X-Pattern Life Cycle Happiness among Men and Women in the United States

1. X-Pattern Life Cycle Happiness among Men and Women in the United States Enrico A. Marcelli Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Boston Center for Society & Health, Harvard University

2. Why Study Gender Differences in SWB? • Women’s declining happiness since 1970s (Blanchflower and Oswald 2004) • Women less happy than men, at least in later life (Easterlin 2003; Nolen-Hoeksema and Rusting 1999) • Future health and medical care cost implications (Konow and Earley 2003; Taylor 2002)

3. 1. Psychology’s Top-Down or “Set-Point” Theory 2. Economic’s Bottom-Up or “Domain Adaptation” Theory 3. Gender Role 4. Objective Circumstances 5. Life-Cycle, Domain-Interactions Disciplinary Approaches to SWB 6. Globl Happiness

4. “Domain Adaptation” Theory of SWB • Life-domain (Campbell et al. 1976) and Affect- balance (Bradburn 1969) lines of research • Revitalization of a life-cycle approach in Economics (Easterlin 1961), Psychology (Schaie 1965), Sociology (Ryder 1965) after 4 decades

5. Data & 3-Step Synthetic Cohort Model • Data: 1973-1994 General Social Survey (GSS : 30,000+ respondents age 18-89 and born 1883-1975) • Step 1: “Adjusted” Global Happiness by Gender Ĥadjusted = f (Age, Age2, Cohort, Cohort2, High School, Black) • Step 2: “Adjusted” Life Domain Satisfactions by Gender ŜatDomainadjusted = f (Age, Age2, Cohort, Cohort2, High School, Black) • Step 3: “Predicted” Global Happiness by Gender Ĥpredicted = f (SatFam, SatWork, SatFin SatHealth)

6. Happiness over the Life Cycle by Gender

7. Men’s Happiness and Domain Satisfaction

8. Men’s Happiness and Domain Satisfaction

9. Women’s Happiness and Domain Satisfaction

10. Women’s Happiness and Domain Satisfaction

11. Men’s Relative Happiness & Domain Satisfaction

12. Men’s Relative Happiness & Domain Satisfaction

13. Predicting Overall Happiness with the Same Four Domains of Life Satisfaction by Gender MEN WOMEN

14. Predicting X-Pattern Happiness among Men and Women with Same Four Domains

15. Predicting Overall Happiness with Different Domains of Life Satisfaction by Gender MEN WOMEN

16. Predicting X-Pattern Happiness among Men and Women with Different Domains

17. Summary • Controlling for birth cohort, race, and education, men surpass women in global happiness at age 48 • The X-shaped happiness relationship between men and women over the life course appears to be strongly influenced by satisfaction with various life domains • Supports a “life-cycle domain-interaction” rather than a traditional gender role or objective circumstances perspective

18. Men’s Relative Happiness & Family Satisfaction

19. Men’s Relative Happiness & Financial Satisfaction

20. Men’s Relative Happiness & Work Satisfaction

21. Men’s Relative Happiness & Health Satisfaction

22. Men’s Relative Happiness & Residence Satisfaction

23. Men’s Relative Happiness & Satisfaction with Friends

24. Men’s Relative Happiness & Satisfaction with Hobbies

25. Family Satisfaction and Marital Status (Women)

26. Work Satisfaction beyond Employment Status (Men)

27. Declining Women’s Happiness by Survey Year