Abstract
The subjective well-being of 116 Soviet students at two locations in the Soviet Union was assessed with traditional self-report measures and with an event memory task. Both measures showed the Soviet students to be low in well-being compared to students in most of 38 other countries. Soviet well-being was especially low when considered in relation to per capita GNP. The single domain which best predicted global well-being in the Soviet Union was leisure satisfaction. Soviet students were most satisfied with their religion, living partner, friendship, and family relations, and least satisfied with transportation, education, and finances. The structure of well-being was very similar in the C.I.S. (U.S.S.R.) as in the U.S. For example, the Satisfaction with Life Scale formed a unitary factor, as it does in the U.S., and the PANAS formed two clear affect factors, as has been uncovered by Watson, Clark, and Tellegen (1984) in the U.S. and Japan. Overall, the measures divided into life satisfaction, peasant affect, and negative affect components, replicating data in the U.S. (Andrews and Withey, 1976). These results suggest the structural invariance of well-being across cultures. The paper discusses several potential reasons that Russian students report low levels of well being.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Amosov, N.: 1990, ‘Chelovek v zerkale’, Nedelia 37, 3. (in Russian) and ‘Anketa’, Nedelia 10, 6. (in Russian).
Andrews, F. M. and Withey, S. B.: 1976, Social Indicators of Well-Being: America's Perception of Life Quality (Plenum, New York).
Diener, E.: 1984, ‘Subjective well-being’, Psychological Bulletin 85, pp. 542–575.
Diener, E. and Emmons, R. A.: 1984, ‘The independence of positive and negative affect’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 47, pp. 1105–1117.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J. and Griffin, S.: 1985, ‘The satisfaction with life scale’, Journal of Personality Assessment 49, pp. 71–75.
Erikson, E. H.: 1963, Childhood and Society (W.W. Norton & Co., New York).
Heady, B., Veenhoven, R. and Wearing, A.: 1991, ‘Top-down versus bottom-up theories of subjective well-being’, Social Indicators Research 24, pp. 81–100.
Larsen, R. J. and Diener, E.: 1992, ‘Circumplex models of emotion: Problems and promises’, in Clark M. S. (ed.), Review of Personality and Social Psychology (Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA), pp. 25–29.
MacKinnon, M. J. and Keating L. J.: 1989, ‘The structure of emotions: Canada-United States comparison’, Social Psychology Quarterly 52, pp. 70–83.
Michalos, A. C.: 1987, Final Progress Report on Global Report on Student Well-Being: Application of Multiple Discrepancies Theory (University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada).
Michalos, A. C.: 1991, Global Report on Student Well-Being (Springer-Verlag, New York).
Pavot, W. and Diener, E.: 1991, ‘Review of the satisfaction with life scale’ (Manuscript submitted for publication).
Pavot, E., Diener, E., Colvin, C. R. and Sandvik, E.: 1991, ‘Further validation of the satisfaction with life scale: evidence for the cross-method convergence of well-being measures’, Journal of Personality Assessment 57, pp. 149–161.
Rosenberg, M.: 1965, Society and the Adolescent Self-Image (Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.).
Sandvik, E., Diener, E. and Seilditz, L.: 1992, ‘The validity of measures of subjective well-being’, Journal of Personality (in press).
Seilditz, L. and Diener, E.: 1991, ‘Memory for positive versus negative life events: Theories for the difference between happy and unhappy persons’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (in press).
Smith, H.: 1985, The Russians (Random House, New York).
Smith, H.: 1990, The New Russians (Random House, New York).
Watson, D.: 1988, ‘Intraindividual and interindividual analyses of positive and negative affect: Their relation to health complaints, perceived stress, and daily activities’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54, pp. 1020–1030.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A. and Tellegen, A.: 1984, ‘Cross-cultural convergence in the structure of mood: A Japanese replication and a comparison with U.S. findings’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 47, pp. 127–144.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A. and Tellegen, A.: 1988, ‘Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scale’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54, pp. 1063–1070.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Balatsky, G., Diener, E. Subjective well-being among Russian students. Soc Indic Res 28, 225–243 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01079019
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01079019