Ngamaba, Kayonda Hubert (2017) Determinants of subjective well-being in representative samples of nations. European Journal of Public Health. pp. 377-382. ISSN 1101-1262
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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 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 |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Social Policy and Social Work (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 09 Nov 2017 14:00 |
Last Modified: | 09 Feb 2025 00:08 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckw103 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/eurpub/ckw103 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:123726 |
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