The Life Satisfaction of Asian Americans: Evidence from the U.S. General Social Survey, 1972 to 2010

Arthur Sakamoto,Jing Li,Chi-Tsun Chiu,Sharron Xuanren Wang

doi:10.4236/sm.2016.62003

Abstract

We use the U.S. General Social Survey to investigate the overall life satisfaction of Asian Americans. In contrast to most other racial minority groups in the U.S., Asian Americans are advantaged over whites in regard to education and incomes which are known to be correlated with overall life satisfaction. Despite these socioeconomic advantages, Asian Americans express somewhat lower levels of overall life satisfaction than whites. Foreign-born Asian Americans are more likely than whites to be “not too happy” while native-born Asian Americans are less likely than whites to be “very happy.” This pattern persists even after controlling for educational attainment and the distribution of household income. The implications of these findings are discussed in regard to the social psychology, assimilation, and demographic characteristics of Asian Americans. Asian Americans are often portrayed as the “Model Minority,” but they appear to be somewhat less happy with what they have.

Highlights

IntroductionUnderstanding Overall Life Satisfaction among Asian Americans
The purpose of this paper is to explore the sources of overall life satisfaction among Asian Americans as a demographic group
As discussed earlier, our more theoretical interest is to understand whether Asian Americans have the same levels of happiness as whites after controlling for the higher levels of education and incomes of Asian Americans

Summary

Introduction

Understanding Overall Life Satisfaction among Asian Americans. Socioeconomic circumstances are consistently associated with self-reported levels of over-. The Life Satisfaction of Asian Americans: Evidence from the U.S General Social Survey, 1972 to 2010. Persons with greater household incomes are more likely to report being “very happy” in cross-sectional social surveys (Clark, Frijters, & Shields, 2008). Persons who experience a positive change in their income are more likely to report becoming happier (Ravallion & Lokshin, 2002). While socioeconomic factors are not the only variables affecting reported life satisfaction (Argyle, 1999), prior research consistently reveals net effects of education and income in the U.S but in a variety of other societies including those with developing economies (Graham, 2009)

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