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One Size Does Not Fit All: Alternative Values-Based ‘Recipes’ for Life Satisfaction

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Abstract

In most previous research on the determinants of Life Satisfaction (LS), there has been an implicit assumption that ‘one size fits all’. That is, it has usually been assumed that the covariates of LS are the same for everyone, or at least everyone in the Western world. In this paper, using data from the long-running German Socio-Economic Panel (1984-), we estimate statistical models to assess the effects of commitment to differing personal values on LS. The personal values in question are: traditional family values, pro-social altruistic values and materialistic (money and career) values. These values are linked to differing behavioural choices with substantial effects on domain satisfactions and LS. It can be inferred that linked sets of values, behavioural choices and domain satisfactions may constitute alternative ‘recipes’ for LS. However, in the absence of direct evidence of motivation, it is not claimed that panel respondents consciously follow these ‘recipes’ with a view to enhancing their LS. Our results indicate that the effect of individuals adhering to a traditional family values ‘recipe’ or an altruistic values ‘recipe’ is that they record above average LS, whereas materialistic values are linked to below average LS.

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Notes

  1. Fishbein and Ajzen’s (1974) theory of reasoned action has provided a framework for much of the debate. Their focus is more on the attitude-behaviour link, rather than values and behaviour, but values may be regarded as one type of attitude.

  2. They hypothesised that they would find statistically significant interactions between satisfaction with particular life domains and the importance attached to those domains, such that people who were highly satisfied in life domains that they rated as ‘important’ would record increased levels of LS, over and above the levels predicted by the domain satisfactions alone. No significant interactions were found.

  3. An earlier ‘discussion paper’ version of this article is Headey and Wagner (2018).

  4. We thank SIR reviewers for pointing out that a previous version of the paper could have been taken to imply that personal values are held primarily with a view to promoting one’s own LS.

  5. Household income is not included in our model of materialist values because it is likely to be endogenous; i.e. partly a consequence rather than a cause of materialist values. ‘Unemployed’ is also excluded from models of materialist values because the focus of these models is largely on the consequences of values for working hours and individual labour income (see below).

  6. We use the terms ‘pro-social’ and ‘altruistic’ to refer to values which favour behaving cooperatively and helping others. In evolutionary biology, altruism is defined as behaviour which involves a loss/cost to the individual concerned, as well as gains to others; we do not imply that here.

  7. This scale has been reversed so that a high rating means ‘very important’.

  8. The variable included here measures the number of children a person has ever had (not the number currently living in the household).

  9. Respondents are asked to estimate time spent per week on various activities. This approach to measurement is not as accurate as the daily diary method of collecting time use data. However, it has generally been found to be adequate for producing rank order data, comparing the time uses of different population groups (Juster et al. 2003).

  10. This was first measured in SOEP in 2006 and has been measured annually since.

  11. Satisfaction with volunteering was only measured in 2007 and 2009. Satisfaction with social life has been measured since 2006.

  12. We used satisfaction with household income, rather than personal income, in our estimations because the former question has been asked every year in SOEP, while the latter has only been asked intermittently. However, results were very similar, regardless of the question included.

  13. ML estimates are usually consistent and asymptotically normal under the (not very restrictive) assumption of conditional normality (StataCorp 2017). Only paths or covariances linking conditioning (i.e. control) variables may not be consistent and asymptotically normal (even then, the main problem lies just with estimates of standard errors). These paths are not usually of substantive interest. Substantive interest lies in paths (1) linking exogenous with endogenous variables and (2) between endogenous variables.

  14. We also tried some ‘mixed’ combinations of time lags. For example, we ran models with zero lags between socio-economic variables, personality traits and values… then one-year lags between values and behavioural choices…and one year lags between choices and domain satisfactions. These ‘mixed’ lag models also fitted the input data less satisfactorily than models with zero lags.

  15. The inclusion of lagged versions of the independent and dependent variables reduces, but does not completely eliminate, the potential biasing effects of omitted variables (Finkel 1995; Wooldridge 2010).

  16. However, there is still a risk of biased estimates due to omitted variables which change over time within-person.

  17. The difference appears to be just additive. No interaction effect was found linking this pair of variables to LS.

  18. This latter variable was not included in the probit equation described above, because data are only available for 2015–16, rather than 1990–2016.

  19. Covariances between exogeneous variables and between error terms of endogenous variables are also omitted.

  20. In other words, the difference between the actual input variance-covariance matrix and the matrix predicted by this family values model is not statistically significant.

  21. The Stata software prints out direct, indirect and total effects routinely (StataCorp. 2017).

  22. This simply involved inserting a measure of partners’ family values on the RHS of equations that were otherwise the same as reported in Fig. 2 and Appendix Table 4.

  23. Only the 25% of respondents who report doing some volunteering would be left in the model.

  24. Costa and McCrae (1991), the authors of the NEO personality inventory, list cooperativeness as one of the sub-traits related to agreeableness.

  25. The coefficient of 1.22 linking job satisfaction and materialistic values is not significantly different from coefficients linking job satisfaction with altruistic values or family values. Only people who prioritise none of these values have significantly lower job satisfaction (i.e. the ‘Nothing valued’ group).

  26. In each wave respondents are asked their preferred hours of work, as well as their actual hours.

  27. This result also holds for people in the top 5% (two standard deviations above the mean) of the earnings distribution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne Institute, Melbourne University, Melbourne, Australia

    Bruce Headey

  2. Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

    Gert G. Wagner

  3. Berlin & DIW Berlin(German Institute for Economic Research), Berlin, Germany

    Gert G. Wagner

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  1. Bruce Headey
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Correspondence to Bruce Headey.

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Appendix: Traditional Family Values Model: Full Model Estimates

Appendix: Traditional Family Values Model: Full Model Estimates

Appendix Table 4 (like Appendix Tables 5 and 6 below) gives results in four panels, reflecting the four steps in the model. Panel 1 shows the effects on family values of socio-economic variables and personality traits. Panel 2 gives the effects on behavioural choices of socio-economic variables, traits and family values. In panel 3 the outcome variable is a domain satisfaction—satisfaction with family life—and the explanatory variables are socio-economic characteristics, traits, values and behavioural choices. In panel 4 the outcome variable is LS with variance being accounted for by socio-economic variables, traits, values, choices and domain satisfactions.

Table 4 Traditional family values model: a structural equation model (N = 66,302)
Full size table
Table 5 Pro-social altruistic values model: A structural equation model (N = 69,050)
Full size table
Table 6 Materialistic values model: a structural equation model (N = 56,648)
Full size table

Data analysed in the traditional family values model, and also the altruistic values and materialistic values models, are for 2006–16 and relate to respondents in the 25–54 age range.

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Headey, B., Wagner, G.G. One Size Does Not Fit All: Alternative Values-Based ‘Recipes’ for Life Satisfaction. Soc Indic Res 145, 581–613 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-019-02108-w

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