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Influences of Affect Associated with Routine Out-of-Home Activities on Subjective Well-Being

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Abstract

A survey of a random sample of 1,330 Swedish residents assessed the relationships between affect associated with performance of routine out-of-home activities, mood, and judgments of life satisfaction (cognitive subjective wellbeing, CSWB). Regression analyses showed that sociodemographic variables accounted for most variance in CSWB (7%) and least in mood (2%). In agreement with previous research, CSWB increased with income, employment, and cohabiting with a spouse, and had a U-formed relationship with age. Affect associated with routine activities accounted for more variance than the socio-demographic variables in mood (30%) and in CSWB (13%). Mood partially mediated the effect on CSWB of affect associated with the activities. The results suggest that future policy-related research should consider the possibility that community-provided resources that facilitate performance of routine out-of-home activities would increase life satisfaction.

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Notes

  1. Some modules were included in the questionnaire with the aim of investigating the role of quality of daily travel for the relationship between performance of the activities and SWB. The results from these modules are reported in Jakobsson Bergstad et al. (2011a, 2011b).

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Acknowledgements

Financial support for this research was obtained by grant #AL90A 2006:16305 from the Swedish Road Administration through the program “Social and economic impacts of the automobile“(www.BISEK.se) to the Centre for Consumer Science, School of Business, Economics, and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. We thank Bertil Vilhelmson for reading the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Gothenburg, SE-40530, Göteborg, Sweden

    Cecilia Jakobsson Bergstad, Amelie Gamble, Olle Hagman, Merritt Polk & Tommy Gärling

  2. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Dick Ettema

  3. Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden

    Margareta Friman & Lars E. Olsson

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  1. Cecilia Jakobsson Bergstad
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Correspondence to Tommy Gärling.

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Bergstad, C.J., Gamble, A., Hagman, O. et al. Influences of Affect Associated with Routine Out-of-Home Activities on Subjective Well-Being. Applied Research Quality Life 7, 49–62 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-011-9143-9

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