Crime Victimization and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Happiness Data

Crime hurts victims financially and often physically. This paper examines how individual well-being is affected by the direct experience of burglary and robbery, using micro-level happiness data from Japan. I find that the direct experience of burglary significantly reduces victims’ reported happiness. In monetary terms, being burglarized is as bad as losing approximately $35,000–$52,500. This paper also tests for heterogeneous effects of victimization on happiness. Happiness of the wealthy, who can afford to lose some money as well as buy some safety, is not affected by the direct experience of burglary or robbery. Crime victimization hurts homeowners more than renters most likely because their barriers to mobility make it difficult for homeowners to move in response to crime victimization. Finally, this paper suggests that victims’ psychological non-pecuniary costs are substantially larger than the pecuniary losses.     

Childhood Adversity and Adulthood Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Japan

In this study, we examined the impact of childhood interpersonal adversity on adulthood subjective well-being (SWB), with a focus on the mediating and moderating effects of social support and socioeconomic status (SES). We concentrated on parental maltreatment (abuse and neglect) and bullying in school as childhood adversity variables and on perceived happiness and self-rated health as adulthood SWB measures. Our empirical analysis was based on micro data from a survey in municipalities in and around the Tokyo metropolitan area (N = 3,292). We obtained four key findings. First, the experience of childhood adversity had a substantial negative impact on adulthood SWB. Second, social support and SES significantly mediated the impact of childhood adversity. Third, however, a large proportion of the impact of childhood adversity remained unexplained by their mediation effects. Fourth, social support and SES did not moderate the impact of childhood adversity. Hence, we can conclude that childhood adversity affects adulthood SWB in a relatively independent manner rather than being substantially mediated or moderated by social support or SES. Accordingly, social policies should aim at reducing incidents of childhood maltreatment and bullying in addition to helping people enhance levels of social support and SES in later life.     

The Interaction Between Culture, Health and Psychological Well-Being: Data Mining from the Italian Culture and Well-Being Project

The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of health status and cultural participation upon psychological well-being, with special attention to the interaction between patterns of cultural access and other factors known to affect psychological well-being. Data for this report were collected from a sample of 1,500 Italian citizens. A multi-step random sampling method was adopted to draw a large representative sample from the Italian population. Subjects underwent a standard questionnaire for psychological well-being [the Italian short form of the Psychological General Well Being Index (PGWBI)], and a questionnaire related to the frequency of participation to 15 different kinds of cultural activities during the previous year. The results show that, among the various potential factors considered, cultural access unexpectedly rankes as the second most important determinant of psychological well-being, immediately after the absence or presence of diseases, and outperforming factors such as job, age, income, civil status, education, place of living and other important factors. According to a semantic map generated by a powerful data mining algorithm, it turns out that different factors (among which cultural access and health status in particular) may be viewed as concurrent elements of a complex multi-causal scheme that seems to play a primary role in determining psychological distress or well-being. In particular, distress seems to be tightly connected with: living in the Southern part of Italy, average income level, living in semi-urban and urban areas, age group 46–60, presence of more than two concomitant diseases and a low level of cultural access. Well being, on the other hand, is tightly connected with: male gender, high cultural access, and absence of diseases. Some of these associations are confirmed by Principal Component Analysis.     

Health-Related Risk Perception and Decision-Making: Lessons from the Study of Motives in Social Psychology

Much research in the decision sciences has shown that risk perception and decision-making are influenced not only by cognitive processes – such as the use of statistical 'rules of thumb'– but also by motives such as loss aversion, ambiguity aversion, and regret aversion. The field of social psychology has long been interested in a variety of motives that influence self-judgment, social perception, and interpersonal relations. These include, among others, self-enhancement, social comparison, predictability/control, favorable self-presentation, effective resource management, preparedness for bad news, goal attainment, and existential meaning. We suggest that more attention to these motives would greatly strengthen our understanding of how people think about risk and how they make decisions. In this article, we consider the influence of motives on risk perception and decision-making in the context of health outcomes. We argue that theories relating to these various motives (e.g., social comparison theory) can be greatly enhanced by testing them in the context of health-related risk perception and decision-making.     

Social Networks and Subjective Well-Being: A Comparison of Australia,Britain, and China

This paper is a comparative study of formal and informal social networks and their effects on subjective well-being in Australia, Britain, and China. Formal social networks are measured by group affiliations, and informal social networks are measured by personal connections with kin, friends, and acquaintances. An analysis of the national representative sample surveys from the three countries shows that the formal networks are of notable importance in increasing people’s subjective well-being in Britain and urban China, but the informal networks have much greater impacts in all three countries, particularly in rural China. We propose a cultural–structural interaction framework to explain the observed differences in the network influence on subjective well-being in the three countries.     

The Impact of Culture on Well-Being: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

This paper examines the effect of culture on subjective well-being. By exploiting the natural experiment of migration we are able to separate the effect of culture (intrinsic cultural disposition, values, beliefs, norms) from other extrinsic institutional, economic and social factors. Using data from five rounds of the European Social Survey we find that holding constant the external environment (living in the same residence country) and controlling for the important socio-demographic attributes, immigrants from countries with high levels of life satisfaction report higher life satisfaction than immigrants from countries with low levels of life satisfaction. The effect of satisfaction in the birth country lasts across generations and is stronger for immigrants who are more attached to the culture of their birth country. Since any observed differences among the immigrants is their cultural background (their birth countries), the results can be interpreted as the effect of culture on life satisfaction. Our results suggest that besides economic and social variables, institutions and personal characteristics, cultural factors play an important role in satisfaction.     

Religiosity and Subjective Well-Being Among Old People: Evidence from a Transitional Country

Applied Research in Quality of Life - Using data from the 2011 Vietnam National Aging Survey, we examined whether religion is associated with subjective well-being (i.e. happiness or life...     

Reflexive Social Orienting in Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Evidence from Gaze Cueing Paradigm

Twin and family studies have shown that Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have a strong genetic basis and are highly heritable. First degree relatives of individuals with ASD often show mild expressions of autistic traits attributed to Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP). While numerous studies investigated different aspects of BAP, less research has been done on gaze orienting especially in parents. In the present investigation, 43 parents of children with ASD and 29 parents of typically developed children completed a modified version of gaze cueing paradigm. Results demonstrated that the control group used the eye gaze in a way that their RT was affected by congruent versus incongruent cues, while this effect was not observed in parents of individuals with ASD. Findings of the current study provide further evidence on gaze orienting deficits in parents of children with ASD, which might relate to their mild difficulties in mind-reading abilities and a common cognitive phenotype with their affected children.     

Ethnic Disparities and the Psychological Trauma of Maltreated Children: Evidence from Three Multi-ethnic Counties in China

This study aims to discuss the effect of ethnicity on child maltreatment trauma in China and to contribute to international knowledge on the quality of life of children. The data come from a survey of 1763 rural children (M_age = 12.34, 50.0% boys) in three multi-ethnic counties in western China that was conducted from November 2019 to January 2020 with the modified versions of the “Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire” Scale. There are three important findings of this study. First, child maltreatment is significantly related to child depression in China. The depression score and rate of severe depression symptoms (SDS) are 2.09 times and 3.82 times higher, respectively, for maltreated children than children without maltreatment. Second, the effects of maltreatment on child depression differ significantly among the ethnic groups. The negative effect of maltreatment is most influential among the Han population and least influential among the Zhuang population. Third, ethnic disparities are also found in the effects of the influencing factors on child depression. The effect of intergenerational relationships on child depression is significant only in the Han and Tibetan populations, while the negative effect of peer support is found only among Han, Tibetan, and Miao children. Based on the confirmation of ethnic disparities in trauma due to maltreatment, this study suggests that it is necessary to establish a high-quality psychological intervention system in China’s multi-ethnic counties.

