On the Sunny Side of Life: Sunshine Effects on Life Satisfaction

This paper seeks to analyze the influence of the weather on a person’s self-reported life satisfaction. On a theoretical level, it is claimed that ‘nice’ weather can improve the affective well-being of a person. Given this, it is argued that affects can, in turn, have an impact on that person’s general assessment of his or her life. In particular, it is expected that people would report a higher life satisfaction on days with unambiguously ‘nice’ weather. Data from three German large-scale surveys are used to test empirically to what extent self-reported life satisfaction is determined by the weather. All in all, the results are mostly consistent with the initial hypothesis. In all three samples those respondents surveyed on days with exceptionally sunny weather reported a higher life satisfaction compared to respondents interviewed on days with ‘ordinary’ weather. In two out of three samples, this difference was statistically significant. Hence, the supposed sunshine effect on peoples’ life satisfaction does indeed exist. Implications of these findings are discussed in a conclusion.     

Racial diversity,immigrants and the well-being of residents: evidence from US counties

This paper presents empirical evidence that racial diversity and immigrant population at the local level tend to be associated with lower life satisfaction for Whites by matching individual data with the county-level population data during the period 2005–2010. The magnitudes I find suggest that a ten-percentage-point increase in the share of the non-White population (approximately one half of a standard deviation) is associated with 0.006 and 0.007 points reduction in life satisfaction on a four-point scale for White men and White women, respectively. For White men, this effect appears to be driven by the percentage of the population that is Black. I also find that a ten-percentage-point increase in the percentage of the immigrant population (approximately 2 standard deviations) is associated with 0.009 and 0.021 points reduction in life satisfaction for White men and White women, respectively. The percentage of the non-White population seems to reduce older Whites’ life satisfaction more than that of younger Whites. Though the scale of the findings relating to the impact of local racial compositions and immigrant population is relatively modest, the findings may pose a challenge in the coming years as the percentage of the population that is non-White rises in the USA.     

Complex measures of job satisfaction/dissatisfaction among professionals

The present study deals with concepts of work satisfaction/dissatisfaction and occupational commitment among professionals. It examines elements of job satisfaction and individual social background among four professional groups: Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers and Teachers, as well as their differences in level of job satisfaction/dissatisfaction. A two-stage principal components method was applied to data from the longitudinal study ‘Professions in Australia’ to obtain global measures of job satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Although there are some differences between professional groups in terms of work satisfaction/dissatisfaction, stemming, among other things, from the different prestige ascribed to each profession, to a large extent, they face similar ‘problems’ and derive similar ‘satisfaction’ from their professional work.     

Self-Evaluation Processes in Life Satisfaction: Uncovering Measurement Non-Equivalence and Age-Related Differences

This study demonstrates how self-evaluation processes explain subgroup differences in ratings of life satisfaction (population heterogeneity). Life domains differ with regard to the constraints they impose on beliefs in internal control. We hypothesized that these differences are linked with cognitive biases in ratings of life satisfaction. In fact, two subgroups of respondents needed to be distinguished, for which life satisfaction scores were non-equivalent measures. Self-evaluation processes also helped to explain age-related differences in life satisfaction. Age was unrelated or positively related to life satisfaction in a subgroup of respondents who perceived comparatively high levels of control over high-constraining life domains such as work, income, and standard of living. However, age yielded a substantial negative relationship with life satisfaction among participants who reported reduced levels of control in these domains. Results from a German representative sample were replicated with data from an online survey.     

Comparing Life Satisfaction of Immigrants and Natives Across Europe: The Role of Social Contacts

Research on immigrants’ assimilation is widespread both in the U.S. and Europe. While it has been extensively studied how immigrants fare compared to natives on socio-economic indicators, few studies have focussed on immigrants’ perception of their position. In this paper we focus on comparing life satisfaction of immigrants and natives across Europe and on the role of social embeddedness. Using data from the first six rounds (2002–2012) of the European Social Survey, a repeated cross-sectional survey, we find that life satisfaction among immigrants is lower than among natives even though differences diminish over generations. For first generation immigrants part of the life satisfaction gap is explained by the lower level of social embeddedness they have compared to natives. We also find that social embeddedness is a key explanatory factor for life satisfaction for both immigrants and natives. For two out of the three indicators of social embeddedness that we consider we however find different patterns of association with life satisfaction for immigrants compared to natives.     

