Demographic correlates of subjective well-being

Pages:218-226
Fazeela Moghal and Sarwat Jahan Khanamq (Institute of Clinical Psychology, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan)

The objective of the present study is to investigate the association of gender, marital status and employment status with Subjective Well-Being (SWB). Research studies indicated clear advantages of married and employed people in terms of SWB as compared to their never married, divorced/separated/widowed and unemployed counterparts. However research findings related to effects of gender on SWB is inconsistent. ICP Subjective Well-Being Scale (Moghal, 2012) was employed to test the hypotheses 1) Subjective well-being would be higher in males as compared to females, 2) Subjective well-being would be higher in married males and females as compared to never married, divorced/separated/widowed males and females and 3) Subjective well-being would be higher in employed as compared to unemployed males and females. The sample consisted of 213 participants (126 females and 87 males) of ages between 18 to 50 years with mean age 31.277 years. The demographic variables of gender and employment were subjected to Independent Sample T test. One-Way ANOVA was calculated to examine the effect of marital status on subjective well-being. Results indicated that there was no significant difference between males and females in their level of positive affect [t (211) = 1.64, p > .05], negative affect [t (211) = .385, p > .05], and life satisfaction [t (211) = .693, p > .05]. However, there was significant effect of marital status on positive affect [F (2, 210) = 8.880, p < .001], on negative affect [F (2, 210) = 9.337, p < .001] and on life satisfaction [F (2, 210) = 15.792, p<.001]. Post hoc comparisons using the Tukey HSD test indicated that the mean score of the divorced /separated/widowed group for PA, NA and LS were significantly different than the mean score of the married and never married singles. However, the married group did not significantly differ from the never married singles. Results also indicated that employed individuals had higher level of positive affect than did unemployed individuals [t (211) = 2.87, p < .05]. Employed individuals also had lower level of negative affect than unemployed individuals [t (211) = -2.53, p < .05]. Life satisfaction was also found to be higher in employed than unemployed individuals [t (211) = 2.35, p < .05]. It could be concluded males and females do not differ significantly in their level of well-being, married males and females are better in subjective well-being as compared to divorced/separated/ widowed individuals. Married and never married singles do not differ significantly in their level of well-being. Moreover, employed males and females have higher level of subjective well-being as compared to unemployed male and females.