Abstract Purpose: This study assesses the degree to which school stress, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy and school satisfaction are associated with overall life satisfaction in upper secondary school in Norway, and the degree to which school stress, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy and school satisfaction are associated with each other. Method: Cross-sectional study of 1,031 students from upper secondary schools in Norway. Baseline data from the Dream School Project was collected during spring 2014. Correlation analysis was used to assess the association between the variables, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between school stress, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, school satisfaction and life satisfaction, controlled for age, gender, grades, study program and family wealth. Results: School stress was negatively associated with life satisfaction, to a small degree, while academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy and school satisfaction were positively associated with life satisfaction to a medium-strong degree. School stress on one hand was negatively associated to school satisfaction and academic self-efficacy on the other hand. School satisfaction was associated with social self-efficacy to a small degree, while medium strong degree to academic self-efficacy. Together, school stress, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, school satisfaction, study programme and family wealth explained 35 % of the variance in life satisfaction, whereas social self-efficacy explained most of the variance, supporting the importance of social and academic mastery experiences in upper secondary school. Girls, and students from families not economically well off, had the highest scores in school stress, compared to boys and students economically better off.