Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Prioritizing Happiness has Important Implications for Mental Health, but Perhaps Only if you Already are Happy

  • Published:
Applied Research in Quality of Life Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Happiness is frequently posited as an important outcome of quality of life and characteristic of well-adjusted and functioning individuals. Happy individuals are less likely to report adverse mental health. Understanding the importance that individuals place on happiness is less clearly articulated and inconsistent. Valuing or placing higher importance of happiness appear to confer both benefits and risk for mental health outcomes. The primary aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the importance of happiness and mental health outcomes and whether the relationship between happiness and mental health is moderated by the importance individuals place on happiness. We utilised data from two studies, a university student sample (n = 413) and a community sample (n = 248) to examine the study aims. Mental health was operationalised in terms of psychological distress and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Happiness and the level of importance individuals ascribed to happiness were associated with adverse mental health outcomes. In multi-variate analyses, level of happiness was more strongly related to mental health. Interactions between happiness and the importance of happiness revealed that the effect of happiness was moderated by the importance that individuals placed on happiness. Overall happiness and to a lesser extent, the importance of happiness, are significantly associated with mental health outcomes. Happiness was most strongly related to mental health amongst those who rated the importance of happiness more highly.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ballas, D., & Tranmer, M. (2012, January 1, 2012). Happy people or happy places? A multilevel modeling approach to the analysis of happiness and well-being. International Regional Science Review, 35(1), 70–102. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160017611403737.

  • Benyamini, Y., Idler, E. L., Leventhal, H., & Leventhal, E. A. (2000, Mar). Positive affect and function as influences on self-assessments of health: Expanding our view beyond illness and disability. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 55(2), 107–116. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/55.2.p107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boehm, J. K., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2012, Jul). The heart's content: The association between positive psychological well-being and cardiovascular health. Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 655–691. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027448.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brulé, G., & Veenhoven, R. (2014). Freedom and happiness in nations: Why the Finns are happier than the French. Psychology of Well-Being, 4(1), 17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13612-014-0017-4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burns, R. A. (2019). Age-related differences in the factor structure of multiple wellbeing indicators in a large multinational European survey. Journal of Happiness Studies, 21, 37–52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00077-y

  • Burns, R. A., & Machin, M. A. (2009). Investigating the structural validity of Ryff's psychological well-being scales across two samples. Social Indicators Research, 93(2), 359–375. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-008-9329-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burns, R. A., Anstey, K. J., & Windsor, T. D. (2011). Subjective well-being mediates the effects of resilience and mastery on depression and anxiety in a large community sample of young and middle-aged adults. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 45(3), 240–248.

  • Cheng, C., Cheung, M. W., & Montasem, A. (2016). Explaining differences in subjective well-being across 33 nations using multilevel models: Universal personality, cultural relativity, and National Income. Journal of Personality, 84(1), 46–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12136.

  • Delle Fave, A., & Bassi, M. (2009). The contribution of diversity to happiness research. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4(3), 205–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760902844319.

  • Delle Fave, A., Brdar, I., Wissing, M. P., Araujo, U., Castro Solano, A., Freire, T., Hernández-Pozo, M. D. R., Jose, P., Martos, T., Nafstad, H. E., Nakamura, J., Singh, K., & Soosai-Nathan, L. (2016). Lay definitions of happiness across nations: The primacy of inner harmony and relational connectedness. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00030.

  • Diener, E., & Diener, C. (1995). The wealth of nations revisited: Income and quality of life. Social Indicators Research, 36(3), 275–286. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01078817.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. (2002). Very happy people. Psychological Science, 13(1), 81–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00415.

  • Diener, E., Diener, M., & Diener, C. (1995a). Factors predicting the subjective well-being of nations. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 69(5), 851–864.

  • Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Smith, H., & Shao, L. (1995b). National Differences in reported subjective well-being: Why do they occur? Social Indicators Research, 34(1), 7–32.

  • Ford, B. Q., Shallcross, A. J., Mauss, I. B., Floerke, V. A., & Gruber, J. (2014). Desperately SEEKING happiness: Valuing happiness is associated with symptoms and diagnosis of depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 33(10), 890–905. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2014.33.10.890.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher, M. W., Lopez, S. J., & Preacher, K. J. (2009, Aug). The hierarchical structure of well-being. Journal of Personality, 77(4), 1025–1050. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00573.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, D., Bridges, K., Duncan-Jones, P., & Grayson, D. (1988). Detecting anxiety and depression in general medical settings. British Medical Journal, 297(6653), 897–899.

