Deprivation,Social Exclusion and Subjective Well-Being

This paper aims at investigating empirically the relationship between self-declared satisfaction with life and an individual’s well-being as measured by the indices of deprivation and social exclusion proposed in the income distribution literature. Results on European countries show that life satisfaction decreases with an increase in deprivation and exclusion after controlling for individual’s income, relative income and other influential factors in a multivariate setting.     

Subjective Well-Being and Life Satisfaction in the Kingdom of Tonga

This paper describes an initial attempt to assess the subjective well being of a sample of 227 Tongans via self-report. Using items adapted from the Subjective Well Being Inventory (SUBI; Nagpal and Sell, 1985; Sell and Nagpal, 1992), participants rated their level of overall life satisfaction along with their perceptions of well-beingin a number of other more specific life domains. Results indicated that mean ratings of global life satisfaction were generally positive. A factor analysis of the remaining domain-specific well-being items indicated that items loaded on to one of two factors dealing with overall positive or negative evaluations of these life areas. Importantly, these scale items stressed the importance of social and kin relations in contributing to overall well-being. In terms of demographic variables, mature respondents reported greater levels of overall life satisfaction and well-being as compared to youthful respondents. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Need Satisfaction Mechanism Linking Volunteer Motivation and Life Satisfaction: A Mediation Study of Volunteers Subjective Well-Being

A mediation model explaining volunteers’ subjective well-being was tested in this paper. It examined the effect of intrinsic motivation on volunteers’ life satisfaction, using the need satisfaction experienced through volunteering as an intervening variable. A questionnaire was administered to 443 participants, not all of whom had previous experience of volunteering. Mediation analysis suggested a path from intrinsic motivation to volunteers’ life satisfaction through the need satisfaction experienced during volunteering. Neither volunteer participation per se nor extrinsic motivation was related to life satisfaction. The roles of motivation and need satisfaction in volunteers’ life satisfaction were identified, with implications for future volunteer programs.     

The Buffering Effects of Social Capital on Inequalities in Subjective Well-Being Among Older People

Social Indicators Research - Empirical evidence regarding the buffering effects of community social capital on health inequality is limited. This study aims to examine the moderating effects of a...     

Subjective Well-Being and Social Capital in Belgian Communities. The Impact of Community Characteristics on Subjective Well-Being Indicators in Belgium

In this article, we investigate the effect of individual and community level characteristics on subjective well-being in Belgium. Various indicators for subjective well-being are being used in a multilevel analysis of the 2009 SCIF survey (n = 2,080) and the 2006 Belgian ESS sample (n = 1,798). On the individual level, most hypotheses on the determinants of subjective well-being were confirmed. Living with a partner and age were shown to have strong effects, but also social capital indicators had a significant positive effect on subjective well-being. All these effects remained significant controlling for optimism. On the community level, especially unemployment rate had a negative impact on subjective well-being. The analysis further demonstrates that in homogeneous regions, community characteristics have a far weaker impact on subjective well-being indicators than in economically more heterogeneous regions.     

Different Things Make Different People Happy: Examining Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being by Gender and Parental Status

This paper addresses a number of key challenges in current subjective well-being (SWB) research: A new wave of studies should take into account that different things may make different people happy, thus going beyond a unitary ‘happiness formula’. Furthermore, empirical results need to be connected to broader theoretical narratives. Using a re-examination of the social context of well-being as its case study, this article therefore resorts to sociological theory and fills a gap by investigating how social capital is correlated in different ways with the SWB of men, women, parents, and non-parents. Ordered logit and OLS regression analyses systematically examine slope heterogeneity using UK data from the European Social Survey. It turns out that civic engagement is not at all associated with higher life satisfaction for mothers, while the relationship is positive for men and strongest for childless women. Moreover, informal socialising is positively and more strongly associated with life satisfaction among women, although only when OLS is used. In sum, the social context of well-being varies considerably by gender and parental status. Mothers do not seem to benefit from formal social capital, indicating a “motherhood penalty” (see Correll et al., Am J Sociol 112(5):1297–1338 in 2007) regarding the psychological rewards usually associated with volunteering. Given the high levels of formal social capital among mothers, the findings also highlight the importance of the homo sociologicus concept. Consequently, SWB research can be successfully used to provide new insights into long-standing interdisciplinary theory debates such as the one on homo economicus versus homo sociologicus.     

