How was hypothesis testing completed? What statistical analysis was carried out to test the hypotheses? What was the rationale for choosing a particular statistical test? What do the results indicate in terms of hypotheses? Provide evidence using statistical findings to indicate if the hypothesis was supported or not supported.

Analysis

The data were analyzed by descriptive analysis, Chi-square tests and one-way ANOVA tests by age group and a linear regression analysis of happiness by all samples and 3 age groups. All continuous independent variables were centered in the regression models. The analysis was weighted by the sampling proportion.

Results

Table 1shows the sample descriptions of the three age groups. Most characteristics were significantly different across the age groups. However, happiness was not different.

Table 1.Description of the samples.

Table 1.Description of the samples.

View larger version

Table 2shows the linear regression analysis of all samples, including the young group, the middle-aged group, and the older group. In the total sample model, being younger, less educated, a non-smoker, a social drinker or a light drinker, having less negative affect, receiving less social support from family, more participation of social groups, more social trust, a higher subjective economic status, more life control, and a higher quality of life were related to higher happiness. Gender, marital status, living place, living arrangement, BMI, chronic disease, self-rated health, support from friends and formal providers, and working status were not significant.

Table 2.Happiness and social determinants by age groups.

Table 2.Happiness and social determinants by age groups.

View larger version

In the younger group model, being female, a non-smoker, a light drinker, less negative affect, receiving less support from family and formal providers, more social participation, a higher social trust, a higher social control and a higher quality of life were related to more happiness for the younger group. Compared with the total samples, age, education, subjective economic status, and social class were not significant factors.

In the middle-aged group, being a non-smoker, and having a spouse, less negative affect, more social participation, and a higher quality of life were related to more happiness for the middle-aged participants. Social support, social trust, social class, or life control were not significant.

In the older participants, being less educated and having less negative affect, a higher subjective economic status, and a higher quality of life were related to higher happiness. Health-related variables, social support, social trust or social participation were not significant.

Discussion

This study used cross-sectional survey data to examine the factors related to happiness for different age cohorts in Taiwan. In general, the consistent predictors of happiness across the three age cohort groups were negative affect and quality of life. Healthy behaviors, social capital (receiving social support, social group participation, and social trust) and the degree of life control had larger effects for the younger and the middle-aged groups. Marital status was particularly important for the middle-aged group. Education and subjective economic status were more important to determine happiness for the older group. Thus, social connection factors seemed to be more related to happiness among the younger and middle-aged generations than the older cohort, while socioeconomic status determined happiness for the elderly.

The relationship between social connection and happiness showed different patterns across the three age groups. Receiving social support from family and formal providers was negatively related to happiness only for the younger group, whereas receiving any category of social support was not significant for the other two groups. It is possible that receiving support from formal providers may represent a vulnerability for the younger group, and the support provided by family may not always be positive (Krause, 2001). However, for the older generation, receiving formal support may be recognized differently than by the younger generation. Although receiving formal support was not significant for the older individuals, the relationship was positive and the coefficient was large. This finding implies that providing formal support for older individuals is not just a service but also has a function of emotional care. Through visits by formal service workers, older individuals would feel cared for and happier. This result is very similar to previous Asian studies, which have found that formal support has positive effects on positive psychological wellbeing among the elderly (Yoo and Son, 2012). Marital status is also viewed as a type of social support. However, having a spouse was only positively related to happiness for the middle-aged group. It is possible that the number of married individuals in the younger group was lower (please seeTable 1) and being a family caregiver for a spouse in the older group is more similar to a burden and less related to happiness.

In addition to social support, the second indicator of social connection is social participation. Social participation has been related to subjective wellbeing and happiness (Borgonovi, 2008;Waldinger et al., 2010). In this study, working status was not significant, and participation in social groups was positively related to happiness for the younger and middle-aged groups but not for the older group. It is possible that participation in social networks and social groups means more for younger and middle-aged individuals compared with the elderly. Individuals obtain social capital and the chance to prove their own value when they are engaged with social participation. Older Taiwanese individuals are less likely to participate in social groups because in the traditional society, individuals think that wellness for the elderly means not work or not being involves social matters (Hsu, 2007). The percentage of social group participation was not high for the current Taiwanese elderly cohort. However, this concept is changing (Hsu and Jones, 2012); more individuals accept the idea of active aging and have become more willing to volunteer or participate in social groups when they grow older. It is expected that social group participation will be more prevalent and more related to happiness in older individuals in the future.

Another indicator of social capital is social trust. Past research has found that general trust is related to self-rated health (Mansyur et al., 2008;Nyqvist et al., 2008) and subjective wellbeing (Calvo et al., 2012;Nyqvist et al., 2008;Oishi et al., 2011). In this study, social trust