  • Griffin, J. (2007). What do happiness studies study? Journal of Happiness Studies: An Interdisciplinary Forum on Subjective Well-Being. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-006-9007-4.

  • Guillen-Royo, M., & Kasser, T. (2015). Personal goals, socio-economic context and happiness: Studying a diverse sample in Peru. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16(2), 405–425. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9515-6.

  • Huppert, F. A., Marks, N., Clark, A., Siegrist, J., Stutzer, A., Vittersø, J., & Wahrendorf, M. (2009). Measuring well-being across Europe: Description of the ESS well-being module and preliminary findings. Social Indicators Research, 91(3), 301–315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-008-9346-0.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jorm, A. F., & Ryan, S. M. (2014). Cross-national and historical differences in subjective well-being. International Journal of Epidemiology, 43(2), 330–340. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyt188.

  • Joshanloo, M. (2014). Eastern conceptualizations of happiness: Fundamental differences with western views. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15, 475–493. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9431-1.

  • Joshanloo, M., Lepshokova, Z. K., Panyusheva, T., Natalia, A., Poon, W.-C., Yeung, V. W.-l., Sundaram, S., Achoui, M., Asano, R., Igarashi, T., Tsukamoto, S., Rizwan, M., Khilji, I. A., Ferreira, M. C., Pang, J. S., Ho, L. S., Han, G., Bae, J., & Jiang, D.-Y. (2014). Cross-cultural validation of fear of happiness scale across 14 national groups. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45(2), 246–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022113505357.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joshanloo, M., Weijers, D., Jiang, D.-Y., Han, G., Bae, J., Pang, J. S., Ho, L. S., Ferreira, M. C., Demir, M., Rizwan, M., Khilji, I. A., Achoui, M., Asano, R., Igarashi, T., Tsukamoto, S., Lamers, S. M. A., Turan, Y., Sundaram, S., Yeung, V. W. L., Poon, W.-C., Lepshokova, Z. K., Panyusheva, T., & Natalia, A. (2015). Fragility of happiness beliefs across 15 national groups. Journal of Happiness Studies: An Interdisciplinary Forum on Subjective Well-Being, 16(5), 1185–1210. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9553-0.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joshanloo, M., Rizwan, M., Khilji, I. A., Ferreira, M. C., Poon, W.-C., Sundaram, S., Ho, L. S., Yeung, V. W.-l., Han, G., Bae, J., Demir, M., Achoui, M., Pang, J. S., Jiang, D.-Y., Lamers, S. M. A., Turan, Y., Lepshokova, Z. K., Panyusheva, T., Natalia, A., Asano, R., Igarashi, T., & Tsukamoto, S. (2016). Conceptions of happiness and life satisfaction: An exploratory study in 14 national groups. Personality and Individual Differences, 102, 145–148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.065.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D., & Deaton, A. (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(38), 16489–16493. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011492107.

  • Kammann, R., Farry, M., & Herbison, P. (1984). The analysis and measurement of happiness as a sense of well-being. Social Indicators Research, 15(2), 91–115. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00426282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kashdan, T. B., Biswas-Diener, R., & King, L. A. (2008). Reconsidering happiness: The costs of distinguishing between hedonics and eudaimonia. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 3(4), 219–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760802303044.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler, R. C., Andrews, G., Colpe, L. J., Hiripi, E., Mroczek, D. K., Normand, S. L., Walters, E. E., & Zaslavsky, A. M. (2002). Short screening scales to monitor population prevalences and trends in non-specific psychological distress. Psychological Medicine, 32(6), 959–976.

  • Keyes, C. L. M. (2005, Jun). Mental illness and/or mental health? Investigating axioms of the complete state model of health. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(3), 539–548. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.73.3.539.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keyes, C. L., Shmotkin, D., & Ryff, C. D. (2002). Optimizing well-being: The empirical encounter of two traditions. Journal of Personality, 82(6), 1007–1022.

  • Kiely, K. M., & Butterworth, P. (2015). Validation of four measures of mental health against depression and generalized anxiety in a community based sample. Psychiatry Research, 225(3), 291–298.

