The structure of everyday happiness is best captured by a latent subjective well-being factor

Abstract

We examined the structure of subjective well-being (SWB), comprising life satisfaction (LS), positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA), in everyday life. 4,286 French adults (Mage = 30 years; 72% female) rated momentary LS, PA, and NA on at least four occasions over 25 days (average). A random intercept cross-lagged panel model revealed strong loadings from LS, PA, and NA on latent SWB factors within and across occasions, but weak and inconsistent cross-lagged effects. Correlations among LS, PA, and NA were consistent across age, sex, day of the week, and time of day. Further, most individuals were characterized by a positive LS-PA correlation along with negative LS-NA and PA-NA correlations, providing evidence of generalizability across individuals.