Does Valuing Happiness Enhance Subjective Well-Being? The Age-Differential Effect of Interdependence

Valuing happiness predicts higher well‐being: The moderating role of acceptance

“…Bivariate correlations are presented in Table . Consistent with the positive links found by Ford, Dimitrieva, et al () and Wong et al (), VH was significantly correlated with higher life satisfaction and hedonic balance in the present study. However, no significant correlations were found between VH and psychological well‐being or depression symptoms .…”

“…Specifically, VH significantly predicted all “positive” indicators of well‐being (as well as psychological well‐being ) after allowing for control variables, instead of predicting the “negative” indicators that signal emotional distress (i.e., negative affect and depression symptoms ). Such results aligned with the cross‐cultural study (Ford, Dimitrieva, et al, ) finding a positive link between VH and well‐being within a highly interdependent culture, but were slightly different from the age‐differential effects found by Wong et al (), because VH's positive effect on life satisfaction was significant in our younger participants regardless whether age was controlled. Besides, our study uniquely contributes to the literature that trait acceptance can be an important moderator in the relationship between VH and psychological well‐being .…”

“…Given previous findings that VH's effect differed across age groups (Wong et al, ), we tested the moderation of age using multiple regressions prior to testing the moderation of acceptance. Results showed that the interaction between VH and age was significant for life satisfaction , β = 1.39, p < .05, and positive affect , β = 1.13, p = .05.…”

“…In another collectivistic culture, Russia (relatively less collectivistic), the link between VH and well‐being was still positive, but became weaker than the one found in East Asia. Following Ford, Dimitrieva, et al's reasoning that social engagement was a crucial mechanism, Wong, Gong, and Fung () hypothesized that within the same culture, the effect of VH could differ across age groups with different levels of interdependent self‐construals. Their findings indicated that VH was linked to life satisfaction only among old (but not young) adults, with interdependence mediating this positive effect.…”

“…Given the inconsistent findings regarding VH's main effect, whether VH predicts higher well‐being within a highly collectivistic culture has yet to be explored. Despite that people from such populations are more encouraged to pursue happiness through social engagement (i.e., relatively effective ways; Ford, Dimitrieva, et al, ; Wong et al, ), it would still be hard to determine the direction of VH's main effect if factors that affect their monitoring tendencies are neglected. What happens to people who accept unwanted emotional states, rather than judgementally evaluate their levels of happiness against ideal standards?…”