The Role of Domain Satisfaction in Explaining the Paradoxical Association Between Life Satisfaction and Age

Although aging is associated with declines in many life domains, overall life satisfaction does not appear to decline sharply with age. One explanation for this paradoxical finding is that several life domains improve with age such that increases in certain domains balance the decreases in others. Because different issues are problematic at different life stages, it is likely that specific domains display different life trajectories compared to overall life satisfaction. The observed pattern for overall life satisfaction is likely due to a bottom-up approach. Life and domain satisfaction data from 8?years of the British Household Panel Study were analyzed to evaluate this hypothesis. Results indicated that satisfaction with some life domains increased after middle age (e.g. social life), whereas satisfaction with other life domains decreased (e.g. health). Additionally, results illustrated that although domain satisfaction scores demonstrate distinct trajectories, the aggregate of these distinct domains resembled the overall life satisfaction trajectory. These findings have implications for top-down and bottom-up models of life satisfaction.     

Self-Reported Satisfaction and the Economic Crisis of 2007–2010: Or How People in the UK and Germany Perceive a Severe Cyclical Downturn

Self-reported satisfaction measures respond to a great variety of socio-demographic characteristics as well as the job and living environment. In this paper we ask whether the recent financial market crisis has caused a deterioration of satisfaction not only for the unemployed but also for those out of the labour force and especially those in employment. The focus of our analyses is on the pattern of life, job and health satisfaction over time and the influence of unemployment rates, inflation rates and GDP growth. We compare the UK and Germany, two countries with different employment protection regulations and different consequences of the crisis for the labour market. For our analysis we use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Study for the period 1996–2010 and supplement this with annual information on macroeconomic indicators. We estimate Ordered Logit and OLS models, both with individual fixed effects. We find some limited psychological costs with respect to self-reported life satisfaction in the crisis years, and a considerable impact of regional and national unemployment rates. Looking at job and health satisfaction we get similar though somewhat weaker results.     

Does Weather Really Influence the Measurement of Life Satisfaction?

Since the beginning of the nineties, a number of studies indicate that weather conditions at interview day can have an effect on measurement, in particular regarding life satisfaction. In their seminal paper, Schwarz and Clore (J Pers Soc Psychol 45(3):513–523, 1983) show higher reported life satisfaction for sunny days, a finding which is replicated recently by Kämpfer and Mutz (Soc Indic Res 110(2):579–595, 2013). However, both studies are based on relatively small samples (from a few dozen up to 200 cases). We use data of the German Family Panel (pairfam) and local weather data for every respondent to investigate if weather effects on satisfaction measurement can be replicated with a large sample (about 7,000 respondents). In addition to cross-sectional analyses in which we follow closely the approach of Kämpfer and Mutz, we estimate fixed effects regressions to model the effect of weather on individual changes in satisfaction over time. We do neither find an effect of nice weather on the day of the interview on the respondents’ ratings of general life satisfaction nor a consistent effect on any of the other satisfaction measures. These results show that at least with simple weather measures as they have been used as yet a relationship between weather conditions at interview day and answering behavior regarding life satisfaction cannot be found.     

Your House,Your Car,Your Education: The Socioeconomic Situation of the Neighborhood and its Impact on Life Satisfaction in Germany

This study deals with the impact of socioeconomic conditions and social integration into a local neighborhood on individual life satisfaction in Germany. While the majority of ecological studies to date are based on very broad neighborhood concepts, using large research units for defining neighborhood the present study contains micro-geographic information on a representative sample of private households in Germany, including features of their respective residential environments. The data was derived from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study and enriched with data from the Micromarketing-Systeme and Consult GmbH (microm) for the years 2000–2006. Our analyses reveal neighborhood effects on various facets of life satisfaction. Controlling for several covariates at the household and individual level, life satisfaction increases when a person lives in a neighborhood with a higher socioeconomic status. In addition, the individual gap between a person’s economic status and the status of the neighborhood also affects individual well-being. However, when comparing with other neighborhood aspects, the strongest effects on individual life satisfaction have social networks.     

