Abstract
An association between income and life satisfaction has been well documented, however, little is known of how income trajectories affect different facets of subjective well-being (SWB). The aim of this study was to examine how several aspects of income dynamics are related to life satisfaction and affect balance. Longitudinal information on income from administrative records covering 13 years (1999–2011) is linked to cross-sectional data on SWB collected in 2011/12 from the nationally representative Study on Mental Health at Work (S-MGA; n = 3364). Parameters from subject-specific regression analyses of income over time were used as indicators of income development in regressions over all participants, conducted separately for men and women. Associations between income and life satisfaction were stronger and more consistent than associations between income and affect balance. Major findings were that longer-term income change was more strongly related to SWB than current deviation from expected income. Higher stability in income development was associated with higher SWB. A higher share of income from benefits predicted lower life satisfaction and a more negative affect balance. Our results show the importance of examining income trajectories and taking into account source of income to gain a more differentiated view on the income-SWB association.
Highlights
Subjective well-being (SWB) is increasingly recognized as an important outcome in public health and has already been used to study socioeconomic inequalities in health (e.g., [1,2])
Comparing the regression coefficients and outcome variance explained, income characteristics seem to be more strongly related to life satisfaction in men compared to women
The present study investigated associations between register-based income trajectories and subjective well-being, i.e., life satisfaction as well as affect balance, in a nationally representative sample of employees in Germany, separately for men and women
Summary
Subjective well-being (SWB) is increasingly recognized as an important outcome in public health and has already been used to study socioeconomic inequalities in health (e.g., [1,2]). The association between income and SWB has been a flourishing area of study as the question whether money increases well-being is of academic interest and of relevance for society and politics [3]. Prior studies have shown that there is robust evidence for an association between income and life satisfaction (for an overview see, e.g., [4]). Most of this research did not take into account that subjective well-being has two facets: an evaluative component, i.e., life satisfaction, and an emotional component, i.e., the frequency and intensity of positive emotions and (the absence of) negative emotions [5]. The main contribution of this study is to examine the link between different income characteristics over time and life satisfaction as well as affect balance as indicators of SWB. More details on the scientific background will be provided, before presenting the objectives and hypotheses guiding our research
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