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The Role of Cultural Participation on Subjective Well-Being in Mexico

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Abstract

This paper aims to examine whether the relationships between cultural participation and subjective well-being, informed by social capital theory, are significant in the Mexican population. With data from the 2012 Self-reported Well-Being Survey (BIARE in Spanish), a dataset that evaluate how people experience their quality of life, we performed several ordered logit regression analyses. Results reveals that reading books, reading articles, participating in art classes, and attending movies and theater (cultural participation categories) are associated, at different odds and probabilities, with life satisfaction, positive emotions, and affective balance, but not with negative emotions (subjective well-being components). Besides, social support networks, social integration, and trust (social capital dimensions) present positive statistically significant effects on life satisfaction, positive emotions, and affective balance; and negative significant effects on negative emotion. These outcomes emphasize, first, that the relationship between cultural participation and subjective well-being in Mexico should be studied in their separate categories and components. Second, the social capital approach potentially provides critical insights in the understanding of the phenomenon.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Social Work, Boston College, 305 McGuinn Hall, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, USA

    Javier Reyes-Martínez, David Takeuchi & Margaret Lombe

  2. Department of Social and Political Sciences, Universidad Iberoamericana, Prolongación Paseo de la Reforma 880, Álvaro Obregón, Lomas de Santa Fe, 01219, México City, Mexico

    Javier Reyes-Martínez & Oscar A. Martínez-Martínez

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  1. Javier Reyes-Martínez
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  2. David Takeuchi
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  3. Oscar A. Martínez-Martínez
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Correspondence to Javier Reyes-Martínez.

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Reyes-Martínez, J., Takeuchi, D., Martínez-Martínez, O.A. et al. The Role of Cultural Participation on Subjective Well-Being in Mexico. Applied Research Quality Life 16, 1321–1341 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-020-09811-8

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