Table 9 - uploaded by Ryan Howell
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Intercorrelations Among SWB Constructs and Among Income Measures
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The current research synthesis integrates the findings of 111 independent samples from 54 economically developing countries that examined the relation between economic status and subjective well-being (SWB). The average economic status-SWB effect size was strongest among low-income developing economies (r = .28) and for samples that were least educ...
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... the 111 independent samples in- cluded in the meta-analysis, only 19 (17.1%) estimated economic status with more than a single measure of income or wealth, and only 8 samples reported intercorrelations among the different economic status constructs. These intercorrelations were, on aver- age, weaker than the correlations reported among different SWB constructs (see Table 9). Average economic status-SWB effect sizes were observed to be statistically similar across most income and wealth constructs; the exceptions were SES and personal income. ...
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There is a considerable amount of research on the effect of income on happiness, but only a limited number of studies have considered how the spending of income works out on one’s happiness. In this article, we take stock of the scattered findings on the relation between consumption and happiness. We cover 379 research findings observed in 99 empir...
Citations
... Public transport users and suburban residents have been found to have lower travel satisfaction (De Vos et al., 2016;De Vos, 2018). Travel satisfaction is further linked to satisfaction with life domains, and therefore could affect overall well-being (Bowling et al., 2011;Clark et al., 2020;Diener, 2009;Howell and Howell, 2008;Kuykendall et al., 2015;Wiese et al., 2017). For instance, commuting satisfaction might influence satisfaction with employment or free time, which might in turn influence overall happiness. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated that undirected travel (UT), or trips taken for their own sake, can partly compensate for a reduction in destination-based trips due to governmental regulations. Consequently, UT (in general, but particularly during the pandemic) may be especially satisfying and therefore important to subjective well-being. However, through the course of the pandemic, changes in UT were anticipated as individuals adapted to a 'new normal'. This research - conducted in Flanders, Belgium - first investigates whether the characteristics of and satisfaction with UT persisted after one year into the pandemic (April 2020 to May 2021) using longitudinal panel data from two waves (n = 332). Results of paired sample t-tests indicate that UT satisfaction increased though duration of trips decreased, and results of the Sign test indicate that the frequency of UT generally decreased. Second, this research investigates characteristics of individuals with different UT behavior. Six profiles of UT behavior were identified based on starting or stopping UT, increasing or decreasing UT, maintaining UT frequency, or not participating in UT. Chi2 tests identified differences among profiles based on wave 1 UT frequency, most recent trip mode, socio-demographic, and household characteristics. Results indicate that participation in UT might motivate future UT, one to three UT trips per week is a maintainable frequency, UT might be important to those with smaller living spaces and those living with children or other adults, and suggest that attention should be paid to mobility equity, including how and for whom systems are planned. These findings are important to understanding the effects of long-term governmental regulations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on travel behavior, and how investigating UT might help to challenge and reimagine traditional mobility systems post-pandemic.
... Despite the limited research on how the relationship between national economic status and personal well-being plays out in daily life, research on individual economic prosperity provides some theoretical guidance on the potential connections that could occur with national-level effects. Research amply demonstrates that economically advantaged individuals are more likely to enjoy favorable individual outcomes such as greater subjective well-being ( Howell and Howell, 2008 ) and happiness across the life-span ( Letourneau et al., 2013 ;Luo and Waite, 2005 ;Pinquart and Sörensen, 2000 ;Quon and McGrath, 2013 ). The most common method of defining individual economic success is one's income, but other socioeconomic indicators, such as employment and education, are also associated with greater subjective well-being ( Blanchflower, 2009 ). ...
... The most common method of defining individual economic success is one's income, but other socioeconomic indicators, such as employment and education, are also associated with greater subjective well-being ( Blanchflower, 2009 ). Indeed, a meta-analysis on the relationship between economic status and subjective well-being found that Socioeconomic Status (SES), typically a measure of income, education, and job status, was the strongest economic predictor of well-being, most likely due to its broad inclusion of multiple economic indicators ( Howell and Howell, 2008 ). Thus, this connection indicates a strong positive relationship between SES and subjective well-being on the level of the individual. ...
