Environmental Influences on Well-Being: A Dyadic Latent Panel Analysis of Spousal Similarity

This article uses dyadic latent panel analysis (DLPA) to examine environmental influences on well-being. DLPA requires longitudinal dyadic data. It decomposes the observed variance of both members of a dyad into a trait, state, and an error component. Furthermore, state variance is decomposed into initial and new state variance. Total observed similarity between members of a dyad is decomposed into trait similarity, initial state similarity, new state similarity, and error similarity. Dyadic similarity in new state variance reveals that both members of a dyad change in the same direction, which is a strong indication of environmental effects. DLPA is used to examine environmental influences on life satisfaction and domain satisfaction based on 22 annual assessments of married couples in the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N’s = 607–740). The results show high similarity in new state variance for life satisfaction and objectively identical domains (household income, housing), and less similarity for objectively less similar domains (recreation, health). This finding provides strong evidence for environmental influences on well-being. In addition, the results show high trait similarity. The implications of the latter finding for interpretation of behavioral genetics studies of well-being are discussed.     

Estimating the Reliability of Single-Item Life Satisfaction Measures: Results from Four National Panel Studies

Life satisfaction is often assessed using single-item measures. However, estimating the reliability of these measures can be difficult because internal consistency coefficients cannot be calculated. Existing approaches use longitudinal data to isolate occasion-specific variance from variance that is either completely stable or variance that changes systematically over time. In these approaches, reliable occasion-specific variance is typically treated as measurement error, which would negatively bias reliability estimates. In the current studies, panel data and multivariate latent state-trait models are used to isolate reliable occasion-specific variance from random error and to estimate reliability for scores from single-item life satisfaction measures. Across four nationally representative panel studies with a combined sample size of over 68,000, reliability estimates increased by an average of 16% when the multivariate model was used instead of the more standard univariate longitudinal model.     

Correlating Post-disaster Support Network Density with Reciprocal Support Relation Satisfaction: An Elderly Cohort Within One Year of the 2011 Japan Disasters

While there has been much empirical investigation into how social support networks improve mental health in post-disaster communities, network density—the extent members within a network are acquainted—remains under-researched. This study examines correlations between support network density and support reciprocity satisfaction in an elderly sample (N = 221), and the influence on post-disaster depression and trauma symptomology in a fishing community south of the Fukushima nuclear plant within 1 year of the March 11, 2011 Japan earthquake. The Brief Inventory of Social Support Exchange Network (BISSEN) taps support network density, support source by relational category, tangible and emotional type, and providing or receiving direction of social support. Density measurement convergent validity was established from questionnaire responses. After confirming network density construct and criteria validity, and extracting components reciprocal support relationship satisfaction, correlation between these two variables was moderate at r = 0.34. However, reciprocity satisfaction moderately explained mental health variance, but results were not significant for density nor interaction between predictors. These results question the assumption that support network density and support reciprocity can be validly incorporated into a construct of “social capital” necessarily promoting mental health.     

A higher-Order Gratitude Uniquely Predicts Subjective Well-Being: Incremental Validity Above the Personality and a Single Gratitude

This main purpose of this study tests whether a higher-order gratitude compassing multi-components (e.g., thank others, thank God, cherish blessings, appreciate hardship, and cherish the moment) explains variances in subjective well-being including life satisfaction and positive affect after controlling for gender, age, religion, the Big Five personality traits (e.g., openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism), and a single gratitude. A total of 504 undergraduate participants were recruited to completed five inventories measuring the variables of interest. The higher-order gratitude made a significant unique contribution to life satisfaction (10 % of the variance, p < .001) and positive affect (2 % of the variance, p < .001) beyond the effects of demographic variables, the Big Five personality traits, and a single gratitude. This is consistent with the theoretical stance that the higher-order gratitude is more than just the Big Five personality traits or a single gratitude and is important in its own right for subjective well-being. Furthermore, it implies a multi-components gratitude is in deed different from a unifactorial gratitude and it seems more reasonable that trait gratitude is a higher-order construct including lower-order components.     

