Stability of Typical Patterns of Subjective Well-Being in Middle-Aged Swedish Women

Typical patterns of general subjective well-being (SWB) were searched for in a representative longitudinal sample of Swedish women (N = 272) at age 43 and 49. Cluster analysis at each age separately resulted in a six-cluster solution at both ages. The two solutions were similar, indicating structural stability across 6 years. Five of the six clusters also showed significant individual stability. Among these clusters, a generalized positive typical pattern and two generalized negative typical patterns were found, one characterized by very high negative affect and one characterized by very low global life satisfaction. A cluster characterized by above average positive and negative affect was also found as well as one characterized by low positive affect. A strong relationship was found between membership in an extreme cluster and the values in certain SWB-related variables, supporting the validity of the typical patterns found. Further, it was shown that cluster membership contributed to the prediction of some validation variables above the prediction achieved by using only SWB components entered as continuous variables, suggesting the presence of interactions and nonlinearities in the SWB area.