Proposes a model of subjective well-being (SWB) with 2 levels: The background level and the agentic level with the latter mediating the effects of the former. Given the potential importance of sociocultural factors in the production of SWB in adolescents, we examine whether particular predictors of SWB (i.e., strain, global control expectancy, emotion-oriented coping, problem-oriented coping) differ across sociocultural contexts and thus, test the generality of our 2-level model. A cross-cultural study including Eastern and Western European countries and the US represents a unique opportunity to test the generality of the proposed model, because these countries represent a comparative framework with a sufficient amount of both similarities and differences on various dimensions. The measures used include: the Berne Questionnaire on Adolescents' Well-Being, the Strain Inventory, the Coping Reactions Questionnaire, and the Bernese Questionnaire on Adolescents' Perception of Control. This study supports the generality of the 2-level model of SWB in adolescence by providing evidence of its cross-cultural invariance. There were consistent patterns in predictive effects from the variables of both levels (background and agentic) on SWB in adolescents across all of the samples.