Subjective Well-Being
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[edit] Definitions and Overview
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Subjective well-being, also called hedonic well-being, is based on (a) more (and more frequent) positive than negative affect and (b) global life satisfaction. (See Psychological Well-Being for an alternate perspective on well-bein that is based on human fulfillment and growth.)
[edit] Related GoodWiki Pages
[edit] Often-Cited or New Studies with Accompanying Summaries
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Garrett, Sarah B. 2008. "The Kids are Alright." Greater Good Science Center's 'Half Full' Blog.
Garrett's analyses of Monitoring the Future data show that American teenagers are about as happy--if not more so--than were their peers in the 1980s and 1970s, when these happiness data were first collected. Contrasting with popular representations of teens in the media, the vast majority of high school seniors since the mid-'70s have described themselves as either "pretty" or "very" happy (82% - 88%). Futhermore, she finds that the percentage of teens who say that they are “very happy” has in fact ticked up since the mid-1990s.
See here for the original blog posting, and here for Garrett's accompanying figures and data.
Garrett, Sarah B. 2008. "Posting #2" [Forthcoming. Greater Good Science Center's 'Half Full' Blog.]
Garrett presents data on discrepancies in happiness rates between different subgroups of the teen population. 1) Young women used to be significantly more likely to be "very happy" than young men were; recently, however, that pattern has reversed. 2) She finds a great disparity in happiness rates by maternal education; youth with the most highly educated mothers were significantly more likely to be "very happy" and significantly less likely to be "not too happy" than were youth with the least educated mothers. This inequality has persisted since the data were first collected and it appears to be widening in recent years. 3) Garrett finds persistent and significant differences in happiness rates by race/ethnicity. Every year since the data have been collected, white teens have been significantly more likely to be either "pretty happy" or "very happy" than have non-white teens. Indeed, for many of those years non-white youth have been about half as likely as their white counterparts to describe themselves as "very happy." While still significant, this gap has been narrowing since the early- to mid-1990s.
See here for the forthcoming blog posting, and here for Garrett's accompanying figures and data.
[edit] Related Sites and Writings
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