People in economically advantaged nations tend to evaluate their life as more positive overall and report greater well-being than people in less advantaged nations. But how does positivity manifest in the daily life experiences of individuals around the world? The present study asked 15,244 college students from 62 nations, in 42 languages, to describe a situation they experienced the previous day using the Riverside Situational Q-sort (RSQ). Using expert ratings, the overall positivity of each situation was calculated for both nations and individuals. The positivity of the average situation in each nation was strongly related to the economic development of the nation as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI). For individuals’ daily experiences, the economic status of their nation also predicted the positivity of their experience, even more than their family socioeconomic status. Further analyses revealed the specific characteristics of the average situations for higher HDI nations that make their experiences more positive. Higher HDI was associated with situational experiences involving humor, socializing with others, and the potential to express emotions and fantasies. Lower HDI was associated with an increase in the presence of threats, blame, and hostility, as well as situational experiences consisting of family, religion, and money. Despite the increase in a few negative situational characteristics in lower HDI countries, the overall average experience still ranged from neutral to slightly positive, rather than negative, suggesting that greater HDI may not necessarily increase positive experiences but rather decrease negative experiences. The results illustrate how national economic status influences the lives of individuals even within a single instance of daily life, with large and powerful consequences when accumulated across individuals within each nation.
... In fact, researchers and theorists look for simple and valid ways to measure the well-being of the individual, because their study allows identifying characteristics of a good life (Lucas, 2018) and guide towards personal or social actions such as the development of public policies (Diener et al., 2009). This is important because a metaanalysis study in 54 countries showed that there is a relationship between WB and socioeconomic levels in less economically developed and less educated countries (Howell & Howell, 2008). Therefore, subjective well-being is an interesting concept to analyze because of its association with basic needs of the individual (Baumeister & Leary, 1995) and ways to prevent mental health problems in society. ...
... In such a sense, the study is justified by social and academic relevance. Socially, because the study of well-being plays an important role in the study of mental health (Lui & Fernando, 2018), it is a way to identify how good an individual's life is (Lucas, 2018) and can lead decision-makers to the development of public policies (Diener et al., 2009) because review studies report that it has an association with socioeconomic levels (Howell & Howell, 2008). Academically, the validation of a brief instrument is of interest because it facilitates data collection and simplifies data analysis (Ziegler et al., 2014) leading to more research on WB. ...
... These results report that the SWB can be used as a brief measure for the measurement of subjective wellbeing. In fact, the SWB did not have psychometric evidence in the Peruvian context, although well-being is a variable that has strong repercussions on the development of public policies (Diener et al., 2009), the socioeconomic level, and the education of a country (Howell & Howell, 2008). Therefore, the validation of a subjective well-being instrument is more than necessary. ...
The objective of the present research was to analyze the psychometric properties of a short scale of subjective well-being based on the metrics corresponding to the network models. A total of 3196 young people and adults between 18 and 56 years of age (mean = 25.88; SD = 8.81) from three cities in Peru were selected by non-probabilistic purposive sampling and divided into two phases: exploratory (n = 642) and confirmatory (n = 2527). The methodology used was network analysis to determine internal structure and reliability. Evidence in relation to another variable was explored by latent network modeling using Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-2) as convergence measures. The results reveal that the SWB is a unidimensional measure both in its exploratory phase by Exploratory Graphical Analysis (EGA) and confirmatory (CFI = 1.00; RMSEA = 0.00). The reliability obtained through structural consistency identified that 100% of the time only one dimension was obtained; in addition, the items were stable because they replicated within the empirical dimension in all cases. The relationship with the PHQ-2 (r = − .44) and GAD-2 (r = − .34) maintained the expected direction and strength. The current data lays the groundwork for future research on subjective well-being in Peru, particularly because we now have a quick, valid, and reliable measure that can contribute to the scientific literature on subjective well-being, which is an intriguing construct to investigate due to its association with basic human needs and the prevention of mental health problems in a community.
... For instance, the long term effects of income on happiness have been found to flatten out (Myers & Diener, 1995;Easterlin, 2001) or, cease to exist (Easterlin, McVey, Switek, Sawangfa & Zweig, 2010). Howell and Howell (2008) found a weak relationship between income and happiness, just as Dunn and colleagues (2011). Other investigations reveal a positive association between income and happiness at lower levels of income, which plateaus at higher income levels (Kahneman & Deaton, 2010;Sengupta, Osborne, Houkamau et al., 2012) suggesting that there is a point of satiation after which more money does not mean more happiness. ...
... It includes the aspects such as life satisfaction, dignities, identities, emotions (hedonic), and meanings (eudemonic). Buddhist perspective of development is more included in this perspective (Howell, & Howell, 2008;Sangasumana, 2019). Well-being is not given or granted, rather it is mindfulness along with the elimination of all kinds of evils and sufferings. ...
This paper aims to synthesize development issues from a Buddhist perspective by taking an analytical universe of ‘well-being’. Methodologically, the paper is a review-based article that follows a systematic review process following different themes of Buddhism, development, and well-being. The major findings of the study include that the development has been contested with the rise of various issues, and its materialistic interpretation has been in crisis both theoretically as well empirically. At this outset, the Buddhist perspective seems to be a more humanistic approach to development which treats underdevelopment as the cause of development. This is the principle of dependent origination, whereby the byproducts of underdevelopment can be analyzed. The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Paths are also replicative in the development studies for the socio-economic transformation of society. The material outlet of development doesn’t contribute to the eradication of suffering and miseries from their roots, both in mental and social structure. The paper, therefore, argues that the mainstream approach of development could not sustain development because of the ill-treatment of dukkha and the non-recognition of the sukha. Happiness, pleasure, and non-self are the contributory elements that have been proposed by Buddha’s teachings of Dhamma.
