Authors: Filip Fors Joakim Kulin
Publish Date: 2015/03/29
Volume: 127, Issue: 1, Pages: 323-339
Abstract
In recent years researchers and policymakers have paid increasing attention to crosscountry comparisons of subjective wellbeing Whereas classical theories of quality of life emphasize the central role of affective wellbeing ie whether a person feels good or bad previous comparative studies have focused almost exclusively on life satisfaction ie cognitive evaluations of life This study brings affect into the comparative study of subjective wellbeing constructing a new measurement instrument that captures both the affective and cognitive dimensions of subjective wellbeing Using European Social Survey data and multigroup confirmatory factor analysis we estimate latent country means for the two dimensions and compare country rankings across the two measures The results reveal important differences in country rankings depending on whether one focuses on affective wellbeing or life satisfaction We identify crucial differences among topranking countries and perhaps even more importantly considerable differences in rankings among more moderately ranking countries In a second step we compare and evaluate the singleitem measures commonly used in previous research with the results based on our new measures We conclude by discussing our results in relation to previous studies and in terms of their possible implications for future research and for policymakers bent on improving national levels of subjective wellbeing
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