IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v20y2019i2d10.1007_s10902-017-9951-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Well-Being in Rural Appalachia: Age and Gender Patterns Across Five Indicators

Author

Listed:
  • Lindsey Roberts

    (Bowling Green State University)

  • Victoria Banyard

    (University of New Hampshire)

  • John Grych

    (Marquette University)

  • Sherry Hamby

    (Sewanee: The University of the South)

Abstract

Psychological studies often include indicators of physical and mental health as outcomes. However, researchers are now beginning to include a wide range of measures of well-being. The current study uses a cross-sectional community sample from rural Appalachia to examine age and gender trends in traditional outcome measures and in subjective measures of well-being, including health-related quality of life, mental health, positive self-regard, spiritual well-being, and posttraumatic growth. Analyses revealed that while health-related quality of life tends to be lower for older participants, mental health and spiritual well-being tend to be higher for older participants. Positive self-regard showed no significant effects for either age or sex. Curvilinear age effects were seen for health-related quality of life (cubic), spiritual well-being (quadratic), and posttraumatic growth (quadratic), suggesting possible turning points across the lifespan for these indicators of well-being. Significant main effects for sex were seen in health-related quality of life, mental health, and posttraumatic growth, with males reporting better physical and mental health and females reporting higher levels of posttraumatic growth. Intervention and prevention efforts might aim to promote aspects multiple aspects of well-being throughout the lifespan, particularly those aspects that are most stable across age and sex (such as a positive self-regard), and future research could expand upon these patterns to include an older population.

Suggested Citation

  • Lindsey Roberts & Victoria Banyard & John Grych & Sherry Hamby, 2019. "Well-Being in Rural Appalachia: Age and Gender Patterns Across Five Indicators," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 391-410, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:20:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s10902-017-9951-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-017-9951-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10902-017-9951-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-017-9951-1?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barry Chiswick & Donka Mirtcheva, 2013. "Religion and Child Health: Religious Affiliation, Importance, and Attendance and Health Status among American Youth," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 120-140, March.
    2. Ed Diener & Ronald Inglehart & Louis Tay, 2013. "Theory and Validity of Life Satisfaction Scales," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(3), pages 497-527, July.
    3. Arthur A. Stone & Joseph E. Schwartz & Joan E. Broderick & Angus Deaton, 2010. "A snapshot of the age distribution of psychological well-being in the United States," Working Papers 1230, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Health and Wellbeing..
    4. James Horley & J. Lavery, 1995. "Subjective well-being and age," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 275-282, February.
    5. Elizabeth Pollard & Patrice Lee, 2003. "Child Well-being: A Systematic Review of the Literature," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 59-78, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Messner, Wolfgang, 2024. "Exploring multilevel data with deep learning and XAI: The effect of personal-care advertising spending on subjective happiness," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(1).
    2. Veljko Jovanović & Milica Lazić, 2020. "Is Longer Always Better? A Comparison of the Validity of Single-item Versus Multiple-item Measures of Life Satisfaction," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 15(3), pages 675-692, July.
    3. Arie Sherman & Tal Shavit, 2018. "The Thrill of Creative Effort at Work: An Empirical Study on Work, Creative Effort and Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(7), pages 2049-2069, October.
    4. Vicente Alfonso-Benlliure & Teresa Mayordomo & Alicia Sales & Juan Carlos Mélendez, 2021. "Divergent Thinking in Older Adults: Understanding its Role in Well-being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(7), pages 3285-3298, October.
    5. Kreiner, Claus Thustrup & Olufsen, Isabel Skak, 2022. "Is inequality in subjective well-being meritocratic? Danish evidence from linked survey and administrative data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 336-367.
    6. De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel & Oswald, Andrew J., 2012. "Estimating the influence of life satisfaction and positive affect on later income using sibling fixed-effects," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51523, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Thi Truong An Hoang & Andreas Knabe, 2021. "Time Use, Unemployment, and Well-Being: An Empirical Analysis Using British Time-Use Data," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 2525-2548, August.
    8. William P. O’Hare, 2016. "A State Level Assessment of the Well-Being of Black Children in the United States," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 9(1), pages 277-297, March.
    9. Heather Lacey & Todd Kierstead & Diana Morey, 2012. "De-Biasing the Age-Happiness Bias: Memory Search and Cultural Expectations in Happiness Judgments Across the Lifespan," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 647-658, August.
    10. Andrew E. Clark, 2015. "SWB as a Measure of Individual Well-Being," Working Papers halshs-01134483, HAL.
    11. John F. Helliwell & Haifang Huang & Max B. Norton & Shun Wang, 2019. "Happiness at Different Ages: The Social Context Matters," Springer Books, in: Mariano Rojas (ed.), The Economics of Happiness, chapter 0, pages 455-481, Springer.
    12. Laura Langner, 2022. "Desperate Housewives and Happy Working Mothers: Are Parent-Couples with Equal Income More Satisfied throughout Parenthood? A Dyadic Longitudinal Study," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(1), pages 80-100, February.
    13. Gebel, Michael & Voßemer, Jonas, 2014. "The impact of employment transitions on health in Germany. A difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 128-136.
    14. Ekaterina Oparina & Sorawoot Srisuma, 2022. "Analyzing Subjective Well-Being Data with Misclassification," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 730-743, April.
    15. Flores, Gabriela & Ingenhaag, Michael & Maurer, Jürgen, 2015. "An anatomy of old-age disability: Time use, affect and experienced utility," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 150-160.
    16. Valentina N. Burkova & Marina L. Butovskaya & Ashley K. Randall & Julija N. Fedenok & Khodabakhsh Ahmadi & Ahmad M. Alghraibeh & Fathil Bakir Mutsher Allami & Fadime Suata Alpaslan & Mohammad Ahmad Ab, 2021. "Predictors of Anxiety in the COVID-19 Pandemic from a Global Perspective: Data from 23 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-23, April.
    17. O'Donnell, Gus & Oswald, Andrew J., 2015. "National well-being policy and a weighted approach to human feelings," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 59-70.
    18. Paul Frijters & Christian Krekel & Raúl Sanchis & Ziggi Ivan Santini, 2024. "The WELLBY: a new measure of social value and progress," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    19. Alexandra Cristina Sãžrbu & Mircea Asandului, 2021. "Determinants Of Subjective Well-Being Among Romanian Older Adults," Review of Economic and Business Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 28, pages 111-124, December.
    20. Mohamed A. Eltarkawe & Shelly L. Miller, 2018. "The Impact of Industrial Odors on the Subjective Well-Being of Communities in Colorado," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-24, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Well-being; Health; Lifespan; Rural;
    All these keywords.

    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:spr:jhappi:v:20:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s10902-017-9951-1. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.