The Palliative Function of System Justification: Concurrent Benefits Versus Longer-Term Costs to Wellbeing

We examined the extent to which system justification buffered the negative effect of retrospective experiences of active harm from general sources in society on life satisfaction during the same assessment period, and prospectively 1 year later. Results from a nationally representative sample indicated that the retrospective assessment of active harm and quality of life were uncorrelated for people who endorsed system justifying ideology (N = 6,518). Study 2 replicated the concurrent buffering effect of system justification on subjective wellbeing and demonstrated that the effect reversed over time. For people high in system justification beliefs, societal-level harm prospectively predicted lower life satisfaction 1 year later (N = 136 undergraduates). Perceiving the system as fair and legitimate in the face of harm from others in society has opposing short and longer-term effects on wellbeing. We argue that these opposing effects occur because although system justification trumps experiences of harm and buffers life satisfaction in the short-term; the resulting experience-belief conflict engenders a state of ideological dissonance that predicts negative psychological outcomes down the track.     

The Determinants of Life Satisfaction Among Adolescents: The Role of Metacognitive Awareness and Self-Efficacy

This study investigated the associations among the life satisfaction, metacognitive awareness and perceived self-efficacy. It also investigated whether life satisfaction, metacognitive awareness and perceived self-efficacy vary according to gender. The study was performed with 492 students attending high schools. The Life Satisfaction Scale, Cognitive Awareness Scale, Self-Efficacy Scale and an Individual Data Form were used for data collection. Pearson correlation coefficient results revealed that life satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with metacognitive awareness (r = .36, p < .001) and self-efficacy (r = .28, p < .001). Multiple regression analysis revealed that metacognitive awareness and self-efficacy accounted for 15 % of life satisfaction (F_(2,489) = 45.25, p < .001). Metacognitive awareness (ß = .29, p < .001) and self-efficacy (ß = .16, p < .001) make a significant original contribution to the model. In addition, the results show that adolescents do not vary according to life satisfaction (F = .10, p = .74, η²= .00), metacognitive awareness (F = .01, p = .91, η² = .00) or self-efficacy (F = 2.21, p = .13, η² = .00). The study results show that metacognitive awareness and self-efficacy are significant predictors of life satisfaction in adolescents.     

Investigating Importance Weighting of Satisfaction Scores from a Formative Model with Partial Least Squares Analysis

This study introduced a formative model to investigate the utility of importance weighting on satisfaction scores with partial least squares analysis. Based on the bottom-up theory of satisfaction evaluations, the measurement structure for weighted/unweighted domain satisfaction scores was modeled as a formative model, whereas the measurement structure for global satisfaction scores was modeled as a reflective model according to top-down theory. The purpose was to see if the predictive effect of importance-weighted domain satisfaction scores is stronger than unweighted domain satisfaction scores in predicting global satisfaction scores. Three datasets in life, self, and job satisfaction were analyzed. In the life satisfaction dataset, 237 undergraduates at Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology voluntarily provided their responses. The mean age of respondents was 20.80 years (SD = 1.05). In the self-satisfaction dataset, 269 undergraduates at National Taiwan University provided their responses. The mean age of respondents was 19.78 years (SD = 1.44). Finally, in the job satisfaction dataset, 557 staff members in seven Taiwan provincial hospitals provided their responses. The mean age of respondents was 35.87 years (range from 21 to 65, SD = 8.60). Three measures of domain satisfaction, domain importance, and global satisfaction were collected in each dataset. Partial least squares analysis was used in model estimation. All the results revealed that unweighted domain satisfaction scores have a stronger predictive effect for global satisfaction measures than importance-weighted domain satisfaction scores, indicating that importance weighting on satisfaction scores did not have an empirical benefit.     

Measures of self-reported well-being: their affective,cognitive, and other components

This investigation begins from the hypothesis that social indicators of perceived well-being — e.g., people's assessment of their own life quality — will, like other attudes, reflect two basic types of influences: affect and cognition. In addition, the indicators were expected to include two other components: unique variance (mainly random measurement error) and correlated measurement error. These ideas are investigated using a structural modeling approach applied to 23 assessments of life-as-a-whole from a national survey of Americans (N=1072) and/or a survey of urban residents in England (N=932). In both sets of data, models that included affective and cognitive factors fit significantly better than more restricted models. Furthermore, as expected, measures of (a) ‘happiness’, ‘fun’, and ‘enjoyment’ tended to be relatively more loaded with affect than were measures of (b) ‘satisfaction’, ‘success’, and ‘meeting needs’; and (c) measures designed to tap both affect and cognition tended to fall between the first two groups. In addition, the results suggest that measures employing relatively many scale points and direct assessments yield more valid indicators of people's evaluations of life-as-a-whole than do measures based on three-point scales or on explicit comparisons with other times or groups. These results contribute to basic knowledge about the nature of life quality assessments, help to explain some previously puzzling relationships with demographic factors such as age and education, and may be useful to designers of future studies of perceived well-being.     

