Using representative cross-sections from 166 nations (more than 1.7 million respondents), we examined differences in three measures of subjective well-being over the life span. Globally, and in the individual regions of the world, we found only very small differences in life satisfaction and negative affect. By contrast, decreases in positive affect were larger. We then examined four important predictors of subjective well-being and how their associations changed: marriage, employment, prosociality, and life meaning. These predictors were typically associated with higher subjective well-being over the life span in every world region. Marriage showed only very small associations for the three outcomes, whereas employment had larger effects that peaked around age 50 years. Prosociality had practically significant associations only with positive affect, and life meaning had strong, consistent associations with all subjective-well-being measures across regions and ages. These findings enhance our understanding of subjective-well-being patterns and what matters for subjective well-being across the life span.

中文翻译：

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世界各地的主观幸福感：整个生命周期的趋势和预测因素

我们使用来自 166 个国家（超过 170 万名受访者）的代表性横截面，研究了一生中主观幸福感的三种衡量标准的差异。在全球范围内，在世界各个地区，我们发现生活满意度和负面影响只有很小的差异。相比之下，积极影响的下降幅度更大。然后，我们检查了主观幸福感的四个重要预测因素以及它们的关联如何变化：婚姻、就业、亲社会性和生活意义。这些预测因素通常与世界每个地区在整个生命周期中更高的主观幸福感相关。婚姻对这三种结果的关联很小，而就业的影响更大，在 50 岁左右达到顶峰。亲社会性仅与积极情感有实际显着的关联，而生活意义与跨地区和年龄的所有主观幸福感指标具有强烈、一致的关联。这些发现增强了我们对主观幸福感模式以及整个生命周期中主观幸福感的重要性的理解。