Exploring associations of three evaluative subjective wellbeing measures (Cantril’s ladder, life satisfaction, happiness) with 15 childhood and demographic factors across 22 countries

Abstract

Abstract Despite a vast literature on subjective wellbeing (SWB), issues remain, including (a) debates around which concepts best represent it, (b) a disjointed understanding of relevant factors, and (c) limited appreciation of cross-national variation regarding (a) and (b). We address these points using data from the Global Flourishing Study on three constructs pertaining to evaluative SWB specifically (Cantril’s ladder, life satisfaction, and, perhaps more ambiguously, happiness), examining associations with 15 childhood and demographic factors across 202,898 participants from 22 countries. Key findings include, for (a) life satisfaction being the best performing construct (in correlations with overall flourishing), (b) all factors being significantly associated with all constructs (with the largest variation observed for employment status among demographic factors and self-reported health among childhood factors), and (c) patterns varying substantively across countries (suggesting the general trends are not universal but differ according to local socio-cultural dynamics). The findings advance the methodological, socio-demographic, and cross-national understanding of evaluative SWB.