| Ali A, Ambler G, Strydom A, Rai D, Cooper C, McManus S, et al. |
The relationship between happiness and intelligent quotient: the contribution of socio-economic and clinical factors |
2013 |
The authors analysed data from the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey in England (6870 participantes aged 16 years or over and living in private households were included in the study) |
Those in the lowest IQ range (70-99) reported the lowest levels of happiness compared with the highest IQ group (120-129) |
The use of a single question to measure happiness. It is easier for people with lower IQ to understand compared with using a detailed inventory, however the subjective nature of the happiness measure may affect its validity and the use of a single-item question may be less valid in those with higher IQ |
Those with lower IQ are less happy than those with higher IQ. Interventions that target modifiable variables such as income and neurotic symptoms may improve levels of happiness in the lower IQ groups |
| Baruch Y, Swartz M, Sirkis S, Mirecki I, Barak Y |
Staff happiness and work satisfaction in a tertiary psychiatric centre |
2013 |
209 staff (185 nurses, 110 administrative staff, 61 psychiatrists, 35 psychologists, 20 social workers and 39 others) at a large university-affiliated tertiary care psychiatric centre |
Highest levels of happiness were reported by psychologists and social workers and the lowest by nursing staff. Work orientations as a “job”, “career” and a “calling” also differed between sectors with the highest levels of work as a “calling” reported by psychiatrists and the lowest by administrative staff |
Less than half of all staff participated, the questionnaires chosen were brief and designed for survey purposes rather than in-depth evaluations |
Satisfaction with life is not “driven” by work orientation. Psychiatrists perceive their work as a calling but do not seem to benefit from this in their satisfaction with life Improving staff happiness may contribute to increase in moral and counter burnout |
| Binder M, Coad A |
“I’m afraid I have bad news for you…” Estimating the impact of different health impairments on subjective well-being |
2013 |
100,265 observations from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) database (1996-2006) |
The strongest negative effect in happiness is for alcohol and drug abuse, followed by anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses, stroke and cancer A puzzling asymmetry was detected: strong adverse reactions to deteriorations in health appear alongside weak increases in well-being after health improvements |
The measure of life satisfaction was made from a single question. Subjective well-being questions were elicited via self-completion, while health condition answers by an interviewer. Bias could result if individuals systematically answer health questions differently in the interviewer’s presence |
Bad health decreases individuals’ happiness differently |
| Brasseur S, Grégoire J, Bourdu R, Mikolajczak M |
The Profile of Emotional Competence (PEC): development and validation of a self-reported measure that fits dimensions of emotional competence theory |
2013 |
Five samples for a total of 5676 subjects (4753 women and 923 men, aged 15 to 84 years) in USA |
The authors developed and validated in four steps a complete (albeit short: 50 items) self-reported measure of EC: the Profile of Emotional Competence |
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Analyses performed on a representative sample of 5676 subjects revealed promising psychometric properties. The internal consistency of scales and subscales alike was satisfying, factorial structure was as expected, and concurrent/discriminant validity was good |
| Chen H, Pine DS, Ernst M, Gorodetsky E, Kasen S, Gordon K, et al. |
The MAOA gene predicts happiness in women |
2013 |
Data (The Children in the Community-CIC) for this study were drawn from the 345 Caucasian subjects include 193 women and 152 men who were assessed for MAOA genotype in 2010 at mean age of 38 and happiness in 2004 at mean age of 33 |
In women, low expression of MAOA (MAOA-L) was related significantly to greater happiness after adjusting for the potential effects of age, education, household income, marital status, employment status, mental disorder, physical health, relationship quality, religiosity, abuse history, recent negative life events and self-esteem use in linear regression models. In contrast, no such association was found in men |
There is no single “happiness” gene and likely to be a set of genes whose expression influences subjective well-being. Future work should attempt to identify other genes that are associated with human happiness |
This new finding may help explain the gender difference on happiness and provide a link between MAOA and human happiness |
| Christakis NA, Fowler JH |
Social contagion theory: examining dynamic social networks and human behavior |
2013 |
The authors describe the methods we have employed (and the assumptions they have entailed) to examine several datasets with complementary strengths and weaknesses, including the Framingham Heart Study, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, and other observational and experimental datasets that we and others have collected |
The authors describe the regularities that led them to propose that human social networks may exhibit a “three degrees of influence” property, and they review statistical approaches we have used to characterize interpersonal influence with respect to phenomena as diverse as obesity, smoking, cooperation, and happiness |
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The authors do not claim that this work is the final word, but they do believe that it provides some novel, informative, and stimulating evidence regarding social contagion in longitudinally followed networks. Along with other scholars, they are working to develop new methods for identifying causal effects using social network data, and they believe that this area is ripe for statistical development as current methods have known and often unavoidable limitations |
| Doherty M, Kelly BD |
When Irish eyes are smiling: income and happiness in Ireland, 2003-2009 |
2013 |
Data from the European Social Survey (ESS) relating to self-rated happiness and social and psychological correlates of happiness in Ireland in 2003 (n = 2,046), 2005 (n = 2,274), 2007 (n = 1,794) and 2009 (n = 1,764) |