Ageing,Health and Life Satisfaction of the Oldest Old: An Analysis for Germany

This analysis uses data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to assess the effect of ageing and health on the life satisfaction of the oldest old (defined as 75 and older). We observe a U-shaped relationship between age and levels of life satisfaction for individuals aged between 16 and 65. Thereafter, life satisfaction declines rapidly and the lowest absolute levels of life satisfaction are recorded for the oldest old. This decline is primarily attributable to low levels of perceived health. Once cohort effects are also controlled for, life satisfaction remains relatively constant across the lifespan.     

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.     

Transition into Retirement Affects Life Satisfaction: Short- and Long-Term Development Depends on Last Labor Market Status and Education

The effect of retirement on life satisfaction is a research topic that received a lot of attention, yet provided heterogeneous results. The current study suggests a remedy for this situation by taking two predictors of diversity (i.e. education and last labor market status) into account. We assumed that changes in social status and changes in resources influence retirement adjustment. The social status change affects retirees in the short-term, whereas individuals’ resources indicated by education predict long-term adjustment. To disentangle these processes, we contrasted exits from full-time employment and transitions from unemployment. We used data from the German Socio-Economic Panel to estimate a multi-group, multi-episodes dual change score model. The development of life satisfaction is lastingly interrupted by retirement. A short-term increase in life satisfaction was found for both transition groups but was more pronounced for those being previously unemployed. Life satisfaction develops in the long-term education-specific: retirees who have more education show almost constant life satisfaction whereas those retirees who have less education experience a decline. The results indicate that retirement entails a major change in the way people live. Adjustment to this can be characterized by two processes: A status change enfolds in the short-term. A building of new daily routines using individuals’ resources develops in the long-term. Both processes can be interpreted in terms of cumulative inequality: last labor market status differences decrease in the short-term but remain. Educational differences increase after retirement.     

A Multilevel Analysis of the Compositional and Contextual Association of Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being in Seoul, South Korea

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between social capital and subjective well-being (life satisfaction) by using multilevel analysis considering both individual and area-level social capital while adjusting for various control variables at multiple-levels in Seoul, South Korea. The data was from the 2010 (Wave 2) Seoul Welfare Panel Study, conducted by Seoul Welfare Foundation. The final sample for this study consisted of 5,934 individuals aged 18 years or older in 2,847 households within 25 administrative areas. Three-level multilevel linear regression analyses, with random intercept models, were applied. Our results provide evidence that various dimensions of social capital both at the individual and area-level are positively associated with subjective life satisfaction, even after controlling for various factors at the individual, household, and area-levels. All of individual-level social capital variables including organizational participation, perceived helpfulness, trust in authorities were positively associated with subjective life satisfaction. Except for trust in authority, area-level organizational participation and perceived helpfulness were positively associated with subjective life satisfaction. These results suggest that decision makers should consider both individual and area-level social capital targeting to enhance one’s well-being.     

Calibrating Time-Use Estimates for the British Household Panel Survey

This paper proposes an innovative statistical matching method to combine the advantages of large national surveys and time diary data. We use data from two UK datasets that share stylised time-use information, crucial for the matching process. In particular, time-diary information of an individual from the Home On-line Study, our donor data set, is imputed to a similar individual from the British Household Panel Survey, our recipient dataset. Propensity score methods are used in conjunction with Mahalanobis matching to increase matching quality.     

Determinants of Rural Physicians' Life and Job Satisfaction

Objective: To identify and quantify factors that contribute to rural physicians' satisfaction with their jobs and life as a whole.Design: Cross-sectional, mailed survey. Study population: Family physicians practicing in rural communities eligible for British Columbia's Northern and Isolation Allowance. Main measures: Demographics, Domain satisfaction, Maslach Burnout Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, and Life Satisfaction.Results: Stepwise multiple regressions reveal the greatest predicators of rural physician overall life satisfaction are satisfaction with jobs, personal relationships, health, finances, and absence of depression. These predictors account for 70% of the variation in rural physician overall life satisfaction. The greatest predictors of rural physician satisfaction with jobs and satisfaction with current place of residence/practice, on-call shifts, personal accomplishments, and absence of emotional exhaustion. The predictors account for 44% of the variation in rural physician job satisfaction.     

