Well-Being and Relational Goods A Model-Based Approach to Detect Significant Relationships

• Published in: Social indicators research Vol. 135; no. 2; pp. 729 - 750
• Main Authors: Capecchi, Stefania, Iannario, Maria, Simone, Rosaria
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Science + Business Media 01.01.2018; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aging (Individuals); Beliefs; Cultural Background; Decision making; Expenditures; Families & family life; Feedback (Response); Friendship; Happiness; Human Geography; Interpersonal Competence; Interpersonal Relationship; Least Squares Statistics; Leisure Time; Life Satisfaction; Marital Status; Microeconomics; Public Health; Quality of Life; Quality of Life Research; Reference Materials; Relational goods; Response Style (Tests); Social activities; Social Capital; Social Integration; Social Problems; Social research; Social Sciences; Sociology; Statistical analysis; Statistical Distributions; Statistical models; Time use; Uncertainty; Usefulness; Well Being; models; Happiness; Uncertainty; Well-being; Relational goods; Ordinal data
• ISSN: 0303-8300; 1573-0921
• DOI: 10.1007/s11205-016-1519-7

A statistical framework for modelling subjective perceptions expressed through ratings is presented. The paper deals with the relationships between personal covariates and self-declared happiness, taking into account several social activities, such as spending time with family and friends, participating in groups and associations, and so on. Our setting concerns a class of statistical models able to measure the effects on life satisfaction of the relational goods which have been proved significant in a large sample of respondents. By means of these models, the proposal enhances the different contributions of subjects’ covariates on their response patterns. The selected approach is based on a mixture model to interpret the assessed perception of two unobserved components, denoted as feeling and uncertainty, respectively, as a blend of real beliefs and indecision. Empirical evidence to support the usefulness of this methodological perspective is provided by a recent observational survey concerning happiness and relational goods.