  • Lee, M.-A., & Kawachi, I. (2019). The keys to happiness: Associations between personal values regarding core life domains and happiness in South Korea. PLoS One, 14(1), e0209821. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209821.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lekes, N., Gingras, I., Philippe, F. L., Koestner, R., & Fang, J. (2010). Parental autonomy-support, intrinsic life goals, and well-being among adolescents in China and North America. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39(8), 858–869. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-009-9451-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levin, K. A., Torsheim, T., Vollebergh, W., Richter, M., Davies, C. A., Schnohr, C. W., Due, P., & Currie, C. (2011). National Income and income inequality, family affluence and life satisfaction among 13 year old boys and girls: A multilevel study in 35 countries. Social Indicators Research, 104(2), 179–194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9747-8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyubomirsky, S., & Lepper, H. S. (1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social Indicators Research, 46(2), 137–155. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006824100041.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131(6), 803–855. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.6.803.

  • Marsh, H. W., Huppert, F. A., Donald, J. N., Horwood, M. S., & Sahdra, B. K. (2020). The well-being profile (WB-Pro): Creating a theoretically based multidimensional measure of well-being to advance theory, research, policy, and practice. Psychological Assessment, 32(3), 294–313. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000787.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mauss, I. B., Tamir, M., Anderson, C. L., & Savino, N. S. (2011). Can Seeking happiness make people happy? Paradoxical effects of valuing happiness. Emotion 11(4), 807–815. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022010.

  • Mauss, I. B., Savino, N. S., Anderson, C. L., Weisbuch, M., Tamir, M., & Laudenslager, M. L. (2012). The pursuit of happiness can be lonely. Emotion, 12(5), 908–912. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025299.

  • Rehm, J., & Shield, K. D. (2019, Feb 7). Global burden of disease and the impact of mental and addictive disorders. Current Psychiatry Reports, 21(2), 10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-019-0997-0.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richards, J., Jiang, X., Kelly, P., Chau, J., Bauman, A., & Ding, D. (2015). Don't worry, be happy: Cross-sectional associations between physical activity and happiness in 15 European countries. BMC Public Health, 15, 53–53. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1391-4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schyns, P. (2002). Wealth of nations, individual income andLife satisfaction in 42 countries: A multilevel approach. Social Indicators Research, 60(1), 5–40. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1021244511064.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seo, E. H., Kim, S.-G., Kim, S. H., Kim, J. H., Park, J. H., & Yoon, H.-J. (2018). Life satisfaction and happiness associated with depressive symptoms among university students: A cross-sectional study in Korea. Annals of General Psychiatry, 17, 52–52. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-018-0223-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • StataCorp. (2015). Stata Statistical Software: Release, 14 In StataCorp LP.

  • Steptoe, A. (2019). Happiness and health. Annual Review of Public Health, 40(1), 339–359. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-044150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tella, R. D., MacCulloch, R. J., & Oswald, A. J. (2003). The macroeconomics of happiness. Review of Economics and Statistics, 85(4), 809–827. https://doi.org/10.1162/003465303772815745.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Veenhoven, R. (1995). The cross-national pattern of happiness: Test of predictions implied in three theories of happiness. Social Indicators Research, 34(1), 33–68. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01078967.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Veenhoven, R. (2012). Cross-national differences in happiness: Cultural measurement bias or effect of culture? International Journal of Wellbeing, 2(4), 333–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, M., & Wong, M. C. S. (2014). Happiness and leisure across countries: Evidence from international survey data. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15(1), 85–118. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9417-z.

  • Wasserstein, R. L., Schirm, A. L., & Lazar, N. A. (2019). Moving to a world beyond “p < 0.05”. The American Statistician, 73(sup1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.2019.1583913.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yiengprugsawan, V., Somboonsook, B., Seubsman, S.-A., & Sleigh, A. C. (2012). Happiness, mental health, and socio-demographic associations among a National Cohort of Thai adults. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(6), 1019–1029. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-011-9304-4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Mental Health Research, Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Richard A. Burns

  2. Centre for Applied Psychology, Faculty of Health, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia

    Dimity A. Crisp

Authors
  1. Richard A. Burns
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dimity A. Crisp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard A. Burns.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Burns, R.A., Crisp, D.A. Prioritizing Happiness has Important Implications for Mental Health, but Perhaps Only if you Already are Happy. Applied Research Quality Life 17, 375–390 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-020-09891-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-020-09891-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation