Spanish Teacher Education Students’ Values and Satisfaction with Life

The main purposes of this study were to describe teacher education students’ values and degree of satisfaction with life, to analyze whether any differences by educational program, gender or living standard and to analyze the association between values and satisfaction with life. A total of 565 students of teacher degree programs (girls 415 (73.5%)) answered a self-administered questionnaire composed by two validates scales about their values (Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) and satisfaction with life (Satisfaction with Life Scale)). The results showed that the most important values were self-direction, benevolence and hedonism, while the least important values were power, tradition and achievements. Females reported higher importance for benevolence, universalism, self-direction, stimulation, hedonism and security. Males reported higher importance for power. Students who live with family reported also more high values for power. Concerning satisfaction with life, it was associated to higher values of power. Current intervention programs have focused different approaches by gender and living standard. Programs focus on increasing satisfaction with life should consider the values structure of students.


Resumen
Los objetivos principales de este estudio fueron describir los valores y grado de satisfacción con la vida de los estudiantes del Grado de Maestro para analizar posibles diferencias entre programas, género o configuración familiar; y la correlación entre valores y satisfacción con la vida. Un total de 565 estudiantes de los Grados de Educación (415 chicas (73.5%)) contestaron un cuestionario autoadministrado compuesto por dos escalas validadas sobre valores (Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) y satisfacción con la vida (Satisfaction With Life Scale)). Los resultados mostraron que los valores más importantes fueron autodirección, benevolencia y hedonismo, mientras que los menos importantes fueron, poder, tradición y logros. Las alumnas destacaron la benevolencia, el universalismo, la autodirección, estimulación, hedonismo y seguridad. Los varones destacaron el poder. Los estudiantes que viven con familiares también concedieron más relevancia al poder. La satisfacción con la vida está asociada al poder. Los programas actuales de intervención se han centrado en aproximaciones diferentes según género y configuración familiar. Los programas centrados en la satisfacción con la vida deberían considerar los valores del estudiantado. Palabras clave: valores, satisfacción con la vida, estudiantes magisterio, género. owadays, society is changing due to the present social, political and economical juncture (Gimeno, 2002). This time of crisis shows as an opportunity to rethink the aims that are to be achieved through the educational system, in which the work of the teacher is crucial (Moreno, Zomeño et al., 2013). According to Alsup (2008) the identity of a teacher will be linked to their activities in the classroom and the relationship that he or she establishes with the students. Consequently, a great deal of the pedagogical content is being transmitted through this relationship (Grosemans et al., 2015). In this teacher's identity, their values, being defined as the qualities of objects which have polarity and a hierarchical order (Frondizi, 1997) are irretrievably expressed. According to Brunso, Scholderer and Grunert (2004, p.196) "values constitute the most abstract to level of cognition, not specific in relation to situations or objects, but influencing the perception and evaluation of these". Schwartz (2012) states that values are beliefs linked to affect, since they instill feelings as well as guiding our actions. Schwartz (1992), working on Rokeach (1973) assumptions, establishes some dimensions in which the values could be grouped: benevolence, universalism, self-direction, stimulation, hedonism, achievements, power, security, conformity and tradition. These values are grouped in four dimensions: openness to change, self-transcendence, conservation and selfenhancement at shown in Figure 1. In addition, he also explained that values also serve as criteria or standards for the development of our behavior (Schwartz, 2012). Scheler (2000) affirms that values are invariable, independent of goods, linked to emotional aspects of individuals and not captured by reason or intellect.  (Schwartz, 2012) Thus, the quality of objects with polarity that is strongly linked to personal beliefs and which guides actions is a fundamental element in the study of teacher education students, since knowledge about the values can help us make predictions about the future of education (Huertas-Delgado, 2011). We cannot forget that education process is often conditioned by a number of factors, and these primarily rest on "beliefs and values which permeate education" itself (Barlett and Burton, 2016, p. 7). In that case, future teachers will be able to carry out their teaching tasks and their educational action, according to their particular values, and this will be linked, in turn, to their own personalities, gender identity and living standard.
