IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/psydev/v12y2000i2p109-138.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life Satisfaction of Indian Immigrants in Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Neharika Vohra

    (Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India)

  • John Adair

    (University of Manitoba, Canada)

Abstract

It is a common conception that immigrants face numerous problems and considerable stress in the process of adjustment to a new culture. The life satisfaction of immigrants from India was assessed using the Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985). As predicted by judgment theory (Micholas, 1986), it was found that Indian immigrants judge their own well-being in comparison to relevant others, such as their peers back home, the majority white community in Canada and other Indian immigrants. Their satisfaction was also predicted by the discrepancy between what they have in Canada and what they feel they could have had if they had stayed in India, with respect to raising children, freedom in making day-to-day decisions, opportunity to realise personal goals and amount of respect. Life satisfaction was correlated with perceived discrimination, guilt over leaving the country of birth and perception of social support, but not with education, socio-economic status, or perception of day-to-day comforts.

Suggested Citation

  • Neharika Vohra & John Adair, 2000. "Life Satisfaction of Indian Immigrants in Canada," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 12(2), pages 109-138, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:psydev:v:12:y:2000:i:2:p:109-138
    DOI: 10.1177/097133360001200201
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/097133360001200201
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/097133360001200201?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kerry Chamberlain & Sheryl Zika, 1992. "Stability and change in subjective well-being over short time periods," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 101-117, March.
    2. William Pavot & Ed Diener, 1993. "The affective and cognitive context of self-reported measures of subjective well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 1-20, January.
    3. R. Vermunt & E. Spaans & F. Zorge, 1989. "Satisfaction, happiness and well-being of Dutch students," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-33, February.
    4. D. Shin & D. Johnson, 1978. "Avowed happiness as an overall assessment of the quality of life," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 475-492, March.
    5. Richman, Judith A. & Gaviria, Moises & Flaherty, Joseph A. & Birz, Susan & Wintrob, Ronald M., 1987. "The process of acculturation: Theoretical perspectives and an empirical investigation in Peru," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 25(7), pages 839-847, January.
    6. Janet Near & Paula Rechner, 1993. "Cross-cultural variations in predictors of life satisfaction: An historical view of differences among West European countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 109-121, May.
    7. Yu-Wen Ying, 1992. "Life satisfaction among San Francisco Chinese-Americans," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 1-22, February.
    8. Dale Vaughan & James Kashner & William Stock & Mary Richards, 1985. "A structural model of subjective well-being: A comparison of ethnicity," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 315-332, April.
    9. Kaplan, Mark S. & Marks, Gary, 1990. "Adverse effects of acculturation: Psychological distress among Mexican American young adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 1313-1319, January.
    10. Orose Leelakulthanit & Ralph Day, 1993. "Cross cultural comparisons of quality of life of Thais and Americans," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 49-70, September.
    11. H. Meadow & J. Mentzer & D. Rahtz & M. Sirgy, 1992. "A life satisfaction measure based on judgment theory," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 23-59, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anna Bak-Klimek & Thanos Karatzias & Lawrie Elliott & Rory MacLean, 2018. "The Determinants of Well-Being Among Polish Economic Immigrants. Testing the Sustainable Happiness Model in Migrant Population," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 1565-1588, August.
    2. M. Hendriks & M. J. Burger, 2020. "Unsuccessful Subjective Well-Being Assimilation Among Immigrants: The Role of Faltering Perceptions of the Host Society," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(6), pages 1985-2006, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chia-Huei Wu & Ying-Mei Tsai & Lung Chen, 2009. "How do Positive Views Maintain Life Satisfaction?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 269-281, April.
    2. Young Ho Yun & Ye Eun Rhee & Eunkyo Kang & Jin-ah Sim, 2019. "The Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Subjective Well-Being Inventory in the General Korean Population: Psychometric Properties and Normative Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-10, April.
    3. Chia-Huei Wu, 2008. "The Role of Perceived Discrepancy in Satisfaction Evaluation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 423-436, September.
    4. Chia-Huei Wu, 2009. "Enhancing quality of life by shifting importance perception among life domains," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 37-47, March.
    5. Chia-huei Wu, 2008. "Examining the appropriateness of importance weighting on satisfaction score from range-of-affect hypothesis: hierarchical linear modeling for within-subject data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 86(1), pages 101-111, March.
    6. Peter Cheung, 1995. "Acculturation and Psychiatric Morbidity Among Cambodian Refugees in New Zealand," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 41(2), pages 108-119, June.
    7. Bin Li & Qin Zhu & Aimei Li & Rubo Cui, 2023. "Can Good Memories of the Past Instill Happiness? Nostalgia Improves Subjective Well-Being by Increasing Gratitude," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 699-715, February.
    8. Wolfe, Marcus T. & Patel, Pankaj C., 2018. "Satisfaction guaranteed? Life satisfaction, institutional factors, and self-employment," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 45-52.
    9. van Hoorn, André, 2018. "Is the happiness approach to measuring preferences valid?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 53-65.
    10. Sánchez-Sandoval, Yolanda & Aragón, Claudia & Verdugo, Laura, 2022. "Future expectations of adolescents in Residential Care: The role of self-perceptions," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    11. E. Huebner & Rich Gilman & James Laughlin, 1999. "A Multimethod Investigation of the Multidimensionality of Children's Well-Being Reports: Discriminant Validity of Life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 1-22, January.
    12. Hong, Yan-Zhen & Su, Yi-Ju & Chang, Hung-Hao, 2023. "Analyzing the relationship between income and life satisfaction of Forest farm households - a behavioral economics approach," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    13. M. Sirgy, 2011. "Theoretical Perspectives Guiding QOL Indicator Projects," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 1-22, August.
    14. repec:pri:crcwel:wp08-15-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Greco, Salvatore & Ishizaka, Alessio & Tasiou, Menelaos & Torrisi, Gianpiero, 2018. "σ-µ efficiency analysis: A new methodology for evaluating units through composite indices," MPRA Paper 83569, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Irena Kogan & Jing Shen & Manuel Siegert, 2018. "What Makes a Satisfied Immigrant? Host-Country Characteristics and Immigrants’ Life Satisfaction in Eighteen European Countries," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 1783-1809, August.
    17. Lufanna Lai & Robert Cummins & Anna Lau, 2013. "Cross-Cultural Difference in Subjective Wellbeing: Cultural Response Bias as an Explanation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 607-619, November.
    18. Tomas Hanell, 2022. "Unmet Aspirations and Urban Malaise," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 83-103, November.
    19. Zi Jia Ng & Eugene Scott Huebner & Alberto Maydeu-Olivares & Kimberly Joy Hills, 2018. "Confirmatory Factor Analytic Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS) in a Longitudinal Sample of Adolescents," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(4), pages 1237-1247, August.
    20. Shengquan Ye, 2007. "Validation of the Temporal Satisfaction with Life Scale in a Sample of Chinese University Students," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 80(3), pages 617-628, February.
    21. Chia-Chien Hsu & Brian Sandford & Chia-Ju Ling & Ching-Torng Lin, 2021. "Can the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) Help Explain Subjective Well-Being in Senior Citizens due to Gateball Participation?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-15, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:psydev:v:12:y:2000:i:2:p:109-138. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.