Remeasuring ageing in Hong Kong SAR; or ‘keeping the demographic window open’

Hong Kong SAR has among both the lowest fertility rates and highest life expectancy in the world. Under the current calculation of the Old Age Dependency Ratio (OADR), Hong Kong is, understandably, ageing extremely rapidly. This is a cause of significant concern among policy makers. However, OADR assumes that the entire population aged above 65 is both ‘old’ and ‘dependent’, neither of which is clearly defined, and that all aged below 65 are active in the labour force. Furthermore, because the rate is fundamentally based upon a European/North American model of pension and retirement it is arguably less appropriate to areas of the world where retirement ages are more fluid and pension systems less developed. We apply and extend a method for Hong Kong, designed by Sanderson and Scherbov, to ‘remeasure ageing’ by taking remaining life expectancy as the constant, rather than years lived by using projected life tables and 1 × 1 population projections. In doing so, we show that Sanderson and Scherbov’s new ‘prospective’ measurements of ageing more accurately reflect the increased longevity and vitality of Hong Kong’s population. Rather than passively accepting fate as a ‘rapidly ageing’ population, East Asian economies can be active in rethinking society’s relationship to work and other activities across the life-cycle. By adapting existing measurements to take into account the different welfare regimes in East Asia, we can radically alter the timeframe in which population ageing becomes ‘critical’. This allows more time to develop a more holistic life-course view of the relationship between work, longevity and fertility and to actively tackle ageing in an optimistic way.     

Life Domain Satisfactions as Predictors of Overall Life Satisfaction Among Workers: Evidence from Chile

This article examines the subjective antecedents of life satisfaction of workers. Adopting a ‘bottom-up’ perspective, we assessed the unique influence that satisfaction with multiple life domains have on evaluative judgments of overall life satisfaction. Based on a nationwide sample of 530 Chilean workers, we simultaneously tested the effects of seven life domain satisfactions that have been consistently included in extant models of life satisfaction and subjective well-being. These were satisfaction with health, financial situation, social relationships, one’s self-worth, leisure-time, family, and work. Having controlled for age and gender, results showed that satisfaction with one’s financial situation was the dominant predictor of overall life satisfaction of workers, with a weight of .36. Satisfaction with family, work, and health had effects of .25, .14, and .14, respectively. Interestingly, satisfaction with one’s self-worth, leisure-time, and social relationships did not have statistically significant effects on life satisfaction, although the first two showed t values near the critical value.     

Conversion of Verbal Response Scales: Robustness Across Demographic Categories

Happiness and life satisfaction have traditionally been measured using verbal response scales, however, these verbal scales have not kept up with the present trend to use numerical response scales. A switch from a verbal scale to a numerical scale, however, causes a severe problem for trend analyses, due to the incomparability of the old and new measurements. The Reference Distribution Method is a method that has been developed recently to deal with this comparison problem. In this method use is made of a reference distribution based on responses to a numerical scale which is used to decide at which point verbally labelled response options transit from one state to another, for example from ‘happy’ to ‘very happy’. Next, for each wave of the time series in which the verbal scale is used, a population mean is estimated for the beta distribution that fits best to these transition points and the responses in this wave. These estimates are on a level that is comparable to that of the mean of the reference distribution and are appropriate for use in an extended time series based on the responses measured using a verbal and a numerical scale. In this paper we address the question of whether the transition points derived for the general population can be used for demographic categories to produce reliable, extended time series to monitor differences in trends among these categories. We conclude that this is possible and that it is not necessary to derive transition points for each demographic category separately.     

The Second Approximation to an International Standard for Life Satisfaction

An earlier study, based on data from Western countries, concluded that an international standard for life satisfaction could be stated as 75 ± 2.5 percentage of the measurement scale maximum score. This study presents a similar analysis based on data from countries representing all major geographic regions. It is reported that these data yield a more inclusive standard of 70 ± 5 percentage of scale maximum. While the major correlates of life satisfaction are found to be individualism and national wealth, the life satisfaction levels of some countries are distinctly anomalous in this regard. It is concluded that the narrow range of population data suggest that life satisfaction is held under homeostatic control. The anomalous levels of life satisfaction reported by some countries indicate caution in the interpretation of life satisfaction data as implying some desirable population state.     

Cultural bias in ratings of perceived life quality

The results of comparative surveys have demonstrated great differences of perceived life quality. Yet there is doubt whether these differences mean that people are really more satisfied in one country than in another. It is generally believed that the responses are distorted by factors such as language, familiarity with concepts like satisfaction, and social desirability pressures. Though often alleged, the truth of these charges has not yet been demonstrated empirically. Ostroot & Snijder (1985) now claim to have demonstrated that about 40% of the difference in satisfaction between the French and Americans is due to ‘cultural bias’: in particular to a rosier outlook of the latter. Yet their arguments labor under two defects: Firstly, their use of the word ‘bias’ is misleading. They do not demonstrate any discrepancy between avowed satisfaction and ‘true’ satisfaction. Speaking of a ‘cultural effect’ would be more appropriate. Secondly, Ostroot & Snyder do not demonstrate that the greater satisfaction of Americans is due to a rosier outlook on their part. The data do not allow the conclusion that Americans hold a rosier view than the French, nor that such a view is responsible for their greater satisfaction.     