Arts and the quality of life: an Exploratory study

The aim of this investigation was to measure the impact of the arts broadly construed on the quality of life. A randomly drawn household sample of 315 adult residents of Prince George, British Columbia served as the working data-set. Examining zero-order correlations, among other things, it was found that playing a musical instrument a number of times per year was positively associated with general health (r = 0.37), while singing alone a number of hours per week was negatively associated with general health (r = ?0.19). The strongest positive associations with life satisfaction are satisfaction obtained from gourmet cooking and embroidery, needlepoint or cross-stitching, at r = 0.39 andr = 0.32, respectively. The satisfaction obtained from gourmet cooking (r = 0.35) and buying works of art (r = 0.32) were the most positive influences on happiness. The strongest associations with the Index of Subjective Well-Being are the satisfaction obtained from gourmet cooking (r = 0.37) and the satisfaction obtained from knitting or crocheting (r = 0.34). Examining multivariate relations, it was found that eight predictors combined to explain 59% of the variance in life satisfaction scores, with self-esteem satisfaction (β = 0.35) and friendship satisfaction (β = 0.27) most influential. Among the arts-related predictors in the eight, singing alone was fairly influential and negative (β = ?0.18), while the satisfaction obtained from reading to others (β=0.08) and the Index of Arts as Self-Health Enhancers (β = 0.11) were somewhat less influential. When the arts-related predictors were combined with a set of domain satisfaction predictors, total explanatory power was increased by only 3 percentage points. Seven predictors could explain 58% of the variance in satisfaction with the overall quality of life scores. Of the arts-related predictors, only time spent going to non-art museums was significant (β = 0.07). Arts-related predictors did not increase explanatory power at all beyond that obtained from domain satisfaction variables alone. Eight predictors explained 42% of the variance in happiness scores, with the most influential predictors including satisfaction with self-esteem (β = 0.37) and financial security (β = 0.21), followed by the Index of Arts as Self-Developing Activities (β = 0.18). Arts-related predictors added 3 percentage points of explanatory power to that obtained from domain satisfaction scores. Seven predictors could explain 65% of the variance in scores on the Index of Subjective Well-Being, led by self-esteem satisfaction (β = 0.35) and financial security satisfaction (β = 0.30). The Index of Arts as Community Builders had a modest influence (β = 0.11), but all together, arts-related predictors increased our total explanatory power by a single percentage point. Summarizing these multivariate results, it seems fair to say that, relative to the satisfaction obtained from other domains of life, the arts had a very small impact on the quality of life (measured in four somewhat different ways) of a sample of residents of Prince George who generally cared about the arts. Even in absolute terms, arts-related activities could only explain from 5% to 11% of the variance in four plausible measures of the self-perceived quality of respondents’ lives. By comparing the composition of our sample with census data from 2001, it was demonstrated that the sample was not representative of residents of our city. It would, therefore, be wrong to generalize our findings to the whole population of Prince George or to any larger population.     

Happiness in Italy: Translation,Factorial Structure and Norming of the Subjective Happiness Scale in a Large Community Sample

The Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) is one of the most commonly used measures of happiness. Many translations and validation studies have been carried out in different countries and languages. The aim of the current paper was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Italian translation of the SHS and to provide normative data. The SHS was administered with life satisfaction items, anxiety and depression scales to a community sample of 993 participants, aged 18–85 years, living in different parts of Italy. Age and gender distributions were stratified according to the population pyramid. Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the unidimensionality of the SHS, with acceptable fit indexes (NNFI = .96; CFI = .99; RMSEA = .08; 95 % C.I. [.04–.12]). Multi-group analyses supported total invariance of the SHS measurement model for males and females, and partial invariance for younger (i.e., 18–44 years old) and older (i.e., 45–85 years old) participants. Significant correlations with satisfaction items, anxiety and depression provided evidence for concurrent validity. These findings showed that the Italian SHS translation is a reliable and valid tool, which adds to existing translations and validation studies in different countries and languages.     

School Satisfaction Among Adolescents: Testing Different Indicators for its Measurement and its Relationship with Overall Life Satisfaction and Subjective Well-Being in Romania and Spain

This paper presents results from two samples of adolescents aged 13–16 from Romania and Spain (N = 930 + 1,945 = 2,875). The original 7-item version of the Personal Well-Being Index (PWI) was used, together with an item on overall life satisfaction (OLS) and a set of six items related to satisfaction with school. A confirmatory factor analysis of the six school satisfaction items shows good fit statistics when relating them to a latent variable. However, said latent variable does not show a good fit when related to the OLS or the PWI. Tests have led to the conclusion that the item that best summarises satisfaction with school is “satisfaction with my life as a student”. Adding this item to the PWI-7 has shown a good fit with Structural Equation Modeling and higher standardised loading on the OLS. The analysis developed here, while confirming that the inclusion of a domain on satisfaction with school life contributes to the PWI with unique variance (2.5 % in this research), also offers an explanation for the surprising results obtained for adolescents in other countries (e.g. in Australia, Tomyn and Cummins in Soc Indicat Res 101(3):405–418 2010) by showing that satisfaction with friends at school and satisfaction with classmates did not significantly contribute to satisfaction with school. Our results suggest that school satisfaction is highly related to satisfaction with teachers, but weakly related to overall life satisfaction, while satisfaction with school friends and satisfaction with classmates are highly related to overall life satisfaction, but weakly related to satisfaction with school. Satisfaction with life as a student seems to be the item that best reconciles this “paradox” (in adults’ eyes), at least with our samples of Romanian and Spanish adolescents.     

Work-Related Demands Emanating from Social Change and Their Relation to Trait-Like and Occasion-Specific Aspects of Subjective Well-Being

Following current macro-level social change people are increasingly confronted with new demands encompassing perceived uncertainties concerning their job and career prospects. Studies utilizing concurrent assessments showed that perceiving a high accumulation (“load”) of such demands is negatively related to individuals’ subjective well-being. Without further evidence the interpretation of the direction of these effects, however, is equivocal. Based on the concept that individuals have a rather stable trait-like level of subjective well-being from which they may vary when confronted with changes of the external ecology, the current study examined the relationship between the reported load of demands and subjective well-being assessed as general life satisfaction and average satisfaction in domains of life (i.e., family, work, finances, and leisure). We expected that a higher load of demands corresponds to a temporary decline in well-being, while at the same time differences in the stable trait-like level of well-being account for differences in the reported demand load. For the purpose of our study, we analyzed three annual waves of assessment of German adults aged between 18 and 43 years (N = 488). Utilizing a trait-state-occasion model, we separated trait-like aspects of well-being from occasion-specific deviations. Overall, our results confirmed our expectation that effects indeed run in both directions. The higher the reported load of work-related demands, the more respondents’ well-being negatively deviated from the stable trait-like level. Beyond that a higher trait-like level of well-being corresponded to a lower demand load. Both effects revealed almost equal strength and remained stable after controlling for participants’ employment status, family status, and educational attainment.     

Socioeconomic Inequality and Life Satisfaction in Late Childhood and Adolescence: A Moderated Mediation Model

An increasing number of studies have established an association between socioeconomic inequality and life satisfaction, but the underlying mediating and moderating mechanisms of this association have not been fully identified. The present study investigated the effect of family socioeconomic status (SES) on life satisfaction in late childhood and adolescence; examined the mediating effect of optimism in the association between family SES and life satisfaction; and tested whether this mediating process varied across late childhood and adolescence. A sample of 552 Chinese children in late childhood (M _age = 10.73 years, SD = 0.96) and 637 Chinese adolescents (M _age = 14.71 years, SD = 1.60) was recruited to complete questionnaires regarding family SES, optimism, and life satisfaction. Results indicated that socioeconomic inequality was associated with life satisfaction in Chinese children and adolescents. Moreover, optimism partially mediated the relation between family SES and life satisfaction, and developmental period moderated this mediation effect. Specifically, the mediation effect was found in adolescence, but not in late childhood, indicating an adolescent-emergent model (Chen et al. in Psychol Bull 128(2):295–329, 2002; in Soc Sci Med 62(9):2161–2170, 2006). The meaning and implications of socioeconomic inequality in different development periods and applied considerations to improve life satisfaction in late childhood and adolescence are discussed.     

Reliability and Validity of the Personal Social Capital Scale 16 and Personal Social Capital Scale 8: Two Short Instruments for Survey Studies

Rapid developments in social capital and health research require short instruments for large-scale survey studies. The Personal Social Capital Scale (PSCS) is a theory-based and empirically tested instrument with reliability and validity established in the US and China, but it is too long for large-scale survey research. In this study, we described two short versions of the instrument: the PSCS-16 and PSCS-8. The two short scales were evaluated with survey data collected among an adult sample (N = 259) in China. The sample consisted of rural-to-urban migrants and non-migrant rural and urban residents. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were .90 for the PSCS-18 and .83 for the PSCS-8. Both short instruments satisfactorily fit a two-factor model comprising the bonding capital and bridging capital subscales. The two short scales were highly correlated with the original PSCS (r = .95 for the PSCS-18 and .93 for the PSCS-8 respectively, p < .001 for both); significantly distinguished the migrant subsample from the two non-migrant subsamples; and significantly predicted social capital investment and stress level. In conclusion, the two short instruments PSCS-16 and PSCS-8 were reliable and valid, and can be used in large-scale survey studies to assess personally owned social capital. Further research is needed to replicate their reliability and validity in different cultural settings and to establish the test–retest reliability.     

Adaptation and Dissonance in Quality of Life: A Case Study in Mekelle,Ethiopia

This study aimed to determine predictability of life satisfaction by focusing on social support, substance abuse, socio-demographic factors as well as received health services from medical and traditional centers in the elderly with dementia. The subjects were 1,210 non-institutionalized Malaysian elderly with cognitive problems. In addition, age, ethnicity, sex differences, marital status, educational level, social support, substance abuse and receiving health services were evaluated to predict the risk of falls in samples. Social support was measured by Lubben score. Substance abuse was referred to smoking per day, addiction to alcohol consumption as well as dependency to medications. Health care supports, which were received by individuals included medical and traditional treatments. Life satisfaction was measured by asking in general ‘Are you satisfied with your current life’. The multiple logistic regression analysis was used to determine the effects of contributing variables on life satisfaction in respondents. Approximately 83 % of subjects reported that they were satisfied with their current life. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that marital status (OR = 1.98), traditional treatments (OR = 0.43), social support (OR = 2.28) and educational level (OR = 1.79) significantly affected life satisfaction in samples (p < 0.05). Furthermore, age, ethnicity, sex differences, substance abuse and medical treatments were not significant predictors of life satisfaction (p > 0.05). It was concluded that social support, being married and education increased life satisfaction in subjects but traditional treatments decreased life satisfaction.     

Self-Other Agreement in Happiness and Life-Satisfaction: The Role of Personality Traits

The aim of the current study is to examine the role of personality traits in self-other agreement in happiness and life-satisfaction which are often seen as the essential components of subjective well-being (SWB). Self-reports on the SWB measure and the NEO Personality Inventory-3 were obtained from 1,251 Estonians aged between 18 and 86 years. Other-ratings on the same measures were provided by knowledgeable informants. The measure of SWB showed significant self-other agreement, r = .55 (p = .000). We found this agreement to be transmitted (i.e., mediated) through the self- and other-rated personality facet scores of N3 (Depression) and E6 (Positive Emotions), Z = 2.8001–11.7142. The findings suggest that when an informant evaluates someone’s happiness or life-satisfaction, his/her rating is inflated by the image held about the personality of this person. Furthermore, self-reported SWB reflects, to some extent, what other people think about one’s personality.     

On the Predictive Effect of Multidimensional Importance-Weighted Quality of Life Scores on Overall Subjective Well-Being

This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of importance weighting in predicting outcome variables in a hierarchical and multidimensional measurement context. A total of 146 undergraduate students (female = 76; mean age = 20.25) from two universities in Taiwan and China participated in this study. They evaluated their quality of life on 22 facets from the WHOQOL-BREF scale, which covers four domains (i.e., physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environmental health). They were also asked to rate the importance of these 22 facets and items for three general subjective well-being indices, including overall quality of life, general health, and life satisfaction. A multiplicative formula was used to create importance-weighted scores for each facet, and four domain scores were obtained by averaging facet scores under specific domains. Results of regression analysis revealed that after applying the weighting procedure, the four domain scores did not account for more variances in the three indices for overall subjective well-being, and predictive effects of the four domain scores became less differential. Our findings suggest that importance weighting did not have its expected benefits but instead may negatively impact the predictive effects.     

Psychometric Properties of the Medical Outcome Study Social Support Survey with a General Population Sample of Undergraduate Students

Among non-clinical populations, perceived social support is an important factor in health maintenance and well-being. Among measures that purport to assess perceived social support, the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS) is based on a strong conceptual framework and has been subjected to a rigorous psychometric evaluation. Since no studies have investigated its psychometric properties with a young, non-clinical population, the purpose of this study is to investigate the psychometric properties (construct validity, internal consistency, and test–retest reliability) of an Italian version of the MOS-SSS with a non-clinical population sample. A convenience sample of 485 undergraduate students (73.0 % female; mean age = 21.81 ± 1.52) has been recruited. With regards to scale dimensionality, the best fit measurement model found support for the four subscales proposed by the original version: emotional and informational support, tangible support, positive social interactions, and affectionate support (χ ²/df = 4.49; CFI = .92; TLI = .91; RMSEA = .08). MOS-SSS subscales showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha for the subscales ranged from .848 to .939). Significant correlations were found with measures of psychological well-being (Ryff’s Scales of Psychological Well-Being) and depression (Beck-Depression Inventory-II). Test–retest stability was tested by examining a subsample (N = 225) over a 10-week period (correlation coefficients for the subscales ranged from .502 to .579). The findings suggest that MOS-SSS presents good psychometric characteristics with a young general population sample. Therefore, the MOS-SSS seems to be a psychometrically sound measure for the evaluation of perceived social support among young non-clinical populations.     

Global Judgments of Subjective Well-Being: Situational Variability and Long-Term Stability

Subjective well-being (SWB) is an important indicator of quality oflife. SWB can be conceptualized as a momentary state (e.g., mood) aswell as a relatively stable trait (e.g., life satisfaction). Thevalidity of self-reported trait aspects of SWB has been questioned byexperimental studies showing that SWB judgments seem to be stronglycontext dependent. Particularly, momentary mood seems to have a stronginfluence on global SWB judgments. To explore the ecological validity ofthese conclusions a non-experimental longitudinal self-reportstudy with three occasions of measurement was conducted(N = 249). The associations between momentarymood ratings and global judgments of SWB (life satisfaction,satisfaction with life domains, frequency and intensity of emotions) aswell as personality ratings (self-esteem, optimism, neuroticism,extraversion) were analyzed in a multistate-multitrait-multiconstructmodel. This model takes (a) measurement error, (b) occasion-specificdeviations, and (c) stable interindividual differences into account. Itis shown that the variability in global SWB judgments and personalityratings is relatively small and much smaller than the variability inmood. Furthermore, the occasion-specific associations between moodstates, on the one hand, and global SWB and personality ratings, on theother hand, are relatively small and inconsistent. All global SWB andpersonality variables are more strongly related to mood on the traitlevel than on the occasion-specific deviation level. Therefore, incontrast to experimental studies, occasion-specific mood effects do notseem to be inherently important in ecological measurement settings.     

Relationships between overall and life facet satisfaction: A multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) study

We extended research on the construct validity of overall and life facet satisfaction measures by (a) estimating relations among satisfaction constructs disattenuated for measurement error, and (b) controlling for spurious effects of common method variance, using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data. Results indicated strong support for convergent and discriminant validity, as well as for significant method effects. Results also indicated that corrected correlations among latent satisfaction variables were similar to their observed counterparts, suggesting that the attenuating effects of measurement error tend to balance spuriousness interjected by common method variance. Suggestions for future research include determining boundary variables which influence the direction of the relationship between overall and life facet satisfaction, and for identifying subgroups of individuals within which these relationships are homogeneous.