... The grass-roots government is the specific implementer of the policy and constitutes the most intuitive and fundamental part of government trust. Drawing on the measurement methods of He et al. [105] and de Vries et al. [106], Howell and Howell [107], the institutional trust is perationalized as farmers' trust in county-level governments (A8). The trust level of the three-level perationali of township government (A9) and the village committee (A10). ...
In the modern world, fostering comprehensive social sustainability has become one of the major concerns. Interestingly, rural livelihood may significantly comprise the compelling performance evaluations of governmental institutions’ performances. Governmental institutions’ performances in rural areas largely depend on whether they can gain relatively higher trust levels of marginal farmers. However, the critical interaction between these two prospects may foster farmers’ subjective well-being (SWB). Therefore, the study aims to model and test institutional performance, government trust, and farmers’ subjective well-being by utilising a survey of data from 963 farmer households in Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Anhui provinces, China. We have adopted structural equation modelling (SEM) to craft the study’s findings. However, in the literature, political performance is widely quantified by the urban–rural welfare and economic status gap; thus, in the core model, we have incorporated and measured the mediating role of the urban–rural welfare gap and household economic status. The results show that institutional performance, social insurance performance, and ecological livability performance have a significant and positive impact on institutional performance and government trust and eventually derive farmers’ SWB. However, the role of environmental livability performance is more substantial than social insurance performance in quantifying governmental trust and institutional performance. Moreover, it has a significant positive impact on the subjective well-being of farmers, and the effect of policy trust is not substantial. The results of further mediation and moderation effects show that social insurance performance and ecological livability performance can enhance the subjective well-being of farmers through the indirect transmission of institutional trust. In contrast, the mediating impact of policy trust is not significant. For farmers with higher economic status, institutional performance has a more substantial effect on the subjective well-being of farmers with a relatively smaller perception of the urban–rural welfare gap and lower family economic status.
... Participants who had higher monthly family income tended to adopt better health-promoting lifestyles. This could also be attributed to the relationship between economic status and people's subjective happiness in developing countries [23]. ...
Background: Risk management strategies play a significant role in genetic counseling, which involves lifestyle modification with respect to nutrition and unhealthy living habits, enhanced screening imaging, endocrine therapy, and following the physician’s advice etc. This study aimed to describe the health-promoting lifestyle of breast cancer patients and their family members in a Chinese genetic counseling clinic, and to explore its various levels encompassing different socio-economic variables. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. The participants in this study originated from a genetic counseling clinic of a cancer center in Shanghai, China. Two hundred and fifty nine patients conforming to the inclusion and exclusion criteria were screened from November 2019 to March 2022. Participants agreeing to participate were sent a questionnaire web-link with an invitation to finish this survey. Two questionnaires were included in the link, one referring to socio-economic information and the other referring to the health-promoting lifestyle. Chinese Health-promoting lifestyle profile-Ⅱ (HPLP-Ⅱ) was used to evaluate the health-promoting lifestyle. Results: One hundred and forty participants were finally included in this study. The mean scores for health-promoting lifestyle was 141.22 ± 19.77, and multiple liner regression revealed monthly family income to be a statistically significant predictor of health-promoting lifestyle (p < 0.05). In the six subscales, health responsibility got the highest score (26.43 ± 4.40), and nutrition received the lowest score (17.81 ± 4.73). Self-actualization was 25.84 ± 4.19, physical activity 24.02 ± 4.97, interpersonal relationship 22.21 ± 4.42, and stress management 24.91 ± 4.39. Conclusions: A representative level of health-promoting lifestyle of breast cancer patients and family members in a Chinese genetic counseling clinic were acquired. More education and intervention should be tailored to enhance and encourage health-promoting lifestyle behaviors in participants with low monthly family income. Additionally, developing nutritional curriculum and strengthening the publicity of nutritional popular science are priorities for future improvement measures.
... Having argued that financial worry fluctuates over time, the question arises as to what extent changes in financial worry are predictive of changes in people's feelings, cognitions and behaviours. While the adverse well-being consequences of financial distress are widely documented [14][15][16] , little is known about whether and why financial distress influences outcomes (other than well-being) that may be instrumental in breaking or perpetuating the poverty cycle 17 . Therefore, we have examined the influence of financial worry not only on personal well-being, but also on people's ability and willingness to get access to and accumulate social capital, to develop their human capital, and to search for (better) employment. ...
