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Happiness, Post-materialist Values, and the Unmarried

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  • Elyakim Kislev

    (The Hebrew University)

Abstract

With the rise of individualism and post-materialist values comes the fall in the importance of marriage. However, it is still not clear how these two processes affect each other in terms of individuals’ wellbeing and happiness. Thus, the aim of this paper is to gain a better understanding of how happiness may be moderated by post-materialist values among different groups of marital status: never married, divorced/separated, widowed, married, and cohabiting individuals. Through executing a multilevel analysis on data from the European Social Survey between 2002 and 2014, this paper demonstrates a clear relationship between post-materialist values and levels of happiness. Moreover, it is shown that holding post-materialist views provides greater levels of happiness for singles than it does for cohabiters and married individuals, raising questions about the relationship between marriage and happiness in a post-materialist era.

Suggested Citation

  • Elyakim Kislev, 2018. "Happiness, Post-materialist Values, and the Unmarried," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(8), pages 2243-2265, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:19:y:2018:i:8:d:10.1007_s10902-017-9921-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-017-9921-7
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    1. Elyakim Kislev, 2020. "Social Capital, Happiness, and the Unmarried: a Multilevel Analysis of 32 European Countries," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 15(5), pages 1475-1492, November.
    2. Dieudonne Mignamissi & Yselle Flora Malah Kuete, 2020. "What Makes Africans Happy?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(4), pages 2741-2754.
    3. Elyakim Kislev, 2023. "Relationship-Status and Work-Life Balance Satisfaction: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Analyses," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 1115-1142, April.

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