Individual Subjective Well-being Research Articles

From smoke to smiles: Quantifying the happiness benefits of household cooking energy transition

Existing studies that assess the impact of cooking with dirty solid fuels on human beings tend to underestimate the adverse impact on welfare. This paper aims to address this research gap by examining the happiness benefits of transitioning from solid fuel to cleaner alternatives. Using an extensive panel dataset from China, which includes 150,248 observations collected from 43,251 survey respondents interviewed between 2010 and 2018, this study employs various complementary methodologies, such as the fixed-effect model, propensity score matching, and time-varying difference-in-differences, to overcome challenges related to treatment selection bias and unobserved time-invariant heterogeneity. Further, life satisfaction approach is used to evaluate the economic benefits of cooking energy transition. Our findings indicate that switching from firewood to LPG/natural gas/gas can significantly enhance individual subjective well-being (SWB). Although the improvement brought about by electricity is slightly lower than that of LPG/natural gas/gas, it remains substantial. Notably, the positive effect is more pronounced among specific demographic groups, including females, rural residents, and low-income families. Moreover, these well-being improvements can manifest quickly and persist many years before any noticeable enhancements in physical health. This effect further amplifies over time. However, biogas shows no significant effect on SWB. These findings underscore the importance of clean fuels that contribute to increased happiness, as they are more likely to be consistently adopted. Finally, we estimate that the economic benefits of the well-being improvements resulting from the use of LPG/natural gas/gas and electricity range between $5.15 and $5.44 per day.

Involvement Affects the Subjective Well-being of College Students Literature Review

With the intensification of social competition, the phenomenon of involution has become increasingly common among college students, which has a profound impact on the psychological health and subjective well-being of individuals. The purpose of this paper is to explore the main mechanisms by which involution affects college students' subjective well-being, as well as to actively propose improvement suggestions for the problem. Through a comprehensive analysis of the existing literature, this study reveals how the phenomenon of involution affects college students' sense of well-being through increased stress and anxiety, social comparison and self-denial, lack of satisfaction of individual psychological needs, social support, and interpersonal relationships; and it also suggests that college students' subjective well-being can be effectively enhanced by strengthening mental health education and improving lifestyles.

The Impact of CPC Membership on Subjective Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Volunteer Service Participation

This study explores the impact of CPC party membership on subjective well-being, using data from the 2021 "Chinese Social Survey". The analysis was conducted using an OLS linear regression model and the Bootstrap method. The results indicate that party membership significantly enhances an individual's subjective well-being, primarily through increased sense of identity and collective belonging. Participation in volunteer service acts as a mediator between party membership and subjective well-being, with party members gaining a sense of achievement and social support through volunteer activities, which further boosts their well-being. The study also finds that factors such as social support, economic status, and life satisfaction significantly influence subjective well-being.

Engineering Approach to Explore Language Reflecting Well-Being

Although well-being is helpful in measuring the state of society from various perspectives, past research has been limited to (1) questionnaire surveys, which make it difficult to target a large number of people, and (2) the major indices focus on individual factors and do not incorporate group factors. To tackle these issues, we collected daily reports from the company employees that included text, their individual subjective well-being, and team subjective well-being. By using the collected data, we constructed a well-being estimation model based on the Large Language Model and examined an indicator called ``sharedness index'', as a state of the team that influences an individual well-being, measured using both score- and text-based methods.

Having fun in micro-celebrity restaurants: The role of social interaction, foodstagramming, and sharing satisfaction

Foodstagramming has grown in popularity within foodservice contexts. While it is commonly seen as a tool for impression management and normative behavior, the influence of social interaction on foodstagramming has received limited attention. This research aims to fill this gap by examining the interplay of social interaction, tie strength with peers, and subjective well-being, through the lens of social presence theory. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design with two empirical studies was conducted. Using a survey design, the Study 1 reveals that the need for social interactions serves as a precursor to foodstagramming benefits and establishes a mediated relationship leading to subjective well-being. Study 2 employs a qualitative inquiry to provide an in-depth understanding of the impact of posting food selfies on individual subjective well-being. It further reveals that sharing food selfies not only influences personal happiness at the moment of posting but also continues to affect subjective well-being over a relatively extended period. This research enriches social presence theory by exploring the sense of presence and community created through vivid food photos and by explaining the different effects of strong and weak ties. It also contributes new insights to the hospitality literature, highlighting the interconnectedness of offline and online experiences, which collectively contribute to customers’ enhanced life satisfaction in a commercial setting.

