The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between affect and short-term life satisfaction (LS) taking into account the dimension of activation for positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) and the balance of PA and NA.

The study included 398 students (184 men and 214 women) who completed six questionnaires three of which were used for another study. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule was utilized for assessing activated PA and NA. Two subscales of the Multiple Mood Scale were used to measure deactivated PA and NA, and the Short-term Life Satisfaction Scale for LS. Correlation analyses and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to mainly examine the relationships between affect balance (PA-NA and PA/NA) and LS.

The results of correlation analyses showed that LS was positively associated with affect balance in both activated and deactivated dimension. Additionally, the hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed a significant interaction between activated PA and NA, which indicated that the relationship between activated PA and LS in women was strengthened when the level of activated NA was relatively lower.

The findings in this study suggested that students who have stronger PA compared to NA might feel high LS in both activated and deactivated dimension. Moreover, it was suggested that the profitable effect of activated PA on LS in women would be larger when their activated NA was relatively weakened.