Results
The social factors with statistically significant influence on SW (as per the SEM analysis) are as follows:
Unemployment - According to the SEM analysis results (see Fig. 1), unemployment both directly and indirectly – through increasing our chance of ‘living an unsecured life ’ – adversely affects our subjective well-being.
Income and social class have the strongest direct positive impact on SW, meaning the higher the income and the class status, the higher SW.
Gender - Australian women on average tend to be more positive in their assessment of their quality of life compared to men. This cannot of course be explained in an essentialist way. Perhaps higher levels of conviviality and sociability among women and/or their optimism, or maybe even their relative exclusion from the torments of working in the heartless competitive conditions of today’s corporatized economy, may account for this positive impact on their SW. This of course requires further speculations and examinations.
Age - Aging does not directly affect our SW. It rather indirectly operates in two opposite ways. On the one hand with aging, people’s health deteriorates, and together with that their general sense of wellbeing; but on the other hand, they are more likely to secure a more financially ‘secured life ’ which may improve their SW. A fact from the results to support this assumption is that those ‘retired’ and ‘dependent on pension’ are less likely to demonstrate the same level of SW that their generational counterparts enjoy. This would indicate that for the current and future generations, the negative impact of age may become stronger as today’s advanced capitalist economies have significantly moved away from the welfare state models and are struggling to address significant economic challenges since the global financial crisis. Global health and climate crises with their economic consequences would also increasingly pose greater challenges to the capacities of these societies in the provision of care and security for their aging populations.
Education - Lower levels of educational attainment which is more common among older people in today’s Australia is associated with a less social trust which in turn makes them more anxious, unsatisfied, and unhappy. Higher levels of education make it more likely for citizens to enjoy greater autonomy in their workplaces (where most of us spend most of our daily life). Autonomy at work increases our self-satisfaction and happiness but this is less the case withwomen compared to men, and with the people of lower socioeconomic status since both groups are less likely to enjoy autonomy at work, regardless of their educational achievements.