Although self-control is commonly believed to contribute to greater well-being, current evidence is inconclusive due to methodological and statistical issues. Indeed, there are both theoretical and empirical grounds to expect the opposite causal relation: wellbeing could precede self-control. We aimed to clarify this debate with two three-wave longitudinal studies, one on an Asian and the other on an American sample. We applied the random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) to disentangle the stable-trait-level associations and within-persons relations between self-control and well-being. We found that earlier levels of well-being positively predicted levels of self-control 1 month (Study 2) and 6 months (Study 1) later. However, self-control did not predict later well-being. Our findings emphasize the need to reconsider the interpretations of previous—mostly between-persons—findings about self-control and well-being. Implications for understanding trait self-control, alternative causal models between self-control and well-being, and the primacy of well-being are discussed.
AdriaanseM. A.KroeseF. M.GillebaartM.De RidderD. T. D. (2014). Effortless inhibition: Habit mediates the relation between self-control and unhealthy snack consumption. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00444
2.
AlquistJ. L.BaumeisterR. F.McGregorI.CoreT. J.BenjaminI.TiceD. M. (2018). Personal conflict impairs performance on an unrelated self-control task: Lingering costs of uncertainty and conflict. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 74, 157–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.09.010
3.
AltmanD. G.BlandJ. M. (1995). Statistics notes: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. British Medical Journal, 311, Article 485. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.311.7003.485
BeamesJ. R.SchofieldT. P.DensonT. F. (2017). A meta-analysis of improving self-control with practice. In Routledge international handbook of self-control in health and well-being. Routledge.
6.
BürglerS.HoyleR. H.HenneckeM. (2021). Flexibility in using self-regulatory strategies to manage self-control conflicts: The role of metacognitive knowledge, strategy repertoire, and feedback monitoring. European Journal of Personality, 35(6), 861–880. https://doi.org/10.1177/0890207021992907
7.
ButterworthJ. W.FinleyA. J.BaldwinC. L.KelleyN. J. (2022). Self-control mediates age-related differences in psychological distress. Personality and Individual Differences, 184, 111137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111137
8.
ChesterD. S.LynamD. R.MilichR.PowellD. K.AndersenA. H.DeWallC. N. (2016). How do negative emotions impair self-control? A neural model of negative urgency. NeuroImage, 132, 43–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.02.024
9.
CheungT. T. L.GillebaartM.KroeseF.de RidderD. (2014). Why are people with high self-control happier? The effect of trait self-control on happiness as mediated by regulatory focus. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00722
10.
ConverseP. D.BeverageM. S.VaghefK.MooreL. S. (2018). Self-control over time: Implications for work, relationship, and well-being outcomes. Journal of Research in Personality, 73, 82–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2017.11.002
DensonT. F.CapperM. M.OatenM.FrieseM.SchofieldT. P. (2011). Self-control training decreases aggression in response to provocation in aggressive individuals. Journal of Research in Personality, 45(2), 252–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2011.02.001
de RidderD.Lensvelt-MuldersG.FinkenauerC.StokF. M.BaumeisterR. F. (2012). Taking stock of self-control: A meta-analysis of how trait self-control relates to a wide range of behaviors. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 16(1), 76–99. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868311418749
15.
de WitS.DickinsonA. (2009). Associative theories of goal-directed behaviour: A case for animal–human translational models. Psychological Research Psychologische Forschung, 73(4), 463–476. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-009-0230-6
16.
DienerE.WirtzD.TovW.Kim-PrietoC.ChoiD.OishiS.Biswas-DienerR. (2010). New well-being measures: Short scales to assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators Research, 97(2), 143–156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9493-y
17.
EganP. M.ClarksonJ. J.HirtE. R. (2015). Revisiting the restorative effects of positive mood: An expectancy-based approach to self-control restoration. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 57, 87–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2014.11.006
18.
EndersC.BandalosD. (2001). The relative performance of full information maximum likelihood estimation for missing data in structural equation models. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 8(3), 430–457. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0803_5
19.
EnkaviA. Z.EisenbergI. W.BissettP. G.MazzaG. L.MacKinnonD. P.MarschL. A.PoldrackR. A. (2019). Large-scale analysis of test–retest reliabilities of self-regulation measures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(12), 5472–5477. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1818430116
20.
EntM. R.BaumeisterR. F.TiceD. M. (2015). Trait self-control and the avoidance of temptation. Personality and Individual Differences, 74, 12–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.09.031
21.
FenC. M.IsaI.ChuC. W.LingC.LingS. Y. (2013). Development and validation of a mental wellbeing scale in Singapore. Psychology, 4(7), Article 7. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2013.47085
22.
FergussonD. M.BodenJ. M.HorwoodL. J. (2013). Childhood self-control and adult outcomes: Results from a 30-year longitudinal study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 52(7), 709–717.e1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2013.04.008
23.