Longitudinal Analysis of the Domains of Satisfaction Before and After Disability: Evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effect of the onset of disability on life satisfaction and five different domains of satisfaction (health, household income, housing, job, leisure) for German individuals. Particular attention is paid to examining whether individuals can adapt to disability over time before and after its onset in terms of satisfaction. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) for the period 1984?C2008, we estimate an innovative fixed-effects model on life satisfaction and each domain of satisfaction for working-age males (aged 21?C58), which allows us to estimate lag and lead effects and thus to test the anticipation and adaptation hypotheses. Although individual obtain complete adaptation to disability in terms of global life satisfaction (5?years after the onset), this adaptation is not complete in all domains of satisfaction. For example, despite the fact that the levels of health satisfaction drop as the individual becomes disabled, after the onset it increases but the levels are lower than those reached before the onset. In contrast, the adaptation is especially faster in the terms of leisure satisfaction (3?years after the onset), household income and housing satisfaction (5?years after the onset in both cases). Our results support the findings obtained in other psychological studies that conclude that the domain of disability extends far beyond health related concerns to encompass the person??s well-being definition of self and social position. Finally, these findings may help policy makers and government to promote social and economic measures and actions lead to increase the scores of global well-being and specific domains of satisfaction of this collective.     

Does Black Socioeconomic Mobility Explain Recent Progress Toward Black-White Residential Integration?

Studies of racial residential segregation have found that black-white segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas has declined slowly but steadily since the early 1970s. As of this writing, black-white residential segregation in the United States is approximately 25 % lower than it was in 1970. To identify the sources of this decline, we used individual-level, geocoded data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to compare the residential attainment of different cohorts of blacks. We analyzed these data using Blinder-Oaxaca regression decomposition techniques that partition the decline in residential segregation among cohorts into the decline resulting from (1) changes in the social and economic characteristics of blacks and (2) changes in the association between blacks’ social and economic characteristics and the level of residential segregation they experience. Our findings show that black cohorts entering adulthood prior to the civil rights movement of the 1960s experienced consistently high levels of residential segregation at middle age, but that cohorts transitioning to adulthood during and after this period of racial progress experienced significantly lower levels of residential segregation. We find that the decline in black-white residential segregation for these later cohorts reflects both their greater social and economic attainment and a strengthening of the association between socioeconomic characteristics and residential segregation. Educational gains for the post–civil rights era cohorts and improved access to integrated neighborhoods for high school graduates and college attendees in these later cohorts were the principal source of improved residential integration over this period.     

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.     

Old fashioned families as an endangered species

Changes in a typology of family structures incorporating household size and female labor force participation are decomposed using the 1969–78 years of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Among other things, racial, cohort, and educational differences result in: (1) a decline in large families regardless of mother's work status, due principally to racial effects; (2) a slight rise in the labor force entry of women from older cohorts; and (3) a substantial rise in the number of non-working mothers in small families, mainly from the younger cohorts. The discussion focuses on the advantages and implications of the use of the family rather than the individual as the unit of analysis in this type of research.     

Correlations,causes and heuristics in surveys of life satisfaction

Satisfaction with life domains is more highly correlated with interpersonal than with intrapersonal comparisons (Emmons and Diener, 1985). The hypothesis of the present studies is that the high correlations reflect inferences of social comparison from global satisfaction. Paradoxically, such inferences are most likely in private domains (love life, friends), where social information is scarce and relatively unimportant as a determinant of satisfaction. Study I replicates the Emmons-Diener findings, but also finds that subjects judge recent changes more important than social standing as a determinant of life satisfaction, especially in private domains. Study II examines an order effect in judgments of satisfaction. As hypothesized the correlation between social comparison and global satisfaction is higher (in private domains only) when global satisfaction is judged first than when the order of judgment is reversed.     