Currently, there is a shortage of ethical and values content in initial teacher training (Thornberg and Oğuz, 2016). This concern is consistent with the growing interest in recent years in determining a hierarchy of values both globally (World Values Survey, 2014) and in Europe (Ros and Schwartz, 1995). In the specific case of Spain (Fundación Santa María, 2010;Megías et al, 2006), studies focusing on the university level (Gervilla, 2010) have sought to identify students' values (Cortés et al., 2008;Elexpuru, Villardón and Yániz, 2013;Imaz, 2010). Studies of what values are held by young people (Megías et al, 2006), and more specifically by future teachers (Elexpuru et al, 2013), lead us to suggest that there is a need for indepth studies to discover what values are held by teacher education students and the relationship between these values and satisfaction with life and gender. Despite everything, it is a priority to study how these values may have changed and how they are related to life satisfaction, furthermore because the values will be according to different factor as the personal and social situation and the cultural background of the person (Schwartz, 1992). On the one hand, the current research tries to show a wider understanding of the students´ values, and that is why we tried to link this perspective to the Educational program and to the gender, to research on a more particular vision about the most striking values in future teachers. On the other hand, this study could offer an original and new perspective on the relation of values with living standard and the association between values and satisfaction with life. As a matter of fact, we can consider that gender construction is often conditioned by social models, and these, in turn, could change depending on living standard owe to this can be an indicator for the different socioeconomic factors. Personal values will be developed (and will evolve) according to the studies or work carried out by the respondents (Aguilar-Luzón, Calvo-Salguero and García-Hita, 2007). Furthermore, University studies tend to focus not only on theoretical issues, but also on the comprehensive development of the person (Fernández-Río, Cecchini and Méndez-Giménez, 2014). Babowik, Basabe, Páez, Jiménez y Bilbao (2011) in their research on the relation between values and well-being, show how there is a significant correlation between individual values and life satisfaction. Satisfaction with life is related to well-being, and studies in this area have tended to establish a connection with happiness for over a decade (Diener and Seligman, 2002). Life satisfaction and happiness are so strongly connected that their meaning overlap, in the sense that life satisfaction involves a rating of many different aspects in a given individual´s life and happiness (Diener, Napa y Lucas, 2003). Nonetheless, authors like Chui and Wong (2015) differ from these assumptions. They affirm that life satisfaction and happiness are completely different concepts. Life satisfaction calls for a more extensive achievement whereas happiness is a shallower notion. Furthermore, life satisfaction is a subjective indicator of wellbeing and it depends on the quality of one's own experiences (Arita Watanabe, 2005).
In Spain, the Foundation for Help Against Drug Addiction (FHAD, 2010) attempted to find differences between men and women in their satisfaction with life. Other studies have investigated the influence of family configuration (single-parent or two-parent) and on young people´s satisfaction (Montoya and Landero, 2008) but they didn't address the current living standard. Yet, authors like Lahelma and Gordon have pointed out how leaving the parental family has a strong impact on a psychological level, especially on young people´s dreams (2010). These authors have assessed the fact that young people´s emancipation involves more independence and more responsibilities and, consequently, a change in their value system ¨A concept like ´independence´ embodies particular moral and political values¨ (2010, p. 377). Recent studies (Moreno, 2018;Seiffge-Krenke, 2006;Cinamon, 2006) indicate that assuming everyday responsibilities is something that makes a difference between those young people who have moved away and those that still stay at their family home and it marks a transition to adulthood.
As for gender´s dissimilarities, there are some differential behaviors regarding the psychological and social wellbeing (mainly focused on student population). A research on students from Buenos Aires showed that women had higher levels of life satisfaction than men, especially in psychological and social wellbeing (Zubieta y Delfino, 2010). By the same token, a research on higher education students in Lima confirms women´s higher levels of life satisfaction (Velásquez et al., 2008). Another study conducted in Buenos Aires reveals that women show a better level of psychological wellbeing and, therefore, a higher possibility to develop to their fullest potential (Zubieta, Muratori y Fernández, 2012). However, according to Chui and Wong, even though women in Hong Kong show more satisfaction with life, men show a higher level of happiness (2015).