There was a slight decline in happiness between 2005 and 2009, as mean self-rated happiness score changed from 7.94 (2005) to 7.55 (2009). Satisfaction with health had the strongest association with happiness in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Satisfaction with income, relative to other variables, increased over time and in 2009 had the strongest association with happiness |
Absence of data relating to certain variables that have been associated with happiness in previous studies. This study was also limited in its ability to assess religiosity in people of no religion, but this is due to the limitations of the ESS |
Despite dramatic changes in economic circumstances and a slight decline in happiness, the Irish continued an historic tradition of rating ourselves as generally very happy |
| Eisenberg D, Golberstein E, Whitlock J L, Downs MF |
Social contagion of mental health: evidence from college roommates |
2013 |
Data come from online surveys of first-year college students. The authors conducted the surveys at two large and academically competitive universities: one public school with approximately 6000 first-year students (hereafter “university A”), and one private school with approximately 4000 first-year students (“university B”). The authors fielded the baseline survey in August 2009, shortly before students arrived at college, and the follow-up survey in March–April 2010, shortly before the end of the academic year |
Findings are consistent with no significant overall contagion of mental health and no more than small contagion effects for specific mental health measures, with no evidence for happiness contagion and modest evidence for anxiety and depression contagion. The similarity of baseline mental health predicts the closeness of roommate relationships, which highlights the potential for selection biases in studies of peer effects that do not have a clearly exogenous source of variation |
Perhaps the most important question about the results of this study is how they generalize to other social contexts. Contagion may be quite different across other social ties, particularly more intimate relationships such as spouses, siblings, and longtime friends. Contagion may also vary considerably by age group, considering how people’s social relationships and networks evolve during their lifetime |
Thes results suggest that mental health contagion is lower, or at least more context specific, than implied by the recent studies in the medical literature |
| Gana K, Bailly N, Saada Y, Joulain M, Trouillet R, Hervé C, Alaphilippe D |
Relationship between life satisfaction and physical health in older adults: a longitudinal test of cross-lagged and simultaneous effects |
2013 |
The study included 899 participants aged 64 to 97 years and assessed 5 times over an 8-year period |
Both cross-lagged and simultaneous coefficients indicated that poor health significantly predicted subsequent levels of life dissatisfaction, but life satisfaction did not predict subsequent levels of health |
Cross-lagged and simultaneous structural models provide tests of reciprocal influences between constructs over time, not of causality. The assessment of self-perceived health with a one-item question is also disputed |
These findings contradict, at least in this older sample, the postulates of positive psychology, and support the bottom-up approach to well-being as well as the popular adage, “As long as you’ve got your health” |
| Gruber J, Kogan A, Quoidbach J, Mauss IB |
Happiness is best kept stable: positive emotion variability is associated with poorer psychological health |
2013 |
Study 1 included a sample of 244 adult participants from the Denver, Colorado, community. Study 2 consisted of 2,391 francophone adults recruited through a large online study mentioned during the French TV show Leurs Secrets du Bonheur |
Greater macro- and microlevel variability in positive emotion was associated with worse psychological health, including lower well-being and life satisfaction and greater depression and anxiety (Study 1), and lower daily satisfaction, life satisfaction, and happiness (Study 2) |
Cross-sectional study |
Taken together, these findings support the notion that positive emotion variability plays an important and incremental role in psychological health above and beyond overall levels of happiness, and that too much variability might be maladaptive |
| Kang Y, Gruber J |
Harnessing happiness? Uncontrollable positive emotion in bipolar disorder, major depression, and healthy adults |
2013 |
Participants included adults with bipolar I disorder (BD; n = 32), major depression (MDD; n = 32), and or nonpsychiatric controls (CTLs; n = 31) |
Across all participants, reliving a controllable positive emotion experience was associated with exhibited increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia, an autonomic marker of regulatory control. Interestingly, only the MDD group reported increased positive emotion and decreased cardiovascular arousal when reliving an event involving uncontrollable positive emotion, compared to the BD and CTL groups |
Emotion control was self- defined by the participants in this study, so we cannot know precisely how successful people actually were in controlling their emotions in the recalled events |
These findings suggest that although controllable positive emotion experiences may be adaptive for most, individuals with a history of restricted affect and depressed mood may actually derive more pleasure from times of unharnessed happiness |
| Lehmann BA, Bos AER, Rijken M, Cardol M, Peters GJY, Kok G, Curfs LMG |
Ageing with an intellectual disability: the impact of personal resources on well-being |
2013 |
Longitudinal survey data on 667 people with a mild or moderate intellectual disabilities (ID) were acquired via interviews in 2006 and 2010 |
Age is positively related to decreased mobility and auditory disabilities and negatively related to independent living, autonomy in how one spends one’s leisure time and autonomy in decision-making. Longitudinal analyses demonstrated that, with the exception of health that deteriorated, and social satisfaction that improved, almost all variables remained stable over the 4-year period. Further, good physical health in 2006 predicted happiness in 2010 |
Most of the items were dichotomous as asking people with ID to answer questions is not always easy Some associations were barely significant and had weak effect sizes and should therefore be interpreted with caution |
