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Importance Weighting in the Domain-of-Life Approach to Subjective Well-Being: the Consideration of Age

Author

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  • Chang-ming Hsieh

    (University of Illinois at Chicago)

  • Qiguang Li

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University City College)

Abstract

The domain-of-life approach to subjective well-being (SWB) has been popular for decades. Recognizing the possibility that individuals may not perceive all life domains equally important, many researchers advocate for importance weighting, which is to incorporate the relative importance of life domains (i.e., domain importance) into the scoring of SWB at the individual level. However, the need for and the adequacy of importance weighting remain topics of debate. What has been missing in the debate is the consideration of influences of potential confounding factors. Given that age is significantly associated with domain satisfaction, domain importance, and SWB, assessing importance weighting should not ignore the potential confounding effect of age. Analyzing data from an online survey, we found that adjusting for the confounding effect of age produced negligible changes in the results of assessing the role that domain importance played in the relationship between domain satisfaction and SWB. Our findings support the observations from the literature that the results of assessing importance weighting depended on the SWB variable selected. However, given our non-probability study sample, future studies should continue to consider age as a confounder in assessing importance weighting in the domain-of-life approach to SWB.

Suggested Citation

  • Chang-ming Hsieh & Qiguang Li, 2022. "Importance Weighting in the Domain-of-Life Approach to Subjective Well-Being: the Consideration of Age," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 525-540, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:17:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s11482-020-09904-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11482-020-09904-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Linda K. George, 2010. "Still Happy After All These Years: Research Frontiers on Subjective Well-being in Later Life," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 65(3), pages 331-339.
    2. Chang-ming Hsieh, 2013. "Issues in Evaluating Importance Weighting in Quality of Life Measures," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(2), pages 681-693, January.
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    Cited by:

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