scholarly journals Sometimes Your Best Just Ain’t Good Enough: The Worldwide Evidence on Subjective Well-being Efficiency

Author(s):  
Milena Nikolova ◽  
Olga Popova

AbstractMost of the studies on subjective well-being focus on the determinants of absolute life satisfaction or happiness levels. This paper asks an important but understudied question, namely, could countries achieve the same or even higher subjective well-being by using the same resources more efficiently? We provide the first country panel evidence on whether nations efficiently transform their endowments (income, education, and health) into subjective well-being and which factors influence the conversion efficiency. Using data on 91 countries from 2009 to 2014, we find that that well-being efficiency gains are possible worldwide. We show that poor labor market conditions as proxied by unemployment and involuntary part-time employment are associated with lower ‘subjective well-being efficiency,’ while social support, freedom, and the rule of law improve it. These findings are useful to policymakers in helping identify inefficiencies, reducing wasteful resource use, and developing policies that promote sustainable development and human well-being. Our results are robust to a battery of sensitivity checks and raise policy-relevant questions about the appropriate instruments to improve subjective well-being efficiency.

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daiga Kamerāde ◽  
Helen Richardson

This article argues that gender segregation influences patterns of underemployment and the relationships that underemployment has with the subjective well-being of men and women. Previous studies have paid little attention to how gender segregation shapes underemployment, an increasingly prominent feature of the UK and European labour markets since the economic crisis of 2008. Using data from the UK Annual Population Surveys, this article examines time-related underemployment: people working part time because they cannot find a full-time job. The article asks whether there are gender differences in underemployment trends and in the links between underemployment and subjective well-being. The results suggest that the probability of underemployment is growing at a faster rate among women rather than men and that underemployment is most common in the jobs that women are more likely to perform, namely in female-dominated occupations, the public sector and small organizations. Underemployment is least common in male-dominated occupations and industries and in the private sector. Moreover, for employees with longer tenures, underemployment has more negative relationships with the subjective well-being of women than with that of men. These findings imply that gender segregation in labour markets is a crucial factor to consider when researching underemployment and its consequences.


GeroPsych ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lia Oberhauser ◽  
Andreas B. Neubauer ◽  
Eva-Marie Kessler

Abstract. Conflict avoidance increases across the adult lifespan. This cross-sectional study looks at conflict avoidance as part of a mechanism to regulate belongingness needs ( Sheldon, 2011 ). We assumed that older adults perceive more threats to their belongingness when they contemplate their future, and that they preventively react with avoidance coping. We set up a model predicting conflict avoidance that included perceptions of future nonbelonging, termed anticipated loneliness, and other predictors including sociodemographics, indicators of subjective well-being and perceived social support (N = 331, aged 40–87). Anticipated loneliness predicted conflict avoidance above all other predictors and partially mediated the age-association of conflict avoidance. Results suggest that belongingness regulation accounts may deepen our understanding of conflict avoidance in the second half of life.


2016 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunsoo Jeon ◽  
Keunchul Lee ◽  
Sungho Kwon

The study examined whether self-compassion mediates the relationship between social support and subjective well-being, as perceived by athletes. It also investigated the structural relationships between these variables. Participants were 333 athletes attending high school or university. Structural equation analysis showed that self-compassion partially mediated the relationship between social support and subjective well-being. To test the stability of the model, a multiple group analysis was performed according to sex of participant and school level, and this demonstrated that the model had similar fit to the data regardless of group. The confirmation that self-compassion plays an intermediary role in the relationship between social support and subjective well-being demonstrates that self-compassionate attitudes can be fostered by social support, and that, in turn, has a positive effect on an individual’s subjective well-being.


2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Junxiao Liu

I explored the relationship between forgiveness and subjective well-being (SWB), and the mediating effect of social support in this relationship. Participants were 443 college students from Henan, China, who completed the Heartland Forgiveness Scale, Perceived Social Support Scale, and Subjective Well-Being Scale. The results show that both interpersonal forgiveness and self-forgiveness were significantly correlated with SWB. Moreover, social support partially mediated the effects of both self-forgiveness and interpersonal forgiveness on SWB. These findings extend prior research and elucidate how forgiveness can influence SWB in college students.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. 1373-1373
Author(s):  
M. Guo ◽  
J. Liu ◽  
L. Xu ◽  
I. Chi ◽  
W. Mao

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