A new subjective well-being index using anchored best-worst scaling

Subjective well-being (SWB) describes an individual's life evaluation. Direct elicitation methods for SWB via rating scales do not force individuals to trade-off among life domains, whilst best-worst scaling (BWS) approaches only provide relative measures. This paper instead offers a dual-response BWS task, where respondents nominate areas of most and least importance and satisfaction with respect to 11 SWB domains, whilst also eliciting anchoring points to obtain an absolute measure of domain satisfaction. Combining domain satisfaction and importance produces a robust measure of individual SWB, but statistically unique relative to other life satisfaction measures utilizing single- and multi-item ratings, including global satisfaction and those aggregated over SWB domains, as well as eudemonia. Surveying 2500 Australians reveals anchored-BWS improves discrimination amongst domains in terms of importance and satisfaction, illustrating its value as a diagnostic tool for SWB measurement to focus services, policy, and initiatives in areas to most impact wellbeing. This includes highlighting a major discrepancy between health satisfaction and importance, whilst also reporting that SWB is significantly lower for Indigenous, unemployed, middle-aged, males and lower income groups.

The Effect of Municipal Fiscal Decentralization on Subjective Well Being: The Case of Chile

This research hinges upon the relationship between fiscal decentralization and life satisfaction. It contributes to the field by performing an empirical analysis focused on the case of Chile, by merging the national household survey (CASEN) with municipal level information. This analysis is based on a hierarchical empirical model, in which data from both sources are integrated. Our results show a significant positive effect of municipal level fiscal decentralization on individual subjective well-being. Nonetheless, we also show that said result is contingent upon residents’ political representation, which is in line with the hypothesis that citizens’ oversight of local authorities is a necessary condition for the effect of fiscal decentralization to emerge. From the viewpoint of how fiscally decentralized measures should be implemented in practice, above evidence suggests that said process should be accompanied by the strengthening of local residents’ participation in community relevant matters. Further confirmation of this is presented in this research, by showing that residents’ membership in organized groups further increases individual subjective well-being. JEL Classification: H72, H77, C11.

Antecedent of Destination Loyalty through Tourists’ Fascination

This study aims to assess future behavioral intention on tourist experiences while visiting culinary destinations in Yogyakarta that serve healthy cuisine; the examined variables are destination fascination and subjective well-being as a mediating variable. The study uses a quantitative approach. Questionaries utilize seven-point Likert scale for the measurements were spreads online. The study took place in Indonesia from October to December 2023. Respondents are tourists who have tasted healthy cuisine in Yogyakarta, totaling 246. The presented hypotheses in this study were tested using AMOS software. The study found how destination fascination has a negative and significant effect on destination loyalty. Moreover, the fascination to a destination has a positive and substantial effect on an individual's subjective well-being. Subjective well-being has a positive but non-significant effect on destination loyalty and cannot serve as a mediator in the connection between destination fascination and destination loyalty.

Lonely online: A social model of digital media addiction: A study in 21 countries

ABSTRACT Digital media addiction limits face-to-face communication, which can have negative effects on the subjective wellbeing of individuals. However, the effect of digital media addiction on subjective wellbeing has not been adequately explored, and it is recommended in the literature that the role of mediating variables related to social life should be investigated. These include loneliness and satisfaction with relationships. The current study investigated whether loneliness and satisfaction with relationships explained the link between people’s digital media addiction and their sense of flourishing. A sample of 6,434 respondents from 21 countries (Mage = 25.92 years, SD = 9.78; 65.5% women) took part in a cross-sectional survey study. The study included a comprehensive evaluation of digital media addiction using several measures. The following scales were applied: the Internet Addiction Scale, the Facebook Intrusion Questionnaire, the Phubbing Scale, the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale, the Relationship Assessment Scale, and the Flourishing Scale. A two-level path analysis showed that loneliness and satisfaction with interpersonal relationships fully mediated the link between digital media addiction and flourishing on the individual level. This suggests that digital media addiction may affect flourishing only through its impact on loneliness and satisfaction with interpersonal relationships.

Happiness is In The Air if It Grows Growing Places are Happier than Shrinking ones

We study the effect of population change on subjective wellbeing (SWB) using over 100,000 observations from behavioral risk factor surveillance system representative of 392 US counties. SWB correlates higher with population change (0.4) than with county-level crime (-0.25) and income (0.2). The relative ecological strong effect size holds in regressions controlling for person-level and county-level predictors of SWB-population change is one of the strongest ecological predictors of SWB. While ecological variables have a smaller effect on individual SWB than person-level variables, their total combined population effect is large. This is only the second study on the effect of population change of a city/county on its residents’ happiness. Such a gap in the literature is remarkable—we call for more research in this area and present directions for future research. As in any nonexperimental study, results are not causal. And results may not generalize beyond the US population studied.

Impact of filial piety on residents' subjective well-being in China considering the moderating effect of income level.

Subjective well-being (SWB) reflects an individual's subjective evaluation of overall life satisfaction and healthcare situation. As one of the most important concepts in traditional Chinese culture, filial piety refers to an ancient and significant ethical concept that originates from traditional Chinese culture. Filial piety emphasizes the respect, care, and filial devotion of children towards their parents, and has a complex influence on SWB. Moreover, in the context of rapid economic development, an individual's income level significantly moderates the influence of filial piety. Revealing the influence of different types of filial piety on SWB is of great significance for enhancing residents' SWB. However, existing studies rarely touch upon this topic. Therefore, this paper focuses on the 7 kinds of filial piety, establishes an ordered logit model based on the data from the China General Social Survey, and analyzes the influence of these 7 kinds of filial piety on SWB. On this basis, this study analyzes the moderating effect of income level. Finally, it further analyzes the regional heterogeneity of China in the influence of filial piety. Concepts such as constant respect for father's authority, enhancing parents' honor, and bearing sons for the purpose of lineage continuity, have negative impact on SWB. Superior economic conditions can neutralize and salvage these concepts to a certain extent, but they are ultimately negative. In regions with a minority population such as the 4 northeastern provinces, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia, and Xinjiang, these concepts can increase SWB, which is restricted by the local economic level and might just be a transitional form of insufficient development. appreciating the kindness of upbringing; treating parents well under any circumstances; giving up personal ambitions to fulfill parents' wishes, positively influence individual SWB, especially when income is substantial. The research results indicate that different type of filial piety has different impacts on SWB; income level has a significant moderating effect; and there are significant regional heterogeneities in the influence of filial piety. The results of this study provide a theoretical basis and reference for enhancing residents' SWB.

Well-being and behaviour at work: to what extent are they related?

The purpose of the article is to examine the extent to which workplace well-being influences individual behaviours at work. Various studies have found that increasing the state of feeling good and seeing life positively influences the way a person responds or behaves. This article explores the causal relationship between the psychological and subjective well-being of individuals and their behaviour at work and/or at school. Additionally, it investigates the extent to which socio-economic status participates in the causal relationship between workplace well-being and behaviour at work and/or at school. To understand the predictive power of independent variables on behaviour in the workplace, we used linear regression models. Mediation tests were also used to quantify the extent to which socio-economic status influenced the confirmed causal relationship. The study reports the results of a sample of 533 Romanian respondents. Data were collected from university business students, based on a questionnaire administered online. The results confirm the prediction role of the psychological and subjective well-being of individuals in their workplace behaviour. Additionally, research confirms the mediation role of socio-economic status in this relationship.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children with Autism and Their Caregivers: Findings from an Online Survey

Abstract Background: The coronavirus pandemic has had an unparalleled impact on the social, economic, physical, and subjective well-being of individuals in general, and children with special needs and their families in particular. Objectives: The objective is to examine the emotional and behavioral impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children with autism and their families. Methodology: The study utilized an online Google Form and elicited information on sociodemographic background, types of therapies utilized before the pandemic, services available during the pandemic, utilization of services, satisfaction, challenges faced in management, perceived stress, and behavioral and emotional functioning of children during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Parenting stress was measured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PPS) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) measured the emotional and behavioral functioning of autism spectrum disorders children. Results: A total of 62 caregivers responded to the survey. The COVID-19 restrictions were found to have significantly limited access to face-to-face educational and therapeutic services for the majority of the patients and only 17.7% reported receiving health-care services. Among the families that utilized the online intervention services, only 36.4% were satisfied and the satisfaction among families utilizing virtual educational services (43.5%) was even lower (14.5%). The stepwise multivariate regression analysis indicated that 16.1% of the variance in the total SDQ score of the child was accounted for by the PPS score (F = 11.47, P = 0.001). Conclusions: The worsening of challenging behaviors during COVID-19 underscores the need to intervene early and to expand the outreach of empirically supported telehealth interventions, especially among the underserved communities.

Household health expenditure does not improve people's subjective well-being in China.

Household health expenditure plays a crucial role in the daily spending of individuals. Meanwhile, the attention of the public to subjective well-being (SWB) is constantly increasing in China. Household health expenditure could reduce real family income, harming personal SWB. However, the aim of household health expenditure is to improve the physical condition of an individual, and improvements in individual health could enhance personal SWB. Therefore, the effect of household health expenditure on personal SWB is uncertain; hence, it is essential to assess the effects of household health expenditure on the SWB of Chinese residents. The Chinese family panel studies database from 2016 to 2020 was applied in this study. A fixed effects model was used to examine the impact of household medical and health protection expenses on personal SWB. Fixed effects instrumental variable regression and propensity score matching were then used to conduct robustness testing. On the basis of a fixed effects model, it was found that household medical and health protection expenditure did not improve the happiness and life satisfaction of individuals; rather, household health protection expenditure could significantly reduce personal happiness. Fixed effects instrumental variable regression and propensity score matching analysis supported these results. Household health protection expenditure had a greater negative impact on the happiness and life satisfaction of females compared with males. Household health expenditure does not improve the SWB of individuals in China; this has certain significance for the formulation of relevant policies.

Culture Shock with Subjective Well-Being in Overseas Students

Environmental differences are one of the difficulties faced by overseas students. Individuals need to adapt hard to be able to compensate. When the conditions in the new environment are not successful, it will cause many negative responses, such as being dissatisfied with life, experiencing high negative emotions, and experiencing low positive emotions. The response to this situation is known as culture shock. This negative response can lower the level of subjective well-being in individuals. This study aims to determine whether there is a relationship between culture shock and the subjective well-being of overseas students. This research involved 174 overseas students aged 18-25 years. This research uses the satisfaction with life scale (SWLS), positive effect negative affect schedule (PANAS) scale, and culture shock scale. The research data were analyzed using the data collection method based on the Likert scale and analyzed using the product-moment correlation. The results of the correlation analysis showed that there was a negative relationship between culture shock and subjective well-being in overseas students, with a correlation value (rxy) of r=0.228 and p=0.002 (p <0.05). This shows that the hypothesis in the study is accepted. These findings indicate that culture shock can affect the subjective well-being of overseas students.

Effects of the political configuration of local governments on subjective well-being

ABSTRACT Determining what makes a person happy is an extremely complicated task. The objective of this article is to identify the effects of the composition and orientation of governance bodies in municipalities on individual subjective well-being. We connect the data from a large Spanish welfare survey to municipal data covering the aforementioned dimensions of political configuration. Unlike previous country-level studies, we find no significant effects of political orientation when applied to municipal data. In contrast, political alternation emerges as a relevant driver of subjective well-being, especially when corrupt local governments are replaced. Furthermore, the fragmentation in the Spanish political landscape after the 2015 elections improved the level of political competition, which, in turn, exerted a positive effect on subjective well-being.

The relationship between social support and subjective well-being among college students: an analysis of the mediating effect of mental toughness

The main aim of this research is to get a thorough comprehension of the underlying mechanisms, through which social support influences an individual's subjective well-being. A mediation model has been created to examine the relationship between social support and subjective well-being with mental toughness serving as a mediator. The study was conducted using a sample size of 596 college students. The questionnaire method was used to investigate their social support, mental toughness, and subjective well-being. The findings indicate that (1) a significant positive link is seen between social support, mental toughness, and subjective well-being. Furthermore, a significant positive association has been seen between social support and subjective well-being. (2) The relationship between social support and the subjective well-being of college students is somewhat influenced by the mediating factor of mental toughness. This suggests that social support has the capacity to affect the subjective well-being of college students, both via direct means and indirectly through the mediating factor of mental toughness. The study results not only provide a valuable contribution to enhancing the subjective well-being of college students but also support the advancement of targeted mental health education.

Association of Gratitude With Individual and Organizational Outcomes Among Volunteers: An Application of Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions

By applying the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions to the context of volunteering, we investigated how gratitude is associated with individual (subjective well-being) and organizational (volunteer retention) outcomes through the positive thought–action repertoires of prosocial motivation and volunteer engagement. The data of 924 Chinese volunteers (mean age = 35.7 ± 9.1 years, 26.2% males) from voluntary organizations were collected through an online survey. The indirect effects of gratitude on subjective well-being and retention were analyzed through structural equation modeling performed using Mplus. Gratitude was revealed to be associated with subjective well-being and retention through indirect pathways involving (a) prosocial motivation, (b) volunteer engagement, and (c) a sequential pathway from prosocial motivation to volunteer engagement. Our findings indicate that grateful volunteers tend to exhibit increased intention to help others and actively devote themselves to volunteering, which can contribute to personal and organizational resources.

Quantifying COVID-19 policy impacts on subjective well-being during the early phase of the pandemic: A cross-sectional analysis of United States survey data from March to August 2020.

To stop the spread of COVID-19, a number of public health policies and restrictions were implemented during the pre-vaccination phase of the pandemic. This study provides a quantitative assessment of how these policies impacted subjective well-being (SWB) in the United States over a 6-month period spanning March to August 2020. We study two specific research objectives. First, we aim to quantify the impacts of COVID-19 public health policies at different levels of stringency on SWB. Second, we train and implement a conditional inference tree model for predicting individual SWB based both on socio-demographic characteristics and policies then in place. Our results indicate that policies such as enforcing strict stay-at-home requirements and closing workplaces were negatively associated with SWB, and that an individual's socio-demographic characteristics, including income status, job, and gender, conditionally interact with policies such as workplace closure in a predictive model of SWB. Therefore, although such policies may have positive health implications, they also have secondary environmental and social implications that need to be taken into account in any cost-benefit analysis of such policies for future pandemic preparedness. Our proposed methodology suggests a way to quantify such impacts through the lens of SWB, and to further advance the science of pandemic preparedness from a public health perspective.

Public services, environmental quality and subjective well-being in a European city: the case of Strasbourg metropolitan area

PurposeThis paper analyzes individual subjective well-being using a survey database from the Strasbourg metropolitan development council (France). The authors focus on the effects of externalities generated by public services (transport, culture and sport), environmental quality and feeling of security in the Strasbourg metropolitan area (Eurométropole de Strasbourg, EMS). Results show that EMS specificities (public facilities, environmental quality, safety and security) and individual features like opportunities to laugh or live with children significantly influence individual well-being. These findings are robust when using three subjective measures: feeling of well-being, environmental satisfaction and social life satisfaction. The authors also show that income may affect the perceived well-being of individuals belonging to a low-income group, while individuals belonging to a high-income group tend to be unsatisfied with environmental quality but satisfied with their social life. Besides, social comparison in terms of income does not matter for individual well-being in the Strasbourg metropolitan area.Design/methodology/approachTheoretical and empirical paper —Utility theory in economics—Econometric modeling using an ordered probit model.FindingsSpecificities of the Strasbourg metropolitan area-France (public services related to transport, culture and sport, environmental quality perceived as convenient for individual health, sense of security) significantly impact individual subjective well-being. Income does not substantially impact the individual subjective perception of happiness: income may matter for the feeling of well-being only for individuals belonging to a low-income group. Wealthy individuals tend to be unsatisfied with environmental quality but satisfied with their social life. Social comparison in terms of income does not matter for individual well-being in the Strasbourg metropolitan area.Research limitations/implicationsCross-sectional data, but it is the only available database from a survey conducted by EMS in 2017 to collect information on potential elements relative to individual well-being in the Strasbourg metropolitan area.Practical implicationsResults shed light on the role of territorial policies in improving individual well-being and might provide some guidelines for policy-makers concerned about the population’s welfare. Policy-makers should give strong attention to public facilities (an essential element of local public action) and improve environmental quality. If they care about the population’s happiness, they have to reorient current policies in this direction. Of course, through the inquiry in 2017 giving this database, the Strasbourg agglomeration development council aimed to provide such evidence to the local administration. Nevertheless, the results were a bit upsetting for many people in the administrative and political circles, who generally prioritize economic and demographic development, while the citizens’ responses to the inquiry have revealed a strong focus on the quality of everyday life in their neighborhood.Originality/valueThe present study contributes to the literature on subjective well-being, with a focus on the role of local characteristics and living environment. The authors’ starting point is related to the standard utility theory, indicating that environmental quality and public services are positive externalities. The authors investigate whether the local living environment and public facilities are crucial elements explaining individual well-being. To do this, we consider three subjective measures: feeling of well-being, environmental satisfaction and social life satisfaction, which are used as proxies of individual utility. The authors consider different explicative variables representing specificities of EMS in terms of public services (transport, culture and sport), environmental quality perceived as convenient for individual health, safety and security, etc. The authors also provide a test for relative standing by including the median monthly household income at the municipality level.