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.     

The Characteristics of Children’s Subjective Well-Being

Despite the increased interest in recent decades in the study of children’s subjective well-being (SWB), much too little is known about the factors that contribute to their SWB, especially with regards to socio-demographic characteristics. In addition, only handful of studies has made a comparison between countries and was based on large samples. The present study is a first of its kind. Utilizing the International Study of Children’s Well-Being first wave data set with questionnaires from over 34,500 children from 14 different countries to explore the characteristics of children’s SWB and the relations between an array of socio-demographic variables and children’s SWB. SWB was measured using three scales—overall life satisfaction, overall satisfaction in specific domains and overall SWB that was measured using agreement items. The socio-demographic variables were composed of demographic characteristics (e.g. gender and age), self-reported socio-economic items and the children’s country of residence. Findings show that children’s SWB in all countries is relatively high, although some variation can be found between the three SWB scales. Differences were found between the three measurements of SWB in regard to the explained variance, nevertheless the socio-demographic characteristics explain relatively low amount of the variance in SWB (10.9–20.2 %). The demographic variables have the lowest contribution, followed by the socio-economic items, while countries have the highest contribution. Thus one of our main conclusions is that the answer for understanding children’s SWB does not lay in the socio-demographic characteristics. The implications of these findings for further research of children’s SWB are discussed.     

Subjective Well-Being: Revisions to Dynamic Equilibrium Theory using National Panel Data and Panel Regression Methods

This paper partly revises the dynamic equilibrium (DE) theory of subjective well-being (SWB), sometimes termed set point theory. Results from four national panel surveys show that correlations among measures of SWB diminish over time, and that the SWB set points of a minority of individuals substantially change. These results mean that DE theory requires revision to make it more dynamic and enable it to better account for medium term change in SWB. The paper identifies personality traits and life events associated with subsequent changes in SWB. Data come from German, British and Australian panel surveys in which SWB has been measured for between 9 and 20 years. Panel regression random and fixed effects models were used to analyse the data.     

Religion and Subjective Well-Being in Ghana

Using 2008 Afrobarometer survey data, we examine the relationship between religion and subjective well-being (SWB) in Ghana, as well as religious group differences in their experiences of SWB. Two measures of religion—religious affiliation and religious importance, and two measures of SWB—absolute SWB (own perceived living conditions) and relative SWB (own living conditions compared to those of other Ghanaians) are employed in this study. Results show that religious affiliation is significantly related to both measures of SWB although associations depicted for such relationships were not strong. Religious importance significantly related to relative SWB only (with a weak-to-moderate association). Significant religious affiliation and religious importance group differences are found on both SWB outcomes via non-parametric test procedures (Kruskal–Wallis H test, followed by post hoc tests). On balance, the None/Traditional religious group experienced less favorable SWB than Other Christian, Evangelical/Pentecostal, and Muslim groups, especially for absolute SWB, while the None/Traditional group experienced particularly less favorable relative SWB than the Protestant group. Religious importance groups also significantly differed in such a way that the group that considered religion very important had more favorable experiences of both types of SWB than the group that considered religion not at all/not very important. Other significant differences on both outcomes are found among ethnic, educational, and regional groups. In view of the findings, the study contributes to SWB research and suggests policy implications.     

A Hybrid Model for Research on Subjective Well-being: Examining Common- and Component-specific Sources of Variance in Life Satisfaction,Positive Affect,and Negative Affect

The primary components of subjective well-being (SWB) include life satisfaction (LS), positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA). There is little consensus, however, concerning how these components form a model of SWB. In this paper, six longitudinal studies varying in demographic characteristics, length of time between assessment periods, number of assessment periods, and type of measures employed were used to test a hybrid model of SWB comprising both common and component-specific sources of variance. The majority of explained variance in LS was attributable to temporally consistent common variance, rather than component-specific sources. For PA and NA, both common and component-specific sources were substantive and consistent over time. Implications for the conceptualization and operationalizations of SWB are discussed.     

Response artifacts in the measurement of subjective well-being

The degree to which response artifacts introduce error into self-report measures has long been a matter of concern in the psychological literature. For example, it has been suggested that self-report measures of subjective well-being (SWB) contain large amounts of variance due to the response style of social desirability (Carstensen and Cone, 1983). In the present study, four potential response artifacts (social desirability, current mood, moral beliefs about happiness, and happiness image management) and their effects on self reports of SWB were studied. Using nonself-report measures of happiness, in addition to self-report measures of SWB, various modes for the prediction of SWB were constructed. A measure of social desirability was found to be a significant predictor of nonself-report as well as self-reported measures of happiness, indicating that social desirability is a substantive personality characteristic which enhances well-being, rather than being a response artifact and source of error variance. Current mood was found to sometimes contribute as a predictor of self-report measures of SWB, suggesting the need for control of or assessment of its effects. Moral beliefs in happiness and image management did not significantly correlate with measures of happiness. Implications of the results for the measurement of well-being and for future research are discussed.     

The Subjective Wellbeing of Indigenous Australian Adolescents: Validating the Personal Wellbeing Index-School Children

By almost all measures of objective life quality, Indigenous Australians are disadvantaged relative to the general population. However, no measures of their Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) have been published. This paper presents the first such data, norm-referenced to the general Australian population. A total of 519 Indigenous adolescents, aged between 12 and 19 years, were administered the Personal Wellbeing Index-School Children, which measures SWB. This scale is a parallel form of the Personal Wellbeing-Adult. The PWI-SC exhibited adequate psychometric properties. Moreover, consistent with SWB Homeostasis theory, participants’ mean SWB was within the Australian adult normative range. However, female SWB was lower than males. These results suggest that Indigenous adolescents are resilient.     

Could the EQ-5D be Used to Predict Mortality and Hospitalization Over a Long Term Period?

Although numerous studies have demonstrated that social support affects a range of life experiences, only a few have examined the moderators and mediators such as self-esteem. According to self-control theory, self-control represents one’s ability to override or change one’s inner responses, and to interrupt undesired behavioral tendencies and refrain from acting on them. A high level of self-control may help individuals to mediate or moderate negative affect and thus weaken any adverse effects, contributing to their subjective well-being (SWB) in the long run. The current study explored how this interaction may affect the subjective well-being of the Chinese elderly, for whom self-control and social support are especially important life management issues. The study examined whether self-control mediates and moderates the relationship between social support and SWB among the elderly Chinese population. The data were collected from 335 elderly Chinese people (162 females and 173 males) from ten cities in central China, who completed the Chinese Social Support Scale, Trait Self-control Scale, Life Satisfaction Scale and Positive and Negative Affect Scale. The results showed that self-control, social support and SWB were strongly and significantly related. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that self-control partially mediated the influence of social support on SWB. Moreover, self-control moderated the relationship between social support and positive affect, but not life satisfaction and negative affect. These findings imply that self-control is a critical indicator of SWB and can serve as a basis for differentiating between intervention strategies that promote SWB among the elderly by helping them manage positive and negative affect. Future studies should further examine the internal mechanisms by which self-control influences SWB.     

Assessing subjective well-being: Progress and opportunities

Subjective well-being (SWB) comprises people's longer-term levels of pleasant affect, lack of unpleasant affect, and life satisfaction. It displays moderately high levels of cross-situational consistency and temporal stability. Self-report measures of SWB show adequate validity, reliability, factor invariance, and sensitivity to change. Despite the success of the measures to date, more sophisticated approaches to defining and measuring SWB are now possible. Affect includes facial, physiological, motivational, behavioral, and cognitive components. Self-reports assess primarily the cognitive component of affect, and thus are unlikely to yield a complete picture of respondents' emotional lives. For example, denial may influence self-reports of SWB more than other components. Additionally, emotions are responses which vary on a number of dimensions such as intensity, suggesting that mean levels of affect as captured by existing measures do not give a complete account of SWB. Advances in cognitive psychology indicate that differences in memory retrieval, mood as information, and scaling processes can influence self-reports of SWB. Finally, theories of communication alert us to the types of information that are likely to be given in self-reports of SWB. These advances from psychology suggest that a multimethod approach to assessing SWB will create a more comprehensive depiction of the phenomenon. Not only will a multifaceted test battery yield more credible data, but inconsistencies between various measurement methods and between the various components of well-being will both help us better understand SWB indictors and group differences in well-being. Knowledge of cognition, personality, and emotion will also aid in the development of sophisticated theoretical definitions of subjective well-being. For example, life satisfaction is theorized to be a judgment that respondents construct based on currently salient information. Finally, it is concluded that measuring negative reactions such as depression or anxiety give an incomplete picture of people's well-being, and that it is imperative to measure life satisfaction and positive emotions as well.     

Impact of Social Changes and Birth Cohort on Subjective Well-Being in Chinese Older Adults: A Cross-Temporal Meta-analysis, 1990–2010

Over the past several decades, the proportion of older adults in the Chinese population has steadily increased during a period of substantial social change; the effect of these changes on older adults warrants examination. The present study explored changes in subjective well-being (SWB) in older adults by birth cohort and the social factors influential in these changes. We performed a cross-temporal meta-analysis using data from 20,713 adults over 60 years of age; data were obtained from 61 studies that used the Memorial University of Newfoundland Scale of Happiness. The dynamics of SWB in older adults were evaluated as a function of time. The mean SWB score decreased by 4.98 over the measured period, indicating a decrease of .52 standard deviations between 1990 and 2010. In addition, SWB in older adults was significantly correlated with high social connectedness and low overall threat. Specifically, urbanization level, Gini coefficient, personal medical expenditure, and birth rate were strong predictors of SWB. Our research demonstrates that social connectedness and overall threat contribute to SWB in Chinese older adults. As SWB is significantly related to the mental and physical health of older adults, the present study may serve as a useful reference for health care agencies and policy-makers.     

The Dual-Factor Model of Mental Health: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study of School-Related Outcomes

The Dual-Factor Model of Mental Health, proposed by Greenspoon and Sasklofske (Soc Indic Res 54:81–108, 2001), suggested that student mental health should be assessed on a dimension of psychopathology as well as a dimension of subjective well-being (SWB). Greenspoon and Sasklofske (Soc Indic Res 54:81–108, 2001) argued that measuring both psychopathology and SWB allow mental health professionals to have a more complete understanding of the child’s psychological health. The present exploratory study provided a further evaluation of the usefulness of the Dual-Factor model in understanding adolescents’ SWB using both person-centered and variable-centered analyses. Using person-centered analyses, we explored whether group membership revealed differential changes in middle school students’ GPAs as well as emotional, cognitive, and behavioral engagement across a 5-month time period. Furthermore, we used variable-centered analyses to examine whether middle school students’ levels of SWB at Time 1 predicted changes in our criterion variables. Specifically, we assessed whether SWB at Time 1 predicted student school engagement and GPA at Time 2 above and beyond their levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors at Time 1, levels of student engagement and grades at Time 1, and demographic variables. Results of the person-centered analyses found statistically significant differences across the four groups identified in the Dual-Factor Model for emotional, cognitive and behavioral engagement as well as GPA. The results from the variable-centered analyses suggest subjective well-being to be a significant predictor of emotional, cognitive and behavioral engagement beyond measures of psychopathology. These results provide additional support for use of the Dual-Factor Model.     

The Personal Wellbeing Index: Psychometric Equivalence for Adults and School Children

Despite the wealth of accumulated research evaluating subjective wellbeing (SWB) in children and adults, the validity of scores from parallel forms of SWB measures for each age group has yet to be empirically tested. This study examines the psychometric equivalence of the child and adult forms of the personal wellbeing index (PWI) using multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis. The child sample comprised 1,029 Victorian high-school students (aged 11–20) sampled across three independent studies. The adult sample comprised 1,965 Australian adults drawn from the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index. The results demonstrated strict factorial invariance between both versions, suggesting that the PWI measures the same underlying construct in adolescent and adult populations. These findings provide support for quantitative comparisons between adult and adolescent SWB data as valid.     

The Association Between Perceived Income Inequality and Subjective Well-being: Evidence from a Social Survey in Japan

Previous studies have shown that income inequality in society is negatively associated with individuals subjective well-being (SWB), such as their perceived happiness and self-rated health (SRH). However, it is not realistic to assume that individuals have precise information about actual income distribution measured by the Gini coefficient or other statistical measures. In the current study, we examined how perceived income inequality, rather than actual inequality, was associated with SWB, using cross-sectional data collected from a nationwide, Internet survey conducted in Japan (N = 10,432). We also examined how this association was confounded by individuals’ objective and subjective income status, considering the possibility that individuals with lower income status are more inclined to both perceive income inequality and feel unhappy/unhealthy. In our analysis, we focused on the perception of widening income inequality (as perceived income inequality), perceived happiness and SRH (as SWB), and household income and living standards compared with 1 year ago and compared with others (as income status). We also controlled for personality traits. We obtained three key findings: (1) perceived income inequality was negatively associated with SWB; (2) both perceived income inequality and SWB were associated with income status; and (3) the association between perceived income inequality and SWB was attenuated after controlling for income status, but not fully for perceived happiness. These findings suggest that perceived income inequality, which links actual income inequality to SWB, should be further studied.     

Short happiness and affect research protocol (sharp)

Issues in the measurement of subjective well-being (SWB) include the relative balance between scale brevity and measurement accuracy. Because accuracy is expected to vary negatively with the length of a scale, the brevity/accuracy trade-off has pragmatic implications for survey research. This article begins by examining minimal psychometric criteria to evaluate short measures of SWB. These criteria include content validity (i.e., four basic categories are cited), criterion validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability. Several measures frequently used in large-scale surveys are shown to fail against one or more of these criteria. Consequently, a new brief measure was developed and shown to satisfy all the criteria. It is termed the Short Happiness and Affect Research Protocol (SHARP). This measure contains 12-items derived from the Memorial University of Newfoundland Scale of Happiness (MUNSH), with the content balanced over positive and negative, and short-term (affective) and long-term (dispositional) components. The internal consistency, temporal stability, and criterion validity coefficients for the SHARP are comparable to those of the MUNSH, which is among the most accurate measures of self-reported SWB.     

Does Country Matter for Subjective Well-Being?

It is known that characteristics of individuals explain only a part of the variations in Subjective Well-Being (SWB) between people. The country of origin of an individual accounts for a significant part of these differences. We study what drives the variations in SWB between countries after taking individual characteristics into account. We base our analysis on data from the four waves of the World Values Survey. 64% of the variations between the countries in the sample (64 countries) are explained by the natality rate, life expectancy, the level of corruption and a Muslim culture. This adds to the discussion on the link between economic conditions and SWB. The economic situation is not an explanatory variable in a direct way but indirectly affects SWB through some of the significant variables. Corruption has detrimental effects on SWB beyond its economic consequences.     

Comparing Multiple Discrepancies Theory to Affective Models of Subjective Wellbeing

The Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) literature is replete with competing theories detailing the mechanisms underlying the construction and maintenance of SWB. The current study aimed to compare and contrast two of these approaches: multiple discrepancies theory (MDT) and an affective-cognitive theory of SWB. MDT posits SWB to be the result of perceived discrepancies between multiple standards of comparison. By contrast, affective-cognitive theory asserts that SWB is primarily influenced by trait affect, and indirectly influenced by personality and cognition through trait affect. Participants comprised 387 individuals who responded to the 5th longitudinal survey of the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index. Results of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) indicated the poorest fit to the data for the MDT model. The affective-cognitive model also did not provide a good fit to the data. A purely affective model provided the best fit to the data, was the most parsimonious, and explained 66% of variance in SWB.     

Subjective Well-Being in China: Associations with Absolute,Relative, and Perceived Economic Circumstances

Numerous studies examining the impact of income on subjective well-being (SWB) have found significant positive relationships exhibiting decreasing marginal returns. However, the impact of economic circumstances on SWB is better captured through a combination of income, wealth (per capita net worth), and perceived and relative economic conditions. Using data from the Chinese Household Income Project, I find that within rural and urban China, wealth significantly predicts SWB, exhibiting decreasing marginal returns independent of more common measures of economic circumstances such as income and occupational status. Within urban China, these associations decrease in magnitude and significance with the addition of objective relative measures of wealth and income. Finally, I find that subjective perceptions of relative standard of living are strongly associated with SWB independent of other measures. These results highlight the importance of using multiple objective and subjective measures of economic circumstances, demonstrating potential limitations of studies that have focused exclusively on income as a predictor of well-being. Results are interpreted within the context of China’s changing social and economic structure.     

Mindfulness and Subjective Well-being in the Sustainability Movement: A Further Elaboration of Multiple Discrepancies Theory

In a previous interpretation of multiple discrepancies theory (MDT), the authors operationalized mutiple discrepancies as gaps between respondents' values and their performance. Using a sample of back-to-the-landers from the larger sustainability movement, the first-stage of the data analysis (Jacob and Brinkerhoff, 1997) confirmed that multiple discrepancies between values and do have a significant impact on subjective well-being (SWB), but this initial analysis also demonstrated that there are intervening variables that can act as compensating factors to attenuate the influence of multiple discrepancies on SWB. In this, the second-stage of data analysis, the authors identify and further explore the interaction of phenomena that might serve as compensation variables in respondents' calculus of their SWB. The present study identifies two salient compensating factors: mindfulness (a calm, yet focused, engagement with the present, similar to a meditative experience), and a sense of an absence of time constraints. Operationalized as Mindfulness and Time for Self scales, these two interrelated variables explain, in multiple regression equations, the major share of variation in multiple measures of SWB. Nevertheless, the multiple discrepancies between values and performance are still significant, if secondary, factors in explaining variance in SWB for the sample of back-to-the- landers.     

The Measure Matters: An Investigation of Evaluative and Experience-Based Measures of Wellbeing in Time Use Data

Measures of subjective wellbeing (SWB) are used to understand how people think and feel about their lives and experiences. But the measure used matters to conclusions about how well people’s lives are going. This research compares life evaluations and experienced SWB using nationally representative time use diaries, advancing previous research because diaries are less subject to recall biases than other, more popular methods. Analyses of over 20,000 US residents in 2012–2013 show life evaluations are more closely associated with positive and negative affect than experienced meaningfulness. Women have higher SWB than men except for negative affect, older age groups have higher SWB than middle age groups except for experienced meaningfulness, and younger age groups report the lowest experienced meaning. The unemployed have low life evaluations but experiences of SWB are similar across employment groups. A complete picture of SWB requires a complete set of measures.     

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.