Happiness and life satisfaction in Rwanda

Abstract

This study investigated predictors of happiness and life satisfaction in Rwanda. Data from the World Value Survey (2007; and gathered from 3,030 Rwandese (age ranging 16 to 90 years, mean age = 34.2, SD = 12.7; 50.5% were females) were pooled for the analysis. For the comparison, international World Value Survey data were utilized. A fixed effects multilevel regression model was used to predict happiness and life satisfaction from gender, health, socio-economic, and some subjective measures. Males had greater self-rated happiness and life satisfaction scores than females. State of health and sense of freedom of choice predicted both happiness and life satisfaction. Valuing of friends, weekly religious attendance, and national pride positively predicted happiness whereas household's financial satisfaction, full-time employment, high-income group, being a student, and sense of trust predicted life satisfaction. This study suggests that health status, household's financial satisfaction and emancipative values could maximize subjective well-being in Rwanda.

Can I Sustain My Happiness? A Review, Critique and Research Agenda for Economics of Happiness

“…One of the studies in Rwanda indicated that the valuing of friends and national pride predicted life happiness [135]. The trade of the individual determined happiness-entrepreneurs are happier than the employees and at the same time, idea contribution and the personal growth of employees lead them to experience happiness [136].…”

“…Hence, the government should focus on nutrition and promote natural farming to enhance healthy living [59]. A study conducted in Rwanda supported that an increase in income wellness and financial well-being increases happiness [135] and focusing on demographic and economic indicators can improve the well-being of the economy. The literature further supports entrepreneurship to promote well-being [136].…”

“…Majority of the studies have controlled for socio-demographic variables including age, gender, education, unemployment, and other variables. There are 31 mediating variables, while in some cases, the socio-demographic variables, namely age and gender, are also used as mediating variables [13,181,209].On the other hand, with respect to the independent variable, income and other income-related variables, namely, absolute or per capita income [132], relative income [74,195], household income [59,135], level of income or area-level income inequality [78,139,164,174] are seen as the highest independent variables in impacting happiness/ subjective well-being/ life satisfaction.…”

Emotional intelligence and personal growth initiative effects on subjective happiness among university students

“…Subjective wellbeing can be differentiated from subjective happiness in that, whereas subjective happiness refers to only the emotional and affective aspects of individuals' evaluations of their lives, subjective wellbeing includes both the affective and cognitive components ( Bar-On, 2005;Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999). However, it is not uncommon to find these two concepts of subjective happiness and subjective wellbeing used interchangeably in the positive psychology literature ( Bar-On, 2005;Ngamaba, 2016).…”

“…Subjective wellbeing refers to a state that emerges from a feeling of satisfaction with one's physical health and oneself as a person, with one's close interpersonal relationships, and with one's occupation and financial situation ( Bar-On, 2005). Subjective wellbeing is defined by both happiness (which reflects the affective component of wellbeing) and life satisfaction (which reflects the cognitive component of wellbeing) (Diener, Suh, & Lucas, 1999;Ngamaba, 2016), although less stable than life satisfaction (Calys-Tagoe et al, 2014;George, 2009). Relatively little is known about predictors of subjective happiness in African settings.…”