. In addition, satisfaction with life and quality of life were predictive of satisfaction of basic psychological needs at T2. This work highlights the relevance of cognitive well-being as a dispositional dimension in determining the satisfaction of basic psychological needs in adolescence, during a worldwide catastrophic event.
Keywords: COVID-19; adolescence; cognitive well-being; quality of life; satisfaction with life; social support.
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