Abstract
The purpose of this study is to compare the correlates of two types of well-being: happiness and life evaluation. Analysis is based on data from the social diagnosis survey conducted in Poland between 2003 and 2011. The measure of happiness is defined in terms of how one assesses one’s life in recent times. Life evaluation refers to the perception of satisfaction with one’s life as a whole. Particular attention is devoted to the relationship between current and past well-being. We have found that higher levels of past well-being are associated with higher levels of current well-being. Additionally, in order to examine differences between happiness and life evaluation, a distinction is made between temporary and permanent changes in determinants of well-being. Temporary changes in one’s health, employment status, and income are more closely related to changes in one’s happiness than life evaluation. The reverse is observed for permanent changes. In the case of a permanent change in religiosity and a temporary change in number of friends, a significant correlation with well-being is independent of its type.
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Notes
More precise definitions are provided in Sect. 2 devoted to data description.
The above-mentioned studies use various terms for subjective well-being, but for the sake of consistency with the typology introduced in the previous paragraph, the term “well-being” is used throughout this paper.
The full question for life evaluation is How do you perceive your entire life? Would you say it has been... For happiness, the full question is All things considered, how do you perceive your life over the past several days would you say you have been...
The case when this answer is coded as one is also discussed to assess sensitivity to coding practice.
A voivodeship is the largest administrative unit in Poland corresponding to a province or state. There are sixteen voivodeships.
The method of calculating equivalence scales is described in (Czapinski 2011, p. 440).
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Chrostek, P. An Empirical Investigation into the Determinants and Persistence of Happiness and Life Evaluation. J Happiness Stud 17, 413–430 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9601-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9601-9