A Model for Subjective Well-Being in Adolescence: Need Satisfaction and Reasons for Living

Subjective well-being is as important for adolescents as it is in other stages of life. This study thus aims to develop a model for subjective well-being, which is limited to need satisfaction in adolescence and reasons for living, and to test the validity of the model. Participants were a total of 227 individuals, 120 females and 107 males. Data for the study were collected by using the Scale for Basic Need Satisfaction in General, Reasons for Living Inventory, Life Satisfaction Scale and Positive?CNegative Affect Scale. The data were analyzed by using the structural equation model. The results showed that, in the model developed, the effects of need satisfaction and reasons for living on subjective well-being were significant and direct; those of reasons for living were significant and indirect; and the total effects of variables were significant. It was thus concluded that the model presented here can be used to increase adolescents?? subjective well-being. The results are discussed in light of the literature on subjective well-being and within the context of adolescence as a life stage.     

Self-Esteem as Mediator and Moderator of the Relationship Between Social Support and Subjective Well-Being Among Chinese University Students

This study examined both the mediating and moderating effects of global self-esteem on the relationship between social support and subjective well-being among Chinese university students. Three hundred and ninety-one university students (260 males and 131 females) from two different Chinese universities completed the social support scale, the self-esteem scale and the subjective well-being scale. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that global self-esteem partially mediated the influence of social support on life satisfaction and positive affect, whereas it fully mediated the influence of social support on negative affect. Moreover, global self-esteem moderated the relationship between social support and life satisfaction, and positive affect, but not negative affect. When students reported a high level of global self-esteem, those with high social support reported higher scores in life satisfaction and positive affect than those with low social support. However, there were no differences in life satisfaction or positive affect between groups with high and low social support when global self-esteem was low. The significance and limitations of the results are discussed.     

Testing Subjective Well-Being from the Perspective of Social Quality: Quantile Regression Evidence from Shanghai, China

Based on an empirical survey in Shanghai, this study tests how the effects of Social Quality’s four domains viz. social economic security, social inclusion, social cohesion, and social empowerment—on subjective well-being (SWB) vary across quantiles of SWB. The results show that house tenure, financial balance, social participation, social trust, loneliness, and social alienation, are strong predictors for SWB across SWB’s quantiles. Institutional trust improves SWB among those with lower and middle levels of SWB. People’s view on success attribution is also associated with SWB. Being married makes those with low levels of SWB happier, whereas high education only benefits those from the upper quantiles of SWB.     

Money and Happiness: Income,Wealth and Subjective Well-Being

Social Indicators Research - We examine the complex relationship between money and happiness. We find that both permanent income and wealth are better predictors of life satisfaction than current...     

The Contribution of Job and Partner Satisfaction to the Homeostatic Defense of Subjective Wellbeing

Two studies investigate subjective wellbeing (SWB) homeostasis. The first investigates the contribution of job satisfaction (JS) and partner satisfaction (PS) to the homeostatic defense of SWB. The extant model of homeostasis does not include either variable. The second study investigates the relationship between Homeostatically Protected Mood (HPMood) and other factors involved in the homeostatic model. It has been proposed that HPMood is the basic, biologically determined, positive mood that saturates SWB and other related variables, and forms the basis of the SWB set-point. Thus, if HPMood is an individual difference and it perfuses other homeostatic variables, then HPMood should be responsible for much of the shared variance between such variables. Two comparative samples are involved. One is a group of 171 Hong Kong Chinese recruited through convenience sampling. The other is a group of 343 Australians recruited via a general population survey. Results indicate that both JS and PS predict significant variance in Global Life Satisfaction beyond the existing factors in the homeostatic model. It is also found that, after controlling for the effect of HPMood, the strength of correlations between SWB and other homeostatic variables is significantly diminished. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

个体特征、就业状况及工作满意度对农民工参加社会保险的影响--基于福州、厦门的调查数据

本文基于福州、厦门两地农民工问卷调查数据,运用二元Logistic回归分析,从个体特征、就业状况和工作满意度三个方面对农民工是否参加社会保险及其影响因素进行实证分析。研究结果表明：教育程度、外出务工年限年限及是否拖欠工资对农民工参加社会保险具有显著的影响。年龄、工作性质、是否签订劳动合同、有无技能培训、更换工作次数对农民工参加社会保险作用显著且系数为正。性别、家庭外出务工人数、职业类型、月平均收入及对当前工作是否满意的影响并不显著。最后根据分析的结果提出相应建议。     

Generational Differences in Work Values,Perceived Job Rewards,and Job Satisfaction of Chinese Female Migrant Workers: Implications for Social Policy and Social Services

This cross-sectional survey study is a pioneering attempt to investigate the generational differences in the work values, perceived job rewards, and job satisfaction of Chinese female migrant workers. The study targeted two toy factories in the Guangdong Province of China and recruited a total of 1,307 female workers as participants. Among them were 577 female migrant workers who comprised the target group for this research. The authors hypothesized that the younger generation of female migrant workers would have higher levels of cognitive work values (such as self-enhancement and career development) but lower levels of perceived job rewards and job satisfaction than those of the older generation. The results indicate that there are no generational differences in work values among the three birth cohorts of Chinese female migrant workers. The older generation felt more satisfied with the job rewards that they received, and their sense of job satisfaction was higher than that of the younger generation. Furthermore, the findings showed a substantial positive influence of perceived social job rewards (such as support from co-workers and supervisors) on job satisfaction among the younger generation. The current findings suggest that in China, generational differences in work are affected by both the generation factor and the rural–urban stratification factor. The authors hope that the study will provide a knowledge base for understanding the perceptions of Chinese female migrant workers toward work and for exploring the ways in which new policies and social services can be developed in order to address their needs.     