The impact of professional and personal satisfaction on perceptions of rural and urban: Some analytic evidence

Studies of rural-urban location decisions traditionally used ana priori definition of rural/urban based on population size. A group of 29 physicians (study group) practising in communities of less than 10 000, that were part of a larger sample, perceived their communities as ‘urban’. A matched group of physicians (control group) in the same communities, who perceived the communities as ‘rural’, was selected. The research question raised was: Are there personal and professional factors that could reliably predict the perception of rural and urban? A logistic regression analysis was done using professional and personal satisfaction items as predictors of the two groups. The analysis gives some evidence that, once the effect of community size is removed, the perception of rural urban can be explained by satisfaction with the following: (i) access to specialist expertise, (ii) quality of education for children, (iii) quality of life for children and (iv) quality of housing; satisfaction with size of community was not a significant predictor of rural/urban perception.     

Parents Transmit Happiness Along with Associated Values and Behaviors to Their Children: A Lifelong Happiness Dividend?

There are strong two-way links between parent and child happiness (life satisfaction), even for ‘children’ who have grown up, moved to their own home and partnered themselves. German panel evidence shows that transmission of (un)happiness from parents to children is partly due to transmission of values and behaviors known to be associated with happiness (Headey et al. in Proc Natl Acad Sci 107(42):17922–17926, 2010, in Soc Indic Res doi:10.1007/s11205-012-0079-8,2012). These values and behaviors include giving priority to pro-social and family values, rather than material values, maintaining a preferred balance between work and leisure, active social and community participation, and regular exercise. Both parents have about equal influence on the values and behaviors which children adopt. However, the life satisfaction of adult ‘children’ continues to be directly influenced by the life satisfaction of their mothers, with the influence of fathers being only indirect, via transmission of values and behaviors. There appears to be a lifelong happiness dividend (or unhappiness dividend) due to parenting. Structural equation models with two-way causation indicate that the life satisfaction of offspring can significantly affect the satisfaction of their parents, as well as vice versa, long after the ‘children’ have left home. Data come from 25 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey (SOEP 1984–2008). SOEP is the only panel survey worldwide in which data on life satisfaction have been obtained from parents and an adequate sub-sample of children no longer living in the parental home.     

The Impact of Deviations from Desired Hours of Work on the Life Satisfaction of Employees

We estimate an ordinal logistic multilevel model to examine the determinants of the life satisfaction of employees in Europe. Data drawn from the European social survey reveals that deviations from desired hours of work (measured as the absolute difference between the actual and preferred weekly number of hours) reduce overall life satisfaction, but the effect is smaller in countries with higher unemployment rates. We interpret this finding as evidence that in environments where anxieties about job security are high, having a job brings about a certain level of life satisfaction regardless of the gap between the actual and preferred time spent in the labor market. We also find no statistically significant difference between male and female employees with regard to the impact of the work hours mismatch. This finding suggests that the gender differences which would have been expected in this context are already incorporated in the respondents’ subjectively determined desired hours of work. In fact, further examinations confirm that ‘desired hours’ are associated with both socio-demographic characteristics (in particular, gender) and preferences for labor market work.     

Quality of College Life (QCL) of Students in Turkey: Students’ Life Satisfaction and Identification

Understanding the complexities of a students’ quality of life has become essential in order for universities to plan their spending most efficiently. This study tests a model which was used to judge the satisfaction of college life and evaluates the overall impact of quality of college life (social, academic, and service satisfaction), life satisfaction, and identification. Secondly, the study assesses the impact of a university’s academic program, social life, facilities, and services on the students’ college life quality in this sample in relation to similar studies from Turkey and other countries. The survey included 1,260 students attending a public university in northwestern Turkey. Measurement tools included the quality of college life scale (QCL), Satisfaction with college life scale, identification scale satisfaction with life scale and personal information form. The results show social satisfaction has the strongest positive impact on QCL. This study found that life satisfaction and university identification had a positive impact on a university student’s satisfaction with college life. According to survey results it is also suggested that University administrators can primarily focus on improving the social satisfaction of the students then improve facilities and services, in order to raise academic satisfaction levels.     