     

Social Capital and Well-Being in Times of Crisis

This paper attempts to show how the quality of the social fabric of a community or nation affects its capacity to deal with crises and to develop human and natural resources in ways that maintain and sustainably improve subjective well-being. Three types of crisis will be used as examples. These include economic crises; transition and other institutional crises; and conflicts over sustainable resource use. The bulk of the new results in this paper relate to economic crises and institutional transitions, and shows that communities and nations with better social capital and trust respond to crises and transitions more happily and effectively.     

Subjective Well-Being as a Dynamic and Agentic System: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study

Subjective well-being (SWB) comprises individual differences in life satisfaction (LS), positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA), and is typically conceptualized as an important life outcome. In contrast, Shmotkin (Rev Gen Psychol 9:291–325, 2005) proposed that SWB is a dynamic and agentic system that promotes optimal functioning, and is organized within individuals as configurations of LS, PA, and NA. We investigated three fundamental features of this novel framework. A 3-year, two-wave longitudinal study (N = 446 Canadian students; Mage = 18.67; 73 % female) was undertaken. The same set of five SWB configurations were observed at each time point, including congruous and incongruous profiles. Consistent with the hypothesized dynamic nature of the SWB system intraindividual stability in SWB configurations (operationalized in terms of categorical cluster membership and prototypicality scores) was moderate. In support of the proposed responsive nature of the SWB system, changes over time in individuals’ SWB configurations were predicted by changes in psychological, physical, and interpersonal functioning. Consonant with the proposed promotive role of the SWB system, positive functioning and changes in functioning over time were predicted by individuals’ SWB configurations and changes in configurations. The present work provides support for the proposed dynamic and agentic nature of SWB. Unique insights offered by a configural perspective on SWB are discussed.     

Modern Economic Growth,Culture, and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Arctic Alaska

Journal of Happiness Studies - The life satisfaction of the indigenous population in Arctic Alaska is quite high, perhaps higher than that of the U.S. population in general. Is wage employment...     

Social Comparisons on Subjective Well-Being: The Role of Social and Cultural Capital

Using the German Socio-Economic Panel, we analyze the relevance of modeling social comparisons to determine their effect on subjective well-being. We find that it is important to model social comparisons in such a way that captures the sensitivity of individuals to proximity. The impact on subjective well-being differs depending on the manner in which proximity is modeled, revealing that the underlying processes in comparisons are not homogenous along the income distribution. Additionally, our results point out that social and cultural capital modify the effect of social comparisons and such modification depends on the sensitivity to proximity.     

Genetic and Environmental Effects on Eudaimonic and Hedonic Well-Being: Evidence from a Post-Communist Culture

Prior behavioral genetic studies in positive psychology were entirely based on data from Western democracies, leaving the question open whether the magnitude of genetic effects on well-being indicators is similar in substantially different societal contexts. The aim of this study, therefore, was to investigate the structure of the genetic and environmental influences on happiness, life satisfaction, meaning in life, optimism, sense of coherence, and general well-being in a non-Western sample. Altogether, 100 monozygotic and 36 same-sex dizygotic twin pairs from Hungary (73 % female; M_age = 43 years, SD = 16 years) participated in the survey. Univariate classical twin modeling (ACE analysis) was performed using structural equation models. Heritability estimates of the positive psychological variables were largely variable, ranging from 0 % (happiness and meaning in life) to 67 % (life satisfaction). Also, estimates for the influence of common environment fell between 0 % (life satisfaction, sense of coherence, and well-being) and 60 % (meaning in life). Unshared environmental influences however, explained a moderate variance of all investigated variables (33–62 %). Most results were in line with previous findings from Western countries; however, some notable differences—e.g., lower hereditary influence for happiness or more robust role of shared environmental effects for optimism—were also established. These findings suggest that the communist and post-communist legacy did not produce drastic differences in the structure of heritability and environmental influences as compared to countries with longer traditions of democracy and economic prosperity.     