Satisfaction with life was also studied in a university environment that sought to describe to what extent students were satisfied (Pérez-Escoda, 2013) and whether they had motivational profiles that could be related to satisfaction with life (Moreno and Silveira, 2015). Furthermore, life satisfaction is also related to family unrest at a young age and adolescence. Numerous studies state that family conflicts are related with lower levels of subjective wellbeing and, therefore, with lesser life satisfaction. Family conflicts are related to drug abuse, (Chávez et al., 2005) to the rise of depressive episodes among young people (Galicia, Sánchez y Robles, 2009) to the limitation of personal autonomy (Allen et al., 1996) and to the growth of antisocial and agressive behaviors (Cerda, Cerda y Store, 2008). However, other authors (Steinberg, 2001;Smetana, Campione-Barr y Metzger, 2006;Luna, 2012) highlight the low rate of conflicts between parents and their children, in spite of what the most assumed social preconceived notions.
Values and satisfaction are variables that have been extensively and thoroughly studied in recent decades but, to the best of our knowledge, there is no Spanish evidence about the relation of values and satisfaction with life, and satisfaction with life regarding gender or living standard in university students. Therefore, studies that analyze these issues in specific populations are needed if an overall picture of the situation is to be constructed. The main objectives of this study are: to study the values and satisfaction with life of teacher education Spanish students (early childhood and primary), to analyze differences in these variables by gender and models of family and to determine the relation between satisfaction with life and values.

Study Design and Participants
This study involved 565 students (150 men and 415 women) at the " Teacher Training Center La Inmaculada" (University of Granada) who were studying in teacher training degree programs. The data were collected between January and April 2016. Authorization was requested from the Dean of the center, and an explanation of the project was provided both to the professors and to the students. The students who participated in the study filled out a self-administered questionnaire on paper at the end of one of their class sessions. The duration of the questionnaire's answer was ten minutes. Informed consent was asked to students prior to participate in this study and the Ethics Practices of the University of Granada were followed (approved on April 2014).

Questionnaire
Students were asked about general socio-demographic characteristics (gender, educational program, year, parents' level of education), current residence in relation to their family (students were categorized as "family home" if they live with their parents, children or partner, and "non-family housing" when they live alone or in a student's apartment).

Values
The questionnaire was based on models of values and questionnaires developed by Schwartz (2003). Specifically, in this study we used the short version of the PVQ (Schwartz et al., 2001). It was finally composed by 42 questions and the participants had to select the grade of agreement (Likert Scale from 1 to 6), showing a reliability of 0,66 α (Schwartz et al, 2001). The questionnaire allows for eight value dimensions; benevolence, universalism, self-direction, stimulation, hedonism, achievements, power, security, conformity and tradition. The PVQ has been adapted and used in Spanish population before (Huertas-Delgado 2011, Bobowik et al. 2011). The Conbach's alpha for the overall questionnaire, consisting on 42 items was α=0.86. According to these results, the questionnaire PVQ presented a good internal consistency in this Spanish sample.

Satisfaction with Life
The Satisfaction With Life Scale was used to assess the satisfaction with life (Diener and Griffin, 1985). This scale showed a reliability above 0.90 as measured by Chronbach's Alpha (Diener, Inglehart, and Tay, 2013;Eid and Diener, 2004). It has been used in Spanish and applied to a university population in various studies (Montoya & Landero, 2008;Tamara, Canales, and Domínguez, 2014 . The answers to these questions enable a happiness indicator to be calculated on a Likert scale of 1 to 7, with a maximum of 35 points. The questionnaire was used in Spanish, after conducting a back-translation process. For that, two experts translate the questionnaire: one expert translated the Satisfaction with Life Scale to Spanish and the other expert translated it back to English. Finally, the two experts agreed through consensus the final version used. The Conbach's alpha for the overall questionnaire, consisting on 42 items was α=0.91. According to these results, the questionnaire the Satisfaction With Life Scale presented a very good internal consistency in this Spanish sample.

Statistical Analysis
Socio-demographic characteristics were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results are presented as means and standard deviations for continuous variables and as frequencies (%) for discrete variables. Differences in values and satisfaction with life were analyzed by educational program, gender and living standard using a one-way ANOVA test. A linear regression was fitted to analyze the association between values and satisfaction with life, using satisfaction with life as the dependent variable and the eight value dimensions as the independent variables, adjusted by gender. All analyses were calculated using the SPSS statistical program (20.0 for Windows), and the level of significance was set to p <0.05.