... Hence, for well-being outcomes, the results from the between-person analyses mirror those of the within-person analyses. Moreover, these findings are consistent with the results of previous research [14][15][16] showing that financial concerns are negatively associated with health outcomes. ...
Final report of our joint research project 'Money on my Mind: investigating the dynamics of financial worry', that was financially supported by the ThinkForwardInitiative.
Summary:
Many households in affluent industrialised countries have low incomes and regularly forego on needs such as heating their house or buying essential clothing. Undoubtedly, COVID-19 since 2020 and rising inflation since 2022 will have exacerbated the situation considerably. Many households will have financial worries, or ‘money on their mind’. We have studied how financial worries vary over time, by surveying households in The Netherlands, Belgium and Australia bi-weekly over a period of 4 to 6 months. We find that financial worries and most of its theoretical outcomes such as psychological health, social capital investments and work self-efficacy, vary meaningfully over time. They vary, for instance, with the occurrence of positive financial events such as a gift from family/friend or tax returns. At the within-person level, changes in financial worries mainly go hand in hand with changes in mental well-being, and these associations are quasi-identical across countries. At the between-person level, people with higher levels of financial worries tend to have lower levels of well-being. People with higher levels of financial worries are less likely to grow their social networks or feel competent at work. The association between financial worries and mental well-being can be dampened by several personal factors. For instance, the results suggest that extraverted and open-minded people cope better with financial worries than their introverted and close-minded counterparts. This inspires one of our recommendations, that companies develop interventions that increase employees’ psychological capital so that employees can better cope with stressors, especially financial uncertainty, and its associated worries.
... Furthermore, a study by Netuveli and Gartley [44] revealed that subjective social class is a strong variable that can predict the quality of life. Howell and Howell [45] conducted a meta-analysis to identify the relationship between economic status and subjective well-being in 54 developing countries. The analysis confirmed that the association between wealth and subjective well-being appeared stronger than that between income and subjective well-being. ...
Housing has traditionally been regarded as the most valuable asset in South Korea and is frequently used as an indicator of an individual’s socioeconomic status. In particular, this preference is evolving into a classification criterion for social class. This has led to rising social conflict and social anxiety in recent years. In this regard, this study examined the effect of residential characteristics, namely housing type and residential neighborhood, on subjective socioeconomic status using a multi-level logistic model centered on Seoul. The following are the key findings: First, it is demonstrated that home ownership has a substantial effect on subjective socioeconomic status. Second, the subjective socioeconomic status was found to vary depending on the type of housing in which a person currently resides, with residents of single-family housing having a higher subjective socioeconomic status than residents of other housing types. Third, residents of multi-household housing evaluated their socioeconomic status as the lowest. Fourth, the type of housing in one’s residential neighborhood was also found to be a significant factor in determining subjective socioeconomic status. Fifth, complex residential characteristics, such as the type of housing in which a person currently resides and the type of housing in the residential neighborhood, were found to have a considerable effect on subjective socioeconomic status. Through empirical analysis, this study examined the implications of inclusive housing policies that can reduce social problems and class conflicts and clearly identified the impact of residential characteristics on subjective socioeconomic status.
... At the same time, positive associations between mindfulness and people's health have been consolidated. For example, several studies have shown positive associations between high levels of mindfulness as a trait and life satisfaction (Kong et al., 2014;Schutte & Malouff, 2011;Weinstein et al., 2009;Howell et al., 2008;Brown & Ryan, 2003). Furthermore, it has also been negatively related to aspects contrary to well-being or satisfaction with life, such as negative affect (Bajaj & Pande, 2016) as well as negative associations with anxiety or stress symptoms (Keng et al., 2011). ...
Unlabelled:
The objective of the present study was to replicate previous studies by examining the potential connections between mindfulness as a trait, life satisfaction and time perspectives (TP) and to analyze if balanced time perspective (BTP) could act as a possible mediator between mindfulness and life satisfaction in students from the University of Girona (Catalonia, Spain). Data was collected from 341 Catalan university students aged 18-52 (77.1% women; mean age = 23.62) who completed Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI), the Mindfulness Awareness Scale (MAAS) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) to assess their Temporal Perspective, Mindfulness as a trait and Life Satisfaction respectively. Balanced time perspective (BTP) was calculated using the deviation index of BTP (DBTP). Results showed significant relationships between the various temporal dimensions, life satisfaction, and mindfulness as a trait, being the most significant associations with balanced temporal perspective. On the other hand, results also suggested that BTP may act as a mediator between mindfulness as a psychological trait and life satisfaction, confirming previous studies conducted in different countries. In conclusion, findings could highlight the importance of regulating one's attention in order to balance time perspectives, which in turn would translate into improved life satisfaction.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03795-4.
