Abstract
Subjective well-being has been associated with sociodemographic characteristics, health, and satisfaction with family life. There is evidence on gender difference in subjective well-being and differential relationships of predictors between men and women worldwide. However, little is known about the gender gaps in subjective well-being in Korean adults. Using nationwide panel survey data, this study aims to examine predictors of subjective well-being in the Korean population and to investigate if there is a difference in the impact of some predictors between men and women. Generalized estimating equations were used to measure the relationship between subjective well-being and explanatory variables, using individual-level data from the Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS) between 2017 and 2020. Model 1 investigated sociodemographic variables. Model 2 added three health-related variables (such as disability, chronic disease, and subjective health status) and satisfaction with family life. Additional models included a range of interaction terms. In the 2020 KOWEPS, 10,758 respondents rated their subjective well-being scores on the Cantril ladder. The mean score of all respondents was 6.74 (SD = 1.66). In the analysis of the pooled sample, subjective well-being was higher in women than in men (Models 1–2, p < .01). Among all variables examined, satisfaction with family life was the most important predictor of subjective well-being (β = 1.3625; p < .01). Education level and employment status had significant interaction effects with gender on subjective well-being. In particular, higher education was more important for women and stable employment was more important for men.
Highlights
South Koreans, on average, appear to be less happy than residents in other industrialized nations [1, 2]
Unhappiness and life dissatisfaction may be associated with high suicide rates that last for a long time [6, 7]
Such gender differences in well-being suggest that women react to life circumstances differently than men, and that women are happier than men despite the life circumstances, such as income, education, and health, which were all examined in our regression models
Summary
South Koreans, on average, appear to be less happy than residents in other industrialized nations [1, 2] Such unhappiness may have detrimental consequences in terms of sick days, low productivity, and a higher risk of depression [3,4,5]. Whether the cause is collective unhappiness or not, South Korea recorded the world’s highest suicide rate of 23 per 100,000 population in 2017 [8]. In this context, it is imperative to examine which factors influence subjective well-being among Koreans.
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