Results
The research participants were mostly female (73.5%) and generally lived with their families (61.3%) ( Table 1). About 66% of the students' parents had not completed a university degree. There was a greater proportion of women in the Childhood Education degree and a lower proportion of thirdyear students. The most important values for the Childhood Education and Primary Education surveyed students were self-direction, benevolence and hedonism, while the least important values were power, tradition and achievements (Figure 2). Values and satisfaction with life reported by students related to Education program, gender and living standard, are shown in Table 2. Students of Primary Education presented higher importance to power and achievements (both p<0.05). There were differences in values by gender and living situation. Significant differences by gender were found in hedonism, security (both p <0.05), universalism, self-direction, stimulation (p <0.01 for all three), benevolence and power (p = 0.000 for both). Women had higher results than men as far as benevolence, universalism, self-direction, stimulation, hedonism and security were concerned. Males reported greater importance to power than females. Power also showed relevant differences (p = 0.010), depending on the student's living standard. Those who lived with their families gave greater importance to power than students not living with their families. The linear regression analysis showed a relationship between satisfaction with life and the value structure of the student (Table 3). Satisfaction with life is related to the value power (β = 1.345, CI 0.584-2.038). The students who gave more importance to power obtained higher satisfaction with life scores.

Discussion
The key findings of this study were: students reported a higher importance to self-direction, hedonism and benevolence and less importance to power and tradition. The values were different regarding sociodemographic characteristics (for instance, female students reported higher importance to benevolence or universalism); and, higher satisfaction with life was associated with higher importance to power. The results showed that of the values analyzed in the study, these teacher education students hold hedonism as one of their most important values. This is consistent with the longitudinal series of reports published by the Santa María Foundation on young people in Spain (2010). This report noted in particular on the subject of values that Spanish youth are hedonists, less rule-breaking than in the past, and pessimistic about the future in terms of their potential for success or of having a good quality of life. The aspects they valued most were family, health and friends, with aspects such as free time, leisure and the desire to earn money being less important to them. In this sense, we could take into account the perspective of Pérez-Jorge, Barragán and Molina-Fernández (2017), who underscore the importance of education values in the promotion of positive attitudes in a holistic way and concerning to human values.
Benevolence was important for students. In this sense, Cortés et al. (2008), showed that students in teaching degree programs tend more to hold values of benevolence and universalism, being inclined towards proactive and prosocial behavior. In contrast, the data collected by Parenkov, Parenkov and Rubtcova (2015) showed the importance of altruism as a key element in the professional identity of teachers. In relation to teachers' self-identity, Beauchamp and Thomas (2009) argue that a teacher's self-image, whether personal or social, is very important, since it will be projected and will influence the students.
The different socio-educational changes may contribute to tradition being considered one of the less important values, as stated in this study. According to Imaz (2009), young people place more importance on values related to everyday life and the people closest to them. Tradition is related to the importance of family and friends as center of life, while values related to political change or selfdirection are given less priority, as in other previous reports by the Santa Maria Foundation (2000. This trend differs from the traditional image of the teacher, which evokes the vocation and role of the teacher as a political agent. It may be due in part to the status of education since the third educational revolution (as Esteve (2003) termed it), which was characterized by education up to age 16 being made compulsory, and by the societal changes this entailed. Esteve (2003) points out that education is no longer a privilege (in the 1970s, only 9% of students finished high school in Spain), but rather that it became an obligatory element that in effect helps carry the development of society forward but also brings new problems and conceptions to the educational system. According to Sánchez-Lissen (2003), this has influenced a new vocational profile of teacher education students. After going through a decision-making process, they enter the program with different motivations than before, but this does not prevent them from successfully concluding their teaching degree and discovering a love for teaching along the way. It is important to deepen the importance of different values to correctly profile teacher education students and develop the most effective training programs.
