The Lives of Those Who Flourish and Those Who Languish: The Results From the Initial CRO-WELL Survey

Flourishing refers to a multidimensional phenomenon reflecting feeling good and functioning effectively, which is synonymous for high levels of well-being. Understanding the antecedents and outcomes of flourishing is important because the existing literature demonstrates that high well-being is not only an indicator of a good life, but also an important prerequisite of future beneficial life outcomes. In order to gain more insight into the associations between well-being and life outcomes, the main goal of this study was twofold: a) to compare people who flourish (i.e. above average flourishing reports) (N=1064) and those who languish (i.e. below average flourishing reports) (N=673) in the frequency and the subjective experience of life events (positivity, negativity, and significance), and b) to investigate the role of flourishing in the relationship between personality traits and subjective experiences of life events. The study was conducted within the initial survey of the Croatian Longitudinal Study of Well-Being (CRO-WELL) project among 4506 participants (age range 18-85 years ; average age M=35.05, SD=11.98 ; Nmale=1097, Nfemale= 3409). The results of our analyses revealed important differences in the ways flourishing and languishing people experience their lives. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed within the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions.