Determinants of subjective well-being in representative samples of nations

Kayonda Hubert Ngamaba

doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckw103

Determinants of subjective well-being in representative samples of nations

Kayonda Hubert Ngamaba

Social Policy and Social Work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Background: Maximising the happiness and life satisfaction [i.e. subjective well-being (SWB)] of citizens is a fundamental goal of international governmental organizations’ policies. In order to decide what policies should be pursued in order to improve SWB there is a need to identify what the key drivers of SWB are. However, to date most studies have been conducted in unrepresentative samples of largely ‘developed’ nations. Methods: Data from the latest World Value Survey (2010–14) and gathered 85 070 respondents from 59 countries (Age 16–99 years, Mean = 42, SD = 16.54; 52.29% females) were pooled for the analysis. A cross-sectional multilevel random effects model was performed where respondents were nested by country. Results: The average levels of SWB varied across countries and geographical regions. Among the lowest 10 SWB countries are nations from: Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union and Middle East and North Africa. Factors driving SWB include state of health, financial satisfaction, freedom of choice, GDP per capita, income scale, importance of friends, leisure, being females, weekly religious attendance, unemployment and income inequality. Nevertheless, according to Cohen’s rules of thumb, most of these factors have ‘small’ effect sizes. Thus, the main factors that possibly will improve the SWB of people across the globe are: state of health, household’s financial satisfaction and freedom of choice. Conclusions: To maximize the well-being of the population, policy makers may focus on health status, household’s financial satisfaction and emancipative values. The levels of prosperity and political stability appear to positively improve the SWB of people.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	377-382
Number of pages	6
Journal	European Journal of Public Health
Volume	27
Issue number	2
Early online date	15 Jul 2016
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckw103
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2017

Bibliographical note

© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details

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Cite this

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abstract = "Background: Maximising the happiness and life satisfaction [i.e. subjective well-being (SWB)] of citizens is a fundamental goal of international governmental organizations{\textquoteright} policies. In order to decide what policies should be pursued in order to improve SWB there is a need to identify what the key drivers of SWB are. However, to date most studies have been conducted in unrepresentative samples of largely {\textquoteleft}developed{\textquoteright} nations. Methods: Data from the latest World Value Survey (2010–14) and gathered 85 070 respondents from 59 countries (Age 16–99 years, Mean = 42, SD = 16.54; 52.29% females) were pooled for the analysis. A cross-sectional multilevel random effects model was performed where respondents were nested by country. Results: The average levels of SWB varied across countries and geographical regions. Among the lowest 10 SWB countries are nations from: Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union and Middle East and North Africa. Factors driving SWB include state of health, financial satisfaction, freedom of choice, GDP per capita, income scale, importance of friends, leisure, being females, weekly religious attendance, unemployment and income inequality. Nevertheless, according to Cohen{\textquoteright}s rules of thumb, most of these factors have {\textquoteleft}small{\textquoteright} effect sizes. Thus, the main factors that possibly will improve the SWB of people across the globe are: state of health, household{\textquoteright}s financial satisfaction and freedom of choice. Conclusions: To maximize the well-being of the population, policy makers may focus on health status, household{\textquoteright}s financial satisfaction and emancipative values. The levels of prosperity and political stability appear to positively improve the SWB of people.",

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Determinants of subjective well-being in representative samples of nations

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