Women reported higher importance to benevolence and universalism, due to its greater relationship with community or universalist values, such as a feeling of protection toward the most needyespecially childrenequality, solidarity or tolerance and respect, in contrast to the individualistic values prevalent in men (Robles, 2015, Cortés Pascual, 2009). For women, from a traditional perspective, the teaching profession has been seen as a more professionalized extension of the task of caring for children, since it is usually more focused on the practice of teaching than on the vision of the teacher as a social agent. San Román (2015) speaks of the 'social mothers of the village,' referring to women teachers in Spain during the period of National Catholicism in relation to their predominantly collectivist values and their strengthening of social ties. Education in Spain has been closely linked to Catholicism and, according to Moreno (2015), Catholic discourse extols a type of dignity for women and a woman's role within the family and society as the guarantor and defender of religious values and beliefs. It gives women an opportunity for active participation in the life of the Church through religious associationism, but still linked in apparent contradiction to their subordination to male ecclesiastical authority. In the same vein, Morcillo (1988) points out that the woman's traditional workplace, supported by a Catholic vision, was the home: motherhood and family were her primary occupations, and she was considered the basic pillar of the Catholic family when it came to the defense and transmission of beliefs.
Selfdirection and stimulation were also higher in women than their male counterparts. These differences between men and women, in the interplay between more traditional models and other models virtually opposite to them, they also could be seen in the results showing that benevolence and universalism are equally high among women, while these values are associated with the traditional female construction of gender, being linked to the cultivation of social relationships (Moreno, 2015). However, other studies suggested that women's transition from the private household sphere and from social invisibility to a normalized status in the labor market, earning income and having greater access to positions of responsibilitythat is, to a status overall more equal with mencould lead to women having a greater desire for social recognition. Women's ascent in society, as Campo Ladero (2003) says, has led to a change in their social and family role in recent decades, especially in traditional women's roles due to their ascent and greater social visibility. Torres (2010) argues that the desire for recognition is directly related to the concept of self and to social support. In the current social structure based on patriarchy, women have been made invisible, resulting in inequality with respect to men (Moreno and Avendaño, 2012). The desire to break this traditional role may be one of the reasons why women seek this social recognition.
On the other hand, men reported higher importance to Power than women. In this same vein, Schwartz & Rubel-Lifschitz (2009) support the idea that power and achievement are inherent values to men, according to their research, based on the analyses of students belonging to 68 different countries. Nevertheless, there are divergences we should take into account. On the one side, the cultural and social context: United States versus Europe. Apart from that, this graduated population analyzed by the researchers belonged to science studies, and we must underscore that initial motivations and goals could be differing if we consider professional future: transmitting values may be the key for the main pursuit of future teacher´s life. At this regard, these authors underscore that education and the effects of gender education contribute to shorten differences in the perception of values according to gender.
It is notable that the value of hedonism (closer to individualism and opposed to collectivism) is also predominant in women. This may be related to the consolidation of postmodern values, linked in turn to aesthetic demands, since the values most strongly linked to the construct of femininity are those related to strengthening relationships and interpersonal ties. Ryckman and Houston (2003) found no significant gender differences in these values, while in the present study there were more women associated with collectivist and moral values, which was also the finding in the studies by Comas (2003) and Moreno (2007).
Cultural factors may exert their influence, as far as family importance as a main value is concerned, on university students. This idea is supported by Campaña, Giménez and Molina (2015), who consider that social roles and family relevance is deep-rooted in families belonging to cultures where this is a basic value. In this sense, we could find divergences between our findings and the thesis supported by these researchers These values are part of the construction of identity, and they also include gender identity; that is, the social construct that associates different attitudes, behaviors and values with male roles than with female roles (Ramos, 2015). In this study we have linked the female role to women and the male role to men and have found differences. These can be related to aspects that each stereotyped gender marks as its own, differentiating between male and female to achieve life satisfaction (Chui et al., 2013).
In relation to the Education program, students of Primary Education reported higher importance to achievements and power than Early Childhood Education students. In this way, there are evidences that the educational program conducted determines largely teachers' beliefs and values as well as the development of attitudes and habits (Chroinin and O'Sullivan, 2014).
On power and its relationship to living standard, in this study students who lived with their families placed more value on power than those who lived outside the family home, since the latter have been released from parental control and enjoy greater freedom. In this direction, we must underscore that families exert and importance influence on the relevance young people attach to fundamental values (Cortés-Pascual, Cano-Escoriaza, & Orejudo, 2014).