Despite the fact that age is associated with poorer physical and mental health and a smaller social network, this study showed that older people with ID have relatively high levels of well-being |
| Mitchell L, Frank MR, Harris KD, Dodds PS, Danforth CM |
The geography of happiness: connecting twitter sentiment and expression, demographics, and objective characteristics of place |
2013 |
This article combining (1) a massive, geo-tagged data set comprising over 80 million words generated in 2011 on the social network service Twitter and (2) annually-surveyed characteristics of all 50 states and close to 400 urban populations |
Happiness within the US was found to correlate strongly with wealth, showing large positive correlation with increasing house- hold income and strong negative correlation with increasing poverty. Happiness anticorrelates significantly with obesity |
There are a number of legitimate concerns to be raised about how well the Twitter data set can be said to represent the happiness of the greater population. Furthermore, the fact that the authors collected only around 10% of all tweets during the calendar year 2011 means that their data set is a non-uniform subsample of statements made by a non-representative portion of the population |
The results show how social media may potentially be used to estimate real-time levels and changes in population-scale measures such as obesity rates |
| Proulx CM, Snyder-Rivas LA |
The longitudinal associations between marital happiness, problems, and self-rated health |
2013 |
The sample included 707 continuously married adults who participated in all six waves of the Marital Instability Over the Life Course panel study. Participants averaged 35 years in age at the first wave and were continuously married to the same spouse over the 20-year period |
Unidirectional coupling existed for marital happiness and self-rated health only, such that higher levels of marital happiness predicted subsequent elevations in self-rated health over time. No evidence was found for bidirectional coupling between marital problems and self-rated health |
Findings cannot be generalized to all married individuals, a focus on people who were married continuously across 20 years provides evidence of the associations between marital happiness and self-rated health in long-term marriages. All health and marital quality variables were self-reports, and objective and observa- tional measures, respectively, may yield different results |
Similar to human development scholars’ asser- tion that aging adults are survivors of conditions and events related to an increased risk of mortality, individuals in long-term marriages may be con- sidered survivors of relationship problems and other challenges that could have contributed to marital dissolution |
| Ruseski JE, Humphreys BR, Hallman K, Wicker P, Breuer C |
Sport participation and subjective well-being: instrumental variable results from German survey data |
2014 |
The sample used in the empirical analysis contains 1238 adults between the ages of 18–70 who responded to the question about happiness |
Individuals who participate in sport have higher life happiness. The results suggest a U-shaped relationship between age and self-reported happiness. Higher income is associated with greater self-reported happiness, males are less happy than females, and single individuals are less happy than nonsingles |
Cross-sectional study Telephone interview |
This broader impact of sport participation on general happiness lends support to the policy priority of many governments to increase sport participation at all levels of the general population |
| Sahraian A, Gholami A, Javadpour A, Omivadir B |
Association between religiosity and happiness among a group of Muslim undergraduate students |
2013 |
271 undergraduates medical students attending Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran |
It was found that higher score on religious belief was significantly linked to the level of happiness |
Cross-sectional study |
The result confirms that individuals with a more religious attitude experience more happiness. The result of this study should be considered in programs designed to improve overall well-being of university students |
| Tay L, Kuykendall L |
Promoting happiness: the malleability of individual and societal subjective wellbeing |
2013 |
Literature review on subjective wellbeing |
Research now shows that although subjective wellbeing is heritable and stable, it can change substantially over time. Long-term changes can be affected by positive or negative life events; subjective wellbeing interventions have also proved to be effective for boosting wellbeing for as long as six months. At the societal level, economic factors matter for the subjective wellbeing of citizens. Economic wealth is shown to be a predictor of societal wellbeing across countries and over time. Also, high unemployment severely lowers the wellbeing of individuals and has spillover effects on other societal members, such as the employed |
Is not a systematic review article |
For practitioners, policy makers, and economists interested in the wellbeing of individuals, this article propose that these findings have implications for mental health practice and economic policies |
| Van Campen C, de Boer AH, Iedema J |
Are informal caregivers less happy than noncaregivers? Happiness and the intensity of caregiving in combination with paid and voluntary work |
2013 |
The sample consisted of 336 informal caregivers and 1765 noncaregivers in the Dutch population |
Caregivers are happier than noncaregivers when they provide care for < 6 hours a week; and in line with the burden assumption, the results show that providing care for more than 11 hours a week is associated with lower levels of happiness. Other results contradicted the burden assumption that combining caregiving with paid or voluntary work is associated with more time burden and less happiness. The result that combining caregiving with paid employment or volunteering is related to higher rates of happiness confirms the subjective well-being assumption |
The variables of burden and happiness were measured with single items. Cross-sectional study |
It is concluded that these cross-sectional results open ways to longitudinal research that can inform governments in the development of policies to support informal caregivers |