FinkenauerC.EngelsR.BaumeisterR. (2005). Parenting behaviour and adolescent behavioural and emotional problems: The role of self-control. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 29(1), 58–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/01650250444000333
24.
FredricksonB. L. (2004). The broaden–and–build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 359(1449), 1367–1377. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2004.1512
FrieseM.FrankenbachJ.JobV.LoschelderD. D. (2017). Does self-control training improve self-control? A meta-analysis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(6), 1077–1099. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617697076
27.
FujitaK. (2011). On conceptualizing self-control as more than the effortful inhibition of impulses. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15(4), 352–366. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868311411165
28.
GallaB. M.DuckworthA. L. (2015). More than resisting temptation: Beneficial habits mediate the relationship between self-control and positive life outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(3), 508–525. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000026
29.
GrangerC. W. J. (1969). Investigating causal relations by econometric models and cross-spectral methods. Econometrica, 37, 424–438. https://doi.org/10.2307/1912791
30.
HamakerE. L.KuiperR. M.GrasmanR. P. P. P. (2015). A critique of the cross-lagged panel model. Psychological Methods, 20(1), 102–116. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038889
31.
HofmannW.LuhmannM.FisherR. R.VohsK. D.BaumeisterR. F. (2014). Yes, but are they happy? Effects of trait self-control on affective well-being and life satisfaction. Journal of Personality, 82(4), 265–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12050
HoyleR. H.DavissonE. K. (2017). Measurement of self-control by self-report. In de RidderD.AdriaanseM.FujitaK. (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of self-control in health and well-being (1st ed., pp. 74–87). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315648576-7
34.
HuL.BentlerP. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
35.
HuppertF. A.SoT. T. C. (2013). Flourishing across Europe: Application of a new conceptual framework for defining well-being. Social Indicators Research, 110(3), 837–861. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-011-9966-7
IsenA. M.DaubmanK. A.NowickiG. P. (1987). Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(6), 1122–1131. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.52.6.1122
IsenA. M.ReeveJ. (2005). The influence of positive affect on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: Facilitating enjoyment of play, responsible work behavior, and self-control. Motivation and Emotion, 29(4), 295–323. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-006-9019-8
40.
JiaL.YuenW. L.OngQ.TheseiraW. E. (2023). Pitfalls of self-reported measures of self-control: Surprising insights from extreme debtors. Journal of Personality, 91(2), 369–382. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12733
41.
LiJ.-B.VazsonyiA. T.DouK. (2018). Is individualism-collectivism associated with self-control? Evidence from Chinese and U.S. samples. PLOS ONE, 13(12), Article e0208541. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208541
42.
LiQ.XiangG.SongS.HuangX.ChenH. (2022). Examining the associations of trait self-control with hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 23(2), 667–687. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021-00418-w
43.
LiuJ.ZhuL.LiuC. (2020). Sleep quality and self-control: The mediating roles of positive and negative affects. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Article 607548. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.607548
44.
LucasR. E. (2023). Why the cross-lagged panel model is almost never the right choice. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/25152459231158378
45.
MaierS. U.MakwanaA. B.HareT. A. (2015). Acute stress impairs self-control in goal-directed choice by altering multiple functional connections within the brain’s decision circuits. Neuron, 87(3), 621–631. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.07.005
46.
MarshH. W.HuppertF. A.DonaldJ. N.HorwoodM. S.SahdraB. K. (2020). The well-being profile (WB-Pro): Creating a theoretically based multidimensional measure of well-being to advance theory, research, policy, and practice. Psychological Assessment, 32(3), 294–313. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000787
47.
MoffittT. E.ArseneaultL.BelskyD.DicksonN.HancoxR. J.HarringtonH.HoutsR.PoultonR.RobertsB. W.RossS.SearsM. R.ThomsonW. M.CaspiA. (2011). A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(7), 2693–2698. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1010076108
48.
MulderJ. D. (2023). Power analysis for the random intercept cross-lagged panel model using the powRICLPM R-package. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 30(4), 645–658. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2022.2122467
49.
MulderJ. D.HamakerE. L. (2021). Three extensions of the random intercept cross-lagged panel model. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 28(4), 638–648. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2020.1784738
50.
MuravenM. (2010). Building self-control strength: Practicing self-control leads to improved self-control performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(2), 465–468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.12.011
51.
NielsenK. S.GwozdzW.de RidderD. (2019). Unraveling the relationship between trait self-control and subjective well-being: The mediating role of four self-control strategies. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00706
52.
NiuJ.JinC.MengL. (2023). The structural relations of self-control, empathy, interpersonal trust, friendship quality, and mental well-being among adolescents: A cross-national comparative study in China and Canada. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02468-2
53.
OrkibiH.RonenT. (2017). Basic psychological needs satisfaction mediates the association between self-control skills and subjective well-being. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00936
54.
OrthU.ClarkD. A.DonnellanM. B.RobinsR. W. (2021). Testing prospective effects in longitudinal research: Comparing seven competing cross-lagged models. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(4), 1013–1034. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000358
55.
