Structural elements of material well-being: An empirical test among people on social security

Abstract

The paper reports on a study of indicators of well-being, including objective indicators of well-being, global, affective indicators of well-being, and indicators of socio-economic well-being. Socioeconomic well-being is (narrowly) defined as that part of the individual's universal well-being which is strongly related to money and material means. It was hypothesized that these 3 classes of indicators of well-being have different meanings for the various groups of people on social security. Therefore, data were collected from a Dutch, nationally representative sample of 3 categories of individuals drawing benefits, namely: people receiving social benefits; unemployed, and disabled people, and a group of people in work. Hypotheses were tested regarding the following issues: The results indicate that, for the groups mentioned above, material aspects of well-being may be distinguished from immaterial aspects of well-being, and that indicators of socio-economic well-being contribute significantly to the prediction of happiness. Furthermore, these indicators discriminate best between people having employment and categories of individuals drawing benefits. It is concluded that a socio-economic version of well-being may be highly relevant when studying the quality of life of people on social security.