Individual- and Neighbourhood-Level Indicators of Subjective Well-Being in a Small and Poor Eastern Cape Township: The Effect of Health,Social Capital,Marital Status,and Income

Our study used multilevel regression analysis to identify individual- and neighbourhood-level factors that determine individual-level subjective well-being in Rhini, a deprived suburb of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The Townsend index and Gini coefficient were used to investigate whether contextual neighbourhood-level differences in socioeconomic status determined individual-level subjective well-being. Crime experience, health status, social capital, and demographic variables were assessed at the individual level. The indicators of subjective well-being were estimated with a two-level random-intercepts and fixed slopes model. Social capital, health and marital status (all p < .001), followed by income level (p < .01) and the Townsend score (p < .05) were significantly related to individual-level subjective well-being outcomes. Our findings showed that individual-level subjective well-being is influenced by neighbourhood-level socioeconomic status as measured by the Townsend deprivation score. Individuals reported higher levels of subjective well-being in less deprived neighbourhoods. Here we wish to highlight the role of context for subjective well-being, and to suggest that subjective well-being outcomes may also be defined in ecological terms. We hope the findings are useful for implementing programs and interventions designed to achieve greater subjective well-being for people living in deprived areas.     

Subjective Well-Being, Income and Relative Concerns in the UK

We present an empirical model aimed at testing the relative income hypothesis and the effect of deprivation relative to mean income on subjective well-being. The main concern is to deal with subjective panel data in an ordered response model where error homoskedasticity is not assumed. A heteroskedastic pooled panel ordered probit model with unobserved individual-specific effects is applied to micro-data available in the British Household Panel Survey for 1996–2007. In this framework, absolute income impacts negatively on both completely satisfied and dissatisfied individuals, while relative income affects positively the most satisfied ones. Such an effect is asymmetric, impacting more severely on the relatively poor in the reference group. We argue that our results buttress the validity of the relative income hypothesis as an explanation of the happiness paradox.     

Social Comparisons and Life Satisfaction Across Racial and Ethnic Groups: The Effects of Status,Information and Solidarity

This paper explores the role of within group social comparisons on the life satisfaction of different racial and ethnic groups in the US. For Whites, we find that higher group income levels are associated with lower levels of life satisfaction, a result that is consistent with a preference for within group status. In contrast, life satisfaction is increasing in group income for Blacks. This result is consistent with the existence of social norms that emphasize Black solidarity. It is also consistent with an information effect in which Blacks rely on peer income levels to form expectations regarding their future prospects. We introduce a theoretical framework to help to distinguish between solidarity and information effects. Our empirical results provide strong support for the hypothesis that solidarity rather than information accounts for the positive relationship between average Black income and the subjective wellbeing of US Blacks. Finally, we consider two theories of social solidarity and find support for social salience but not social density in determining the strength of solidarity effects.     

Worker Satisfaction Following Employment Restructuring: Effects of Nonstandard Workers and Downsizing on Job Satisfaction in Taiwan

Since the 1980s, many employment relationships in Taiwan have evolved from regular and long-term to contingent and short-term, with widespread downsizing adding a considerable amount of instability. Since these changes are part of a global trend, there is a growing literature concerning their influences on worker attitudes and work life quality. Here we analyze the impacts of changing employment practices on the quality of work life among Taiwanese workers, specifically analyzing the effects of nonstandard work arrangements and downsizing on job satisfaction. Data are from the 2005 Taiwan Social Change Survey, First Wave of the Fifth Phase: Work and Life Module. Our two main findings are (a) degree of use of nonstandard workers exerts a range of negative impacts on job satisfaction among regular workers, and (b) degree of downsizing exerts similar negative effects. We also discuss the moderating impacts of using nonstandard workers as part of a downsizing strategy.     

The Ambivalent Appraisal of Job Demands and the Moderating Role of Job Control and Social Support for Burnout and Job Satisfaction

Social Indicators Research - Within an extended challenge–hindrance framework, it is assumed that job demands are subjectively appraised both as challenges (that is, as working conditions...