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1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
1.1 Between 2004 and 2007, the Scottish Government Office of Chief Researcher funded a series of questions in the Scottish Social Attitudes survey ( SSA). The primary focus of this module is to monitor attitudes to government in post-devolution Scotland. In 2007, the remit of the module was extended to include questions that would establish a baseline measure of 'subjective well-being' in Scotland. These questions were included to help address the following key questions:
- How 'satisfied' are people living in Scotland with particular aspects of their lives and how 'happy' do they consider themselves to be?
- How do levels of 'subjective well-being' in Scotland compare with those in other countries across Europe?
- Is there any evidence to suggest that some groups of people living in Scotland are more 'satisfied' and 'happy' than others?
Why measure well-being?
"The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation."
(Jeremy Bentham, 1748-1832)
1.2 The progress of nations and governments has traditionally been measured in terms of economic indicators alone, based on the idea that economic growth brings greater prosperity and consequently greater happiness for citizens. Richard Easterlin first questioned this practice in an influential 1974 paper which demonstrated that despite the great increase in the wealth of the American nation, no corresponding rise in levels of self-reported well-being or happiness could be found (Easterlin, 1974). This phenomenon, apparent throughout the developed western world, has been described by economist Richard Layard as:
"…a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income and strive for it. Yet as Western societies have got richer, their people have become no happier."
(Layard, 2005)
1.3 Whilst economic growth does not appear to raise levels of life satisfaction at the national level, studies examining life satisfaction and happiness within countries have consistently shown that in terms of individual income, the wealthy are happier and more satisfied with life than those on low incomes (see for example, Donovan and Halpern, 2002, Gardner and Oswald, 2006). However, Layard argues that once per capita incomes have increased to a comfortable level (identified as c$15,000 per head) it is not absolute wealth but relative wealth that affects well-being (Layard, 2006). In other words, once individuals become accustomed or 'habituated' to a higher level of income or standard of living, it is the comparison with what others have - or relative poverty - that affects satisfaction and happiness.
1.4 In the UK and other developed nations, as the income gap between rich and poor has increased with economic growth, there is growing evidence of inequality not only in terms of well-being and happiness but also in health outcomes. In Scotland for example, a recent survey on public attitudes to mental health and well-being found that it was those on low incomes and those living in deprived areas who were the most likely to rate their health as poor and be susceptible to mental ill-health 1 (Scottish Government, 2007a). David Bell and David Blanchflower in their recent enquiry into subjective wellbeing in Scotland concluded that Scots were unhappier than people living in the rest of the UK, as well as suffering more from poor health outcomes, including higher levels of self- assessed depression and suicide, particularly in deprived areas (Bell and Blanchflower, 2007).
1.5 The combination of emerging evidence of this kind and the work of academics such as Layard has driven the recent shift in policy circles towards 'sustainable development,' including recognising the value of measuring well-being as an additional indicator of national success and looking at how policy initiatives might promote the well-being of citizens. In the Scottish context this has included a raft of initiatives that aim to ' raise awareness about the need for good mental health and well-being amongst the general public' (National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Well-being Action Plan 2003-2006, 2003). After extensive consultation, Summer 2008 will see the launch of a new Action Plan that builds on the work of the National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing. Towards a Mentally Flourishing Scotland aims to tackle inequalities and ensure that the mental health and well-being of people in Scotland improves in line with the strategic objectives of the Scottish Government (Scottish Government, 2007b). These initiatives highlight the increased focus on well-being in Scotland, reflected in the renaming of the Cabinet portfolio on 'Health' to 'Health and Well-being,' and reinforce the need for a means of measuring it at the Scotland level.
1.6 Although measures of some objective elements associated with well-being are available in Scotland, for example on health and income, 2 Bell and Blanchflower point out that there has been little analysis of subjective or self-perceived well-being in Scotland due in part to a lack of recent and robust data at the national level (Bell and Blanchflower, 2007). In order to fill this gap, the 2007 Scottish Social Attitudes survey introduced five questions on different aspects of subjective well-being, with the aim of providing robust baseline measures of life satisfaction and happiness in Scotland.
What do we mean by 'subjective well-being'?
1.7 Defining a concept as abstract as well-being is complicated by a lack of consensus in the research on the subject. A useful overview of the debate can be found in a report for the Scottish Government on 'Quality of Life and Well-being: Measuring the Benefits of Culture and Sport - A Literature Review' (Galloway et al. 2006). Most researchers agree that both objective indicators (for example income, health, employment status or local environment) and subjective measures (self-assessed happiness or satisfaction with life) contribute to a person's well-being. The questions included in SSA 2007 focus on the subjective indicators of well-being - 'the individual's experience or perception of how well he or she lives' (Naess, 1999).
1.8 As has been noted, the most common measures of subjective well-being ask about 'life satisfaction' or 'happiness'. There is some debate on the definitions of and distinctions between the two terms and they are often used interchangeably in the literature. However, some, including Helliwell and Putnam (2005), distinguish between the two, identifying 'happiness' as reflecting 'relatively short-term situation-dependent (affective) expressions of mood,' as opposed to 'life satisfaction', which measures 'longer-term more stable (cognitive) evaluations'.
1.9 In SSA 2007 measures of both happiness and overall life satisfaction were included so that the relationship between them could be explored further by examining whether the same factors are associated with both. These questions were worded as follows:
All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole nowadays?
Taking all things together, how happy would you say you are?
1.10 An additional three questions relating to how satisfied people were with different domains of their lives were included. Layard (2005) identifies five dimensions of life that have been shown to affect happiness and life satisfaction the most. These are in order of importance: family relationships, financial situation, work, community and friends and health. As SSA 2007 already collects information on self-reported health and self-perceived hardship, the remaining three questions were designed to measure job satisfaction, satisfaction with family and personal life and satisfaction with general standard of living. These questions were ordered and worded as follows:
All things considered, how satisfied are you with your (main) job?
(And) all things considered how satisfied are you with your family or personal life?
And your general standard of living?
1.11 For each of the questions respondents were asked to place themselves on an 11 point scale running from 0 to 10, were 0 was 'extremely dissatisfied' and 10 was 'extremely satisfied' 3. This standard survey scale has been widely used in research into subjective well-being and its inclusion in the 2006 European Social Survey ( ESS) allows for international comparison with similar measures of well-being collected across European nations (see section 3).
The data
1.12 This report is based on data from the 2007 Scottish Social Attitudes survey ( SSA). SSA was established in 1999 in the wake of devolution by the Scottish Centre for Social Research and has run annually ever since. It provides robust data on changing social and political attitudes to inform both public policy and academic study. Around 1,500 face-to-face interviews are conducted annually (1,508 in 2007) with a representative probability sample of the Scottish population. Interviews are conducted in respondents' homes, using computer assisted personal interviewing technology. Around 9 in 10 respondents also complete a paper self-completion questionnaire. The survey has achieved a response of between 55% and 65% in each year since 1999 (in 2007, the response was between 55% and 58% 4). Further technical details about the survey are included in Annex B.
Structure of the report
1.13 The report is divided into three main sections. The first discusses the topline findings on subjective well-being levels in Scotland. Using data from SSA 2007 and the European Social Survey ( ESS) 2006, the second section focuses on how the findings on subjective well-being in Scotland compare with other countries across Europe. SSA collects a wide range of socio-demographic data from those who take part in the survey. The final section explores the relationship between these factors and well-being and happiness to determine if some groups of people living in Scotland are more satisfied and happy than others.
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