OrthU.MeierL. L.BühlerJ. L.DappL. C.KraussS.MesserliD.RobinsR. W. (2024). Effect size guidelines for cross-lagged effects. Psychological Methods, 29(2), 421–433. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000499
56.
ParkC. L.WrightB. R. E.PaisJ.RayD. M. (2016). Daily stress and self-control. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 35(9), 738–753. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2016.35.9.738
57.
PeakeP. K. (2017). Delay of gratification: Explorations of how and why children wait and its linkages to outcomes over the life course. In StevensJ. (Ed.), Impulsivity (Vol. 64, pp. 7–60). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51721-6_2
58.
PeetzJ.DavydenkoM. (2021). Financial self-control strategy use: Generating personal strategies reduces spending more than learning expert strategies. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 97, 104189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104189
59.
PilcherJ. J.BryantS. A. (2016). Implications of social support as a self-control resource. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00228
60.
RaudenskáP. (2023). Single-item measures of happiness and life satisfaction: The issue of cross-country invariance of popular general well-being measures. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02299-1
61.
R Core Team. (2023). R: A language and environment for statistical computing [Computer software]. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org/
62.
SavaniK.JobV. (2017). Reverse ego-depletion: Acts of self-control can improve subsequent performance in Indian cultural contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(4), 589–607. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000099
63.
SchmeichelB. J.ZellA. (2007). Trait self-control predicts performance on behavioral tests of self-control. Journal of Personality, 75(4), 743–756. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2007.00455.x
64.
SchönbrodtF. D.PeruginiM. (2013). At what sample size do correlations stabilize?Journal of Research in Personality, 47(5), 609–612. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2013.05.009
65.
SchuurmanN. K.FerrerE.De Boer-SonnenscheinM.HamakerE. L. (2016). How to compare cross-lagged associations in a multilevel autoregressive model. Psychological Methods, 21(2), 206–221. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000062
66.
SethA. K.BarrettA. B.BarnettL. (2015). Granger causality analysis in neuroscience and neuroimaging. The Journal of Neuroscience, 35(8), 3293–3297. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4399-14.2015
ShulmanD.MeleadyR.HodsonG.CrispR. J. (2025). Fluctuations in prejudice do not track fluctuations in ordinary contact in three 5-wave “shortitudinal” studies examining daily, weekly, or monthly intervals. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 16(6), 620–633. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506241284079
69.
TangneyJ. P.BaumeisterR. F.BooneA. L. (2004). High self-control predicts good adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success. Journal of Personality, 72(2), 271–324. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3506.2004.00263.x
70.
WangL.FanC.TaoT.GaoW. (2017). Age and gender differences in self-control and its intergenerational transmission. Child: Care, Health and Development, 43(2), 274–280. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12411
71.
WatsonD.ClarkL. A.TellegenA. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063–1070. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063
72.
WenzelM.BürglerS.BrandstätterV.KreibichA.HenneckeM. (2024). Self-regulatory strategy use, efficacy, and strategy-situation-fit in self-control conflicts of initiation, persistence, and inhibition. European Journal of Personality, 38(2), 189–208. https://doi.org/10.1177/08902070221150478
73.
WenzelM.KubiakT.ConnerT. S. (2016). Self-control in daily life: How affect may boost or sabotage efforts at self-control. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(3), 195–203. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550616632578
74.
WernerK. M.MilyavskayaM.Foxen-CraftE.KoestnerR. (2016). Some goals just feel easier: Self-concordance leads to goal progress through subjective ease, not effort. Personality and Individual Differences, 96, 237–242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.002
75.
WieseC. W.TayL.DuckworthA. L.D’MelloS.KuykendallL.HofmannW.BaumeisterR. F.VohsK. D. (2018). Too much of a good thing? Exploring the inverted-U relationship between self-control and happiness. Journal of Personality, 86(3), 380–396. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12322
76.
WillsT. A.BantumE. O. (2012). Social support, self-regulation, and resilience in two populations: General-population adolescents and adult cancer survivors. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 31(6), 568–592. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2012.31.6.568
77.
WolffM.EngeS.KräplinA.KrönkeK.-M.BühringerG.SmolkaM. N.GoschkeT. (2021). Chronic stress, executive functioning, and real-life self-control: An experience sampling study. Journal of Personality, 89(3), 402–421. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12587
78.
WoodA. M.MaltbyJ.GillettR.LinleyP. A.JosephS. (2008). The role of gratitude in the development of social support, stress, and depression: Two longitudinal studies. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(4), 854–871. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2007.11.003
79.
ZyphurM. J.AllisonP. D.TayL.VoelkleM. C.PreacherK. J.ZhangZ.HamakerE. L.ShamsollahiA.PieridesD. C.KovalP.DienerE. (2019). From data to causes I: Building a General Cross-Lagged Panel model (GCLM). Organizational Research Methods, 23, 651–687. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428119847278
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
