Education as a Positional Good: A Life Satisfaction Approach

Salinas-Jiménez, María del Mar; Artés, Joaquín; Salinas‐Jiménez, Javier

doi:10.1007/s11205-010-9709-1

Cited by 92 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…On the other hand, education also raises aspirations, so it may impact LS in a negative way (Ferrante, 2009). As a result, the net effects of education on LS are likely to depend on the balance between earned opportunities and increased expectations (Salinas-Jimenez et al, 2011). Our results indicate that education level, especially having a 4-year college degree or more, promotes LS for both men and women, but more so for women.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Empirical findings are mixed, with some studies showing no gender differences in LS (Borg et al, 2008; Fugl-Meyer, Melin, & Fugl-Meyer, 2002) or lower LS in women (Stevenson & Wolfers, 2009) and others finding higher levels of LS in women (Ambrey & Fleming, 2014; Yang, 2008). Education has a significant impact on LS (Inglehart, 2002; Salinas-Jimenez, Artes, & Salinas-Jimenez, 2011), and the effects are slightly higher for women than for men (Salinas-Jimenez, Artes, & Salinas-Jimenez, 2013). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The educational, racial and gender crossovers in life satisfaction: Findings from the longitudinal Health and Retirement Study

Zhang

Braun

2017

Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics

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Objective To examine variations in life satisfaction by education, gender, and race/ethnicity over a period of eight years among middle-aged and older Americans. Methods Mixed-effects models were used to analyze five waves (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014) of longitudinal data from 16,163 participants born 1890–1953 in the U.S. Health and Retirement Study. Results Life satisfaction was higher in older adults, and the Great Recession had great impact on life satisfaction. Crossover interactions were found by gender, education, and race/ethnicity. Higher education was associated with higher life satisfaction for both genders, with stronger effects for females. Hispanics had the higher level of life satisfaction than non-Hispanic Whites and African Americans. Discussion Longitudinal evidence revealed disparities in life satisfaction. The racial/ethnic differences in the impact of education suggest that the economic and health returns of education vary by social group. Researchers should continue to examine reasons for these disparities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The educational, racial and gender crossovers in life satisfaction: Findings from the longitudinal Health and Retirement Study

Zhang

Braun

2017

Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics

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“…A large body of research has established clear correlations between these variables and life satisfaction. 4 Specifically, we hypothesized life satisfaction to be positively correlated with income [2], education [20], self-reported health [1], domain satisfactions [21], and happiness [19]. …”

Section: Study 1a and 1bmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the validity of single-item life satisfaction measures: results from three large samples

2014

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Purpose-The present paper assessed the validity of single-item life satisfaction measures by comparing single-item measures to the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) -a more psychometrically established measure. Washington (N=13,064) and Oregon (N=2,277) recruited by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and a representative German sample (N=1,312) recruited by the Germany Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) were included in the present analyses. Single-item life satisfaction measures and the SWLS were correlated with theoretically relevant variables, such as demographics, subjective health, domain satisfaction, and affect. The correlations between the two life satisfaction measures and these variables were examined to assess the construct validity of single-item life satisfaction measures. Methods-Two large samples fromResults-Consistent across three samples, single-item life satisfaction measures demonstrated substantial degree of criterion validity with the SWLS (zero-order r = 0.62 -0.64; disattenuated r = 0.78 -0.80). Patterns of statistical significance for correlations with theoretically relevant variables were the same across single-item measures and the SWLS. Single-item measures did not produce systematically different correlations compared to the SWLS (average difference = 0.001 -0.005). The average absolute difference in the magnitudes of the correlations produced by singleitem measures and the SWLS were very small (average absolute difference = 0.015 −0.042).Conclusions-Single-item life satisfaction measures performed very similarly compared to the multiple-item SWLS. Social scientists would get virtually identical answer to substantive questions regardless of which measure they use.Keywords life satisfaction; single-item measure; Satisfaction with Life Scale; validity; measurement Subjective well-being is an overarching construct that captures the affective feelings and cognitive judgments people have about the quality of their lives. Life satisfaction is a component of subjective well-being that reflects the cognitive evaluation of whether one is happy with one's life. Understanding life satisfaction is important as it is associated with positive life outcomes, such as health [1] , and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) [10]. These studies measure many variables from thousands or even millions of respondents, so single-item measures are often used because participant burden is of primary concern. Given the increasing use of single-item life satisfaction measures both in research and policy settings, there is a pressing need to understand the psychometric properties of these measures. The goal of the current paper is to assess the psychometric properties of single-item life satisfaction measures with 3 separate samples totaling over 16,000 participants.When evaluating the psychometric properties of a measure, researchers are typically interested in two features: reliability and validity. With regard to reliability, conventional measures that rely on internal...

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“…Salinas‐Jimenez et al . () find similar results when studying the effect of education on happiness using the World Values Survey (WVS). They discovered that higher levels of education are enviable and, therefore, more valuable.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 58%

Human capital and life satisfaction in economic transition

Silver¹,

Caudill

Mixon

2016

Econ Transit

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This study explores the life satisfaction of Egyptians – with a particular focus on the impact of higher education on happiness – both before and after that country's Arab Spring of 2011. Ordered logit results point to positive and significant relationships between life satisfaction and both perceived high incomes and the human capital variable, good health, for the pre‐ and post‐Arab Spring periods in Egypt, thus confirming prior studies of transition economies. For a second human capital variable – secondary education – the results indicate a positive and significant relationship with happiness in pre‐Arab Spring Egypt, while that relationship for post‐Arab Spring Egypt is negative and significant. This particular finding is probably the result of the failure of educated Egyptians to achieve a better life despite their investments in human capital – due to the lack of opportunity that accompanied the failure of the country's Arab Spring to change the political and social environment.

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Education as a Positional Good: A Life Satisfaction Approach

Abstract: Life satisfaction, Education, Positional goods,

Cited by 92 publications

References 49 publications

The educational, racial and gender crossovers in life satisfaction: Findings from the longitudinal Health and Retirement Study

The educational, racial and gender crossovers in life satisfaction: Findings from the longitudinal Health and Retirement Study

Assessing the validity of single-item life satisfaction measures: results from three large samples

Human capital and life satisfaction in economic transition

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