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Food-Deprivation and Subjective Well-Being in Latin America

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Handbook of Happiness Research in Latin America

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life ((IHQL))

Abstract

This chapter studies the relationship between food deprivation and subjective well-being (SWB) using a representative database for 19 Latin American countries. The results show that food deprivation is associated to lower SWB. This relationship sustains even when controlling by socio-demographic and income variables. However, experiencing food deprivation does not suffice to ensure experiencing lower SWB; the results show that some people may have relatively high SWB in spite of facing food deprivation. Empirical findings suggest that religion and access to relational goods may contribute to explain the high SWB levels of Latin Americans, even of those who are in hunger.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Unfortunately, the survey did not include the life-satisfaction question in Venezuela; thus, this country is excluded from the analyses.

  2. 2.

    The Gallup survey was implemented in four different regions: (1) A rural area or on a farm, (2) a small town or village, (3) a large city and (4) the suburb of a large city.

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Correspondence to Mariano Rojas .

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Guardiola, J., Rojas, M. (2016). Food-Deprivation and Subjective Well-Being in Latin America. In: Rojas, M. (eds) Handbook of Happiness Research in Latin America. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7203-7_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7203-7_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-7202-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-7203-7

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