Satisfaction with life (Diener, Shigehiro and Lucas, 2003) did not differ by Educational program, gender or living situation. Myers & Diener (1995) found that neither gender, race nor age in themselves are associated with greater life satisfaction. In a similar way, Deb et al. (2019) did not find differences in gender in the context of the Indian university students. Even spirituality, an innovative component they introduced, did not make any difference. On the contrary, the researchers underscore that good interpersonal relations and interactions contribute to increase the level of satisfaction with life, Furthermore, and taking into account specifically the Education Degree Students, Cabras & Mondo (2018) conducted a study to analyze the importance of age and gender in the acquisition of coping strategies for new university students. At this regard, they compare values, attitudes and satisfaction with life in this sample. The results they obtained concluded similar outcomes to our research: no gender differences were found in satisfaction with life. Only age could become a conditioning factor in this case. However, recent studies have taken this issue further. In this same vein, Denegri Coria et al. (2018) carried out an analysis with a University sample in Chile to measure satisfaction with life in four dimensions: overall, family and friends, context (neighborhood and University) and self satisfaction. The results these researchers obtained showed significant differences in gender. Females tended to be more satisfied with family, friends and university than males. This same circumstance could also be applied to the overall satisfaction. Even though there are convergences between this research and the study we have implemented, we can also find relevant divergences in this regard.
Other studies (Moyano and Ramos, 2007;González and Landero, 2008;Cantú et al., 2010) showed lower life satisfaction among women than men and it may be due to the fact that women are subject to higher levels of stress (Lepp, Barkeley & Karpinski, 2014).
One interesting research, by Hawi & Samaha (2017) added an interesting component: the role of the addiction or high dependence to social media among young university students. The researchers highlighted there is an unavoidable link between dependence and low satisfaction with life. In this case, the authors also found important differences between males and females. Women expressed less satisfaction in case of more dependence to social media. This element could be an interesting perspective to take into account in future researches. Therefore, further studies in different population are necessary to fully understand the satisfaction with life relation with gender. It may also be interesting to conduct a longitudinal analysis to check if this trend continues or changes over time. Furthermore, satisfaction with life is associated to values. Students who reported higher importance to power presented higher satisfaction with life. This is found to be related to a study which reported that society currently finds life satisfaction though the acquisition of material goods (Burroughs et al., 2002). This surprising association is important to determine the values we must focus to increase satisfaction with life. In any case, more studies focused on the association between values and satisfaction with life would be interesting to confirm this relation.
The study presents some limitations merit to be mentioned. The first one is that since the subjects are teacher education students, and given the feminization of teaching, as documented by authors such as San Román (2010), Mínguez (2010), Ballarín (1994) and Flecha (2000), differences may not be so strong, since classroom environments are highly feminized. A high level of feminization or masculinization of groups may lead to an identification with the predominant values, both for men and women in the group, or it may function in the opposite way, to highlight gender differences which may reinforce male and female identities. The second limitation is that it is inherent in the nature of the study that measurement of values or life satisfaction involves quantifying personal beliefs and constructions, which is difficult to be done objectively; however, the high validity of the questionnaire used in this study may moderate this limitation.
First of all, the limited sample of only one University makes difficult to generalize the results. Moreover, longitudinal studies may be important to establish the direction of the association between power and satisfaction with life. On the other hand, the valid instruments used to assess the values and satisfaction with life is a strength to correctly assess these topics. In this same vein, it could also be interesting to analyze the relations between age and satisfaction with life, and the role of social backgrounds in the acquisition and development of coping strategies. These skills may show, or at least measure, the level of satisfaction with life university students along the time. This turns into a priority to know their needs, and develop, in turn, adequate programs to implement in future. Combining these with qualitative tools such as interviews or discussion group and semi-structured surveys could provide more information on the reasons for the answers given. This could bring us closer to a real reading of the underlying factors (Rodríguez et al., 2014).

Conclusion
In the present study, higher values reported by students were selfdirection, hedonism and benevolence, and they were influenced by Educational program, gender and living standard. Gender differences presented the higher differences in values. On the other hand, satisfaction with life was associated with values, more importance to power was related to higher satisfaction with life. Future interventions in University context about the development of certain values must take into account the current living standard of students, their gender, and must be different according to the Education program where students are involved. Furthermore, programs focused on the increasing of satisfaction with life must take into account the students' values hierarchy, specially the importance of power.