Abstract
It has long been recognized that more needs to be known about the dynamic behavior of measures of subjective well-being. As the Social Indicators Movement matures, it becomes possible to explore issues of stability and change in measures of perceived life quality. To contribute to this research need, this paper reports results of administering similar measures of subjective well-being to several representative samples of the adult American population assessed 16 years apart — in 1972 and in 1988. Results show that in the United States, which has experienced reasonably continuous economic prosperity and no major social disruptions during these 16 years, thestructure of the subjective well-being measures (i.e. how they relate to one another and how concern-level measures predict global-level measures) has remained remarkably constant. This is in accord with expectation and enhances confidence in the validity and usefulness of the measures. Changes were found in thelevels of some of the measures: For the total population, feelings about life-as-a-whole, oneself, and one's own health became notably more positive; evaluations of own income and the national government also gained; but assessments of one's own family life, social relationships, community, and job remained fairly stable. Some of these gross changes were general throughout the population, but others occurred only for certain age, racial, or socioeconomic groups. Younger cohorts and people with higher educations and incomes showed more gains in subjective well-being than other groups.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Abbey, A. and Andrews, F. M.: 1985, ‘Modeling the psychological determinants of life quality’, Social Indicators Research 16, pp. 1–34.
Andrews, F. M. and Inglehart, R. F.: 1978, ‘The structure of subjective well-being in nine western societies’, Social Indicators Research 6, pp. 73–90.
Andrews, F. M. and Withey, S. B.: 1976, Social Indicators of Well-Being: Americans' Perceptions of Life Quality (Plenum, New York).
Atkinson, T.: 1982, ‘The stability and validity of quality of life measures’, Social Indicators Research 10, pp. 113–132.
Campbell, A.: 1981, The Sense of Well-Being in America (McGraw-Hill, New York).
Chamberlain, K.: 1988, ‘On the structure of subjective well-being’, Social Indicators Research 20, pp. 581–604.
Costa, P. T., Zonderman, A. B., McRae, R. R., Cornoni-Huntley, J., Lock, B. Z. and Barbano, H. E.: 1987, ‘Longitudinal analyses of psychological well-being in a national sample: Stability of mean levels’, Journal of Gerontology 42, pp. 50–55.
Davis, J. A.: 1982, General Social Survey, 1972–1982: Cumulative Codebook (National Opinion Research Center, Chicago).
Davis, J. A.: 1984, ‘New money, an old man/lady, and “two's company”: Subjective welfare in the NORC General Social Surveys, 1972–1982’, Social Indicators Research 15, pp. 319–350.
Davis, J. A.: 1988, General Social Surveys, 1972–1988: Cumulative Codebook (National Opinion Research Center, Chicago).
George, L. K. and Maddox, G. L.: 1977, ‘Subjective adaptation to loss of work role: A longitudinal study’, Journal of Gerontology 32, pp. 456–462.
Groves, R. M. and Kahn, R. L.: 1979, Surveys by Telephone: A National Comparison with Personal Interviews (Academic Press, New York).
Headey, B., Glowacki, T., Holmstrom, E. and Wearing, A.: 1985, ‘Modeling change in perceived quality of life’, Social Indicators Research 17, pp. 267–298.
Headey, B., Holmstrom, E. and Wearing, A.: 1984, ‘The impact of life events and changes in domain satisfactions on well-being’, Social Indicators Research 15, pp. 203–228.
Herzog, A. R. and Rodgers, W. L.: 1981, ‘The structure of subjective well-being in different age groups’, Journal of Gerontology 36, pp. 472–479.
Inglehart, R.: 1985, ‘Aggregate stability and individual-level flux in mass belief systems: The level of analysis paradox’, American Political Science Review 79, pp. 97–116.
Johnston, D.: 1988, ‘Toward a comprehensive ‘quality of life’ index’, Social Indicators Research 20, pp. 473–496.
Kennedy, L. W. and Mehra, N.: 1985, ‘Effects of social change on well-being: Boom and bust in a western Canadian city’, Social Indicators Research 17, pp. 101–114.
Kozma, A. and Stones, M. J.: 1983, ‘Predictors of happiness’, Journal of Gerontology 38, pp. 626–628.
Liang, J. and Bollen, K. A.: 1985, ‘Gender differences in the structure of the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale’, Journal of Gerontology 40, pp. 468–477.
McKennell, A., Atkinson, T. and Andrews, F. M.: 1980, ‘Structural constancies in surveys of perceived well-being’. In Szalai, A. and Andrews, F. M. (eds.) The Quality of Life: Comparative Studies (Sage, London).
McNeil, J. K., Stones, M. J. and Kozma, A.: 1986, ‘Longitudinal variation in domain indicators of happiness’, Social Indicators Research 18, pp. 119–124.
Michalos, A. C.: 1985, ‘Multiple discrepancies theory’, Social Indicators Research 16, pp. 347–413.
Palmore, E. and Kivett, V.: 1977, ‘Changes in life satisfaction: A longitudinal study of persons aged 46–70’, Journal of Gerontology 32, pp. 311–316.
Straus, M. A., Linsky, A. S. and Bachman-Prehn, R.: 1989, ‘Change in the stressfulness of life in American states and regions from 1976 to 1982’, Social Indicators Research 21, pp. 229–258.
Thomas, M. E. and Hughes, M.: 1986, ‘The continuing significance of race: A study of race, class, and quality of life in America, 1972–1985’, American Sociological Review 51, pp. 830–841.
Wiegand, E.: 1988, ‘Current work on the social indicators system for the Federal Republic of Germany’, Social Indicators Research 20, pp. 399–416.
United States Census Bureau: 1986, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1987 (U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC).
zapf, W.: 1979, ‘Applied social reporting: A social indicators system for West German society’, Social Indicators Research 6, pp. 397–419.
Zapf, W.: 1980, ‘The SPES social indicators system in comparative perspective’. In Szalai, A. and Andrews, F. M. (eds.) The Quality of Life: Comparative Studies (Sage, London).
Zapf, W. (ed.): 1987, ‘German social report’, Social Indicators Research 19, pp. 1–171.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This is a revised version of a paper presented at the International Conference on Social Reporting in Berlin in September 1989 and may be included in a volume of conference papers being prepared by the Berlin Social Research Center (WZB). I am grateful to Richard Curtin, who facilitated collection of the 1988 data, and to Laura Klem for her assistance with the analysis of these data.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Andrews, F.M. Stability and change in levels and structure of subjective well-being: USA 1972 and 1988. Soc Indic Res 25, 1–30 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00727649
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00727649