Subjective Well-Being in Context

Abstract

Subjective well-being (SWB) is not only influenced by people’s individual characteristics but also by characteristics of the places where they live. Using data from the Health and Retirement Survey (N = 5,975), we examined whether two indicators of the socioeconomic context (unemployment and poverty rates) are associated with SWB in older adults. The main findings were (a) these contextual variables are differentially related to SWB on the county level and state level in terms of strength and direction, highlighting the importance of distinguishing between different levels of analysis; (b) poverty rate tends to be more strongly associated with life satisfaction and positive affect than with negative affect; and (c) county-level poverty rate is more strongly related to positive affect in poor individuals and county-level unemployment rate is more strongly related to SWB in nonretired individuals, suggesting that the socioeconomic context matters more for people who are directly affected by it.

Keywords

subjective well-being life satisfaction affect socioeconomic context

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