Development of Life Satisfaction in Old Age: Another View on the "Paradox'

Empirical evidence of no age-related decline in life satisfaction (LS) in old age contrasts with frequently observed declines in the objective quality of elder people's lives and has therefore been labelled a "paradox' and interpreted in terms of stability of LS in the respective gerontological discussion. However, as this evidence was mainly derived from cross-sectional age group comparisons, it does neither clearly indicate the absence of age-related mean level change, nor intra-individual stability of LS. Thus, the development of LS in middle and late adulthood was analysed longitudinally by using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. Based on single item measures of LS across 16 repeated panel waves with one per annum (1984–1999), autoregressive (quasi-Markov) structural equation models were used to estimate true score variances and intra-individual true score stability in one-year intervals. Research questions concerned (a) "monotonic' stability and variance in a subsample of old respondents (born before 1925) as compared to the total sample and (b) change in stability and variances in old age. Results indicate high "monotonic' true score stability of LS over the whole adult life span, whereas mean levels declined slightly in old age. No striking evidence for age-related changes in variance or stability was found.     

Competing Demands from Aging Parents and Adult Children in Two Cohorts of American Women

In late middle age, individuals may face competing demands on their time and financial resources from elderly parents and young adult children. This study uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine changes over time in the probability of having children and living parents for women aged 45 to 64. We compare two cohorts: those born in the 1920s and 1930s and those born in the 1940s and 1950s. We find that there has been a dramatic increase in the probability of having children and living parents and that this increase has been driven mainly by changes in life expectancy of the parent generation. We further examine transfers of money and co‐residence for women in the later cohort. We find that while women may not give to parents and children concurrently, approximately 30 percent of them have provided support to both parents and children at some point in the past.     

An attempt to classify satisfaction changes: Methodological and content aspects of a longitudinal problem

Panel evaluations frequently show that subjective data are characterized by a high variability over time, with correspondingly heterogeneous patterns of transition. In this paper an attempt is made, by applying a simple Markov model, to classify the courses of individual satisfaction changes and describe the content of their process character. The results suggest that major leaps in satisfaction can be traced back to objective external changes in living conditions. External factors of influence controlled, the subjective indicator slightly varies; a result that corroborates the expected relationship between objective life situations and their subjective assessment, as well as the reliability of the measure applied.     

Life Satisfaction in Australia: Evidence from Ten Years of the HILDA Survey

Employing data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, this paper examines the level, determinants and distribution of self-reported life satisfaction, as well as the prevalence and severity of dissatisfaction in Australia over the period 2001–2010. Against most objective measures Australia’s economic performance during this period was exemplary. Yet our results indicate a steady decline in life satisfaction from 2003 onwards, as well as a diminishing gap between the life satisfaction of males and females. Results also suggest that inequality in life satisfaction has generally declined. Geographic heterogeneity in the distribution of life satisfaction is apparent, and a number of socio-economic and demographic factors are found to serve an important role in determining an individual’s level of life satisfaction. Measures of the extent of dissatisfaction reveal an encouraging downward trend and provide policy makers with an alternative perspective from which to assess societal welfare.     

Incomplete reporting of men’s fertility in the united states and britain: A research note

We evaluate men's retrospective fertility histories from the British Household Panel Survey and the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Further, we analyze the PSID men's panel-updated fertility histories for their possible superiority over retrospective collection. One third to one half of men's nonmarital births and births within previous marriages are missed in estimates from retrospective histories. Differential survey underrepresentation of previously married men compared with previously married women accounts for a substantial proportion of the deficits in previous-marriage fertility. More recent retrospective histories and panel-updated fertility histories improve reporting completeness, primarily by reducing the proportion of marital births from unions that are no longer intact at the survey date.