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Predictors of life satisfaction in a large representative sample from Italy

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Abstract

Life Satisfaction is a key indicator of subjective well-being and represents its cognitive component, measuring individuals’ judgment of their own lives. The aim of this study is to analyze the predictors of Life Satisfaction in a large Italian representative sample. To this end, we consider sociodemographic characteristics and other variables identified in the literature as central to Life Satisfaction. These variables are satisfaction with standards of living, household income satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, and social support. Cross-sectional. The data were extracted from the Gallup World Poll which has collected nationally representative samples from Italy since 2005. The total number of participants was 14,039 individuals aged 15 and above (58.3% females, Mage = 48.74, SDage = 16.43). The results show that women score significantly lower than men on Life Satisfaction and that Life Satisfaction declines with age. Furthermore, satisfaction with standards of living is the strongest predictor of Life Satisfaction. Household income satisfaction, positive affect, social support, and negative affect, respectively, follow. Present findings demonstrate that researchers and policy-makers need to pay attention to a wide range of economic and psycho-social factors in order to understand and improve Life Satisfaction in Italy.

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Notes

  1. Phi coefficients (the phi coefficient is a measure of association for two binary variables, the range and interpretation of which is similar to Pearson correlation) among the binary variables of the study ranged between −.22 (between female and safe at night) and .21 (between voluntary and helping experiences). This is far below the conventional thresholds for multicollinearity (Tabachnick and Fidell 2015).

  2. Due to missing values in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2014, data collected in these years were not included in the regression analyses, and therefore dummy variables for these years were also not included in the analyses. In all analyses with year dummy variables, 2017 was used as the baseline.

  3. The enter method forces all variables into the model simultaneously, whereas the stepwise method used below “adds each predictor variable to the model, assesses its relative contribution, retaining it if it significantly adds to the model. At that point, all of the other variables are assessed to see if they still significantly contribute, and are removed if they do not” (Mayers 2013, p. 417).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2017S1A3A2066611).

Funding

This study was funded by the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of the Republic of Korea (NRF-2017S1A3A2066611).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Humanities, University of Naples “Federico II”, via Porta di Massa, 1, 80133, Naples, Italy

    Vincenza Capone

  2. Department of Psychology, Keimyung University, Daegu, South Korea

    Mohsen Joshanloo

  3. College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Heinz Scheifinger

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  1. Vincenza Capone
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  2. Mohsen Joshanloo
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  3. Heinz Scheifinger
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Correspondence to Vincenza Capone.

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Vincenza Capone declares that she has no conflict of interest. Mohsen Joshanloo declares that he has no conflict of interest. Heinz Scheifinger declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. For more information about data collection procedures, see https://www.gallup.com

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Capone, V., Joshanloo, M. & Scheifinger, H. Predictors of life satisfaction in a large representative sample from Italy. Curr Psychol 40, 3609–3627 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00305-x

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