Health-Related Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents Following Traumatic Injury: A Review

This paper comprehensively reviews the published literature investigating health-related quality of life (HRQOL) following general traumatic injury in individuals between birth and 18?years. Studies were not considered if they primarily compared medical treatment options, evaluated physical function but not other aspects of HRQOL, or focused on non-traumatic wounds. Specific injury types (e.g., burn injury) were also not included. A total of 16 studies met criteria. Participants were age 1-18?years, with 12 studies considering children 5?years of age or older. Males were overrepresented. Injury severity averaged mostly in the moderate range. HRQOL deficits were noted in injured samples in all studies except the two with the longest time to follow-up (6-11?years). Some improvement was seen 6?months to 2?years after injury. Factors associated with HRQOL deficits were investigated, with acute and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms showing the strongest relationship. Research to date in this area is impressive, particularly the number of studies using prospective longitudinal investigations and validated measures. Challenges remain regarding methodologic differences, assessment of preinjury status, retention of participants, and management of missing data. Suggested future directions include extension of follow-up duration, utilization of pediatric self-report when possible, inclusion of younger children, and development of intervention programs.     

Social Support from Family and Friends and Subjective Well-Being of Older African Americans

This study examines the impact of informal social support from family and friends on the well-being of older African Americans. Analyses are based on a nationally representative sample of older African Americans from the National Survey of American Life (n = 837). Three measures of well-being are examined: life satisfaction, happiness and self-esteem. The social support variables include frequency of contact with family and friends, subjective closeness with family and friends, and negative interactions with family. Results indicate that family contact is positively correlated with life satisfaction. Subjective closeness with family is associated with life satisfaction and happiness and both subjective closeness with friends and negative interaction with family are associated with happiness and self-esteem. There are also significant interactions between family closeness and family contact for life satisfaction, as well as friendship closeness and negative interaction with family for happiness. Overall, our study finds that family and friend relationships make unique contributions to the well-being of older African Americans. Qualitative aspects of family and friend support networks (i.e., subjective closeness, negative interactions) are more important than are structural aspects (i.e., frequency of contact). Our analysis verify that relationships with family members can both enhance and be detrimental to well-being. The findings are discussed in relation to prior research on social support and negative interaction and their unique associations with well-being among older African Americans.     

Representation of Object Orientation in Children: Evidence from Mirror-Image Confusions

Although many cognitive functions require information about the orientations of objects, little is known about representation or processing of object orientation. Mirror-image confusion provides a potential clue. This phenomenon is typically characterized as a tendency to confuse images related by left-right reflection (reflection across an extrinsic vertical axis). However, in most previous studies the stimuli were inadequate for identifying a specific mirror-image (or other) relationship as the cause of the observed confusions. Using stimuli constructed to resolve this problem, Gregory and McCloskey (2010) found that adults' errors were primarily reflections across an object axis, and not left-right reflections. The present study demonstrates that young children's orientation errors include both object-axis reflections and left-right reflections. We argue that children and adults represent object orientation in the same coordinate-system format (McCloskey, 2009), with orientation errors resulting from difficulty encoding or retaining one (adults) or two (children) specific components of the posited representations.     

Political Violence and Psychological Well-Being: The Role of Social Identity

A significant body of research points to the central role of identity in creating and maintaining conflict. However, less research has focused on the protective role of social identity in such situations. Using a survey sample of 3,000 participants, 2,000 of whom were resident in a conflict-affected region (Northern Ireland) and 1,000 in a region more distally affected (the Border counties of the Republic of Ireland) the potential moderating and mediating impact of national identification on the relationship between direct and indirect experience of political violence and psychological well-being is examined. Findings indicate that national identification mediates the impact of direct political violence on well-being in Northern Ireland. This relationship is strongest where preferred nationality is relevant to the social division underlying the conflict. Those more distally affected, resident in the Republic of Ireland, did not evidence this pattern of relationships. Discussion of results focuses on the potential positive and negative implications of these findings for personal and societal well-being, respectively.