A robust association between dispositional envy and happiness was primarily concluded among young adults. As social contexts can vary across developmental stages, the effect of dispositional envy may be enhanced or diminished in different age groups. Thus, the present research attempted to quantify the differential associations between dispositional envy and happiness among adolescents and young adults (N = 586). Moreover, we examined another important question of why the association differed across the two age groups. Using mediated moderation analysis, we found a stronger association between dispositional envy and happiness among young adults than adolescents. We also revealed that self-esteem was a valid mechanism to unpack the differential associations across two age groups.

Introduction

Myers and Diener (1995) attempted to identify who can be a happy person. After more than twenty years, researchers are still investigating what can contribute to or take away happiness (e.g., Myers & Diener, 2018; Tamir, Schwartz, Oishi, & Kim, 2017). These long-lasting exanimations have signified that happiness is perhaps one of the most essential pursuits among human being. On the predictors of happiness, Diener and Lucas (1999) concluded that dispositional variables, such as personality traits, have explained why some people are happier than others consistently. Nonetheless, these investigations extensively focused on the Big Five personality traits (e.g., Soto, 2015; Steel & Ones, 2002). Thus, in the present research, we aim at further contributing to the literature of happiness by focusing on another personality predictor of happiness – dispositional envy. Happiness has been found to be strongly associated with the social comparison process. Specifically, upward social comparison could lower one’s happiness (Boyce, Brown, & Moore, 2010), while downward comparison could enhance one’s happiness (Collins, 1996). Given that upward comparison is an essence in envy, the experience of envy is expected to be tightly associated with happiness. Compared to other personality traits, the chronic tendency to experience envy – dispositional envy (Smith, Parrott, Diener, Hoyle, & Kim, 1999) has received relatively less attention on the research of happiness. To fill this gap, an increasing number of studies had revealed a robust association between dispositional envy and happiness. However, to what extent this association differs across developmental stages remains largely unexplored. More critically, the possible mechanisms underlying the differential associations between dispositional envy and happiness across developmental stages are unclear.