Sex, Drugs, Alcohol and Subjective Well‐Being: Selection or Causation?

Abstract

Summary This paper estimates the effects of risky behaviors (e.g., smoking, alcohol, marijuana, risky sex) on subjective well‐being. To identify these effects from endogenous sorting, I use information from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and a system of simultaneous equations for participation in four risky activities and formation of individual happiness. My results provide evidence that smoking and alcohol decrease subjective well‐being by 2.5% and 2.4%, respectively. By contrast, the relationship between having sex with multiple partners, although positive, is not statistically significant at conventional levels. Nevertheless, these effects dwindle over time until participation in any of these behaviors does not have a long‐run impact on well‐being, with the exception of smoking and alcohol consumption, which have a persistent negative impact on subjective well‐being. The results highlight the importance of controlling for endogeneity of risky behaviors and provide an explanation as to why most individuals who engage in such behaviors do not develop longer‐lasting addictions.

Effect of Alcohol Prevention Program on Subject Well-being Scale, Alcohol Abstinence Self-Efficacy Scale and Alcohol Decisional Balance Scale of Alcohol Related Prisoners in Correctional Institutions in Korea

“…In a prior study (31), excessive alcohol can increase an individual's psychological distress, and thereby reduce the subjective well-being related to the individual's inherent positive emotions. Other studies (6,7,19) have shown that dangerous behaviors such as alcohol abuse significantly reduce subjective well-being. In this program, education such as understanding alcohol addiction and finding positive ways to relieve stress by role-playing may help the participants to recognize inherent positive emotions and to self-regulate negative emotions such as anger.…”

“…Subjective well-being is a self-assessment of an individual's overall life (5), and is strongly related to abuse of substances such as alcohol (6)(7)(8). An alcoholrelated inmate is a problematic drinker who failed to abstain from drinking alcohol, whose self-esteem is low due to negative emotions such as depression, anger, and anxiety, and who may blame others and the environment rather than himself, for his problem (8,9).…”

“…The alcohol decisional balance scale of alcohol-related inmates provides a motive to eliminate problem drinking behavior, and is therefore is an important factor in deciding whether or not to drink alcohol in the future (17). Therefore, subjective wellbeing, alcohol abstinence self-efficacy, and alcohol decisional balance combine to provide a motive to change the problem drinking behavior of alcoholrelated inmates, and are important factors that affect recovery from problem drinking behavior, and can prevent recurrence (7,14,(18)(19).…”

Social capital is associated with improved subjective well-being of older adults with chronic non-communicable disease in six low- and middle-income countries

“…Other covariates: Based on literature and other hypothesised predictors of subjective well-being and /or chronic diseases, the following covariates were controlled for: level of education [26]; current employment status [18]; income levels [17]; marital status [27]; age [28]; fruit and vegetable consumption [29]; rural/urban resident location [30]; alcohol consumption and tobacco consumption [31].…”

Gender and deception: Evidence from survey data among adolescent gamblers

“…15 We stress that the estimates that we report do not imply causation. Our variables may capture the effect of other variables omitted from the specification, noticeably those related to the benefits and costs of deception, including, e.g., family or peer effects (for related discussions, see Gwozdz et al, 2019;Bucciol et al, 2013;Nikolaou, 2019).…”