Education and Life Satisfaction in Relation to the Probability of Social Trust: a Conceptual Framework and Empirical Analysis

We employ cross-sectional microdata from 2010 through 2012 collected by the Italian National Institute of Statistics to investigate the proposed conceptual framework regarding the joint relationship between education, life satisfaction and the probability of social trust. The analysis has been carried out using two alternative specifications of the logit model: parametric and semiparametric. Our findings suggest that (a) both modelling methods that we utilise yield consistent results in terms of the positive effects of education and life satisfaction on social trust; (b) for unsatisfied individuals, social trust is generally low and largely unresponsive to the individual’s education level, whereas for ‘sufficiently satisfied’ individuals, social trust increases strongly with education; (c) there are some gender differences in the joint relationship between education, life satisfaction and social trust and (d) the parametric approach tends to mask some interesting patterns that are captured by the semiparametric specification. This finding implies that the parametric approach leads to a biased interpretation of the results, with an apparent failure of some of the assumptions made in the conceptual framework.     

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.     

On the Survival of Centenarians and the Span of Life

It has been argued in the literature that the observed mortality crossover among older black Americans relative to the white population is a result of ‘differential early mortality which selects the least robust persons from the disadvantaged population at relatively earlier ages so that, at advanced ages, the disadvantaged population has proportionately more robust persons’ (Kenneth G. Manton). The authors examine the plausibility of the observed black mortality crossover and the heterogeneity argument supporting its existence. In addition to citing evidence from the literature, they use life tables from various countries known to have good mortality data to explore the relation between mortality in childhood and at younger adult ages and mortality in old age for cohorts and periods. Analysis suggests that the association between childhood and old-age mortality for cohorts is positive, implying that observed mortality crossovers are produced by deficient data rather than population heterogeneity.     

Effects of Social Network on Human Capital of Land-Lost Farmers: A Study in Zhejiang Province

The International Wellbeing Index covers two complementary measures, the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and the National Wellbeing Index (NWI). The focus group study reported here tested the understanding of the NWI when translated into isiXhosa, a language spoken by 6 million South Africans, or 16% of the country’s population. A challenge for the NWI in measuring national well-being is the tendency for meaning to get ‘lost in translation’ in the wording of the instrument, owing to the disparities that exist between levels of living in developed and developing nations. The focussed discussions with native isiXhosa speakers conveyed the different shades of meaning associated with the six domains that make up the NWI. The isiXhosa keywords for the domains of social conditions, the natural environment, national security, and management of the country’s affairs (government) were readily understood, but discussants asked for further clarification of keywords for the domains relating to the economy and business. Conversations showed up the close link between personal and national well-being: discussants drew upon their personal and parochial life experiences along with their knowledge of current affairs to evaluate the nation’s quality of life. They described the social contract between citizens and their government to create a ‘caring society’ that promotes well-being across key domains of national life. Many of the reference standards used to evaluate national well-being were ones postulated to influence personal well-being (Michalos A.C, Social Indicators Research 16(4): 347–413 1985 ). The study also pointed to a potential problem for longitudinal studies if the bipolar satisfaction scale, formerly used to measure the International Wellbeing Index’s PWI and NWI, is changed to a unipolar one. Findings from this pilot study confirm the potential of the NWI as a tool for measuring national well-being cross-culturally.     

Life Satisfaction Across the Lifespan: Findings from Two Nationally Representative Panel Studies

Two large-scale, nationally representative panel studies (the German Socio Economic Panel Study and the British Household Panel Study) were used to assess changes in life satisfaction over the lifespan. The cross-sectional and longitudinal features of these studies were used to isolate age-related changes from confounding factors including instrumentation effects and cohort effects. Although estimated satisfaction trajectories varied somewhat across studies, two consistent findings emerged. First, both studies show that life satisfaction does not decline over much of adulthood. Second, there is a steep decline in life satisfaction among those older than 70. The British data also showed a relatively large increase in satisfaction from the 40s to the early 70s. Thus, age differences in well-being can be quite large and deserve increased empirical and theoretical attention.     

The satisfaction and happiness of some senior citizens in rural Ontario

After reviewing recent gerontological literature on satisfaction and happiness from the point of view of explanations by analysis of constituents, explanations by synthesis of correlates and mixtures of these two types of explanations, I described some results of a social survey of rural Ontario seniors. A gap-theoretical account of satisfaction and happiness called ‘the Michigan model’ was supported for 12 domains and life as a whole. Differences in the constituent patterns for satisfaction and happiness with life as a whole were found for males, females, those who had lived off farming, those who had not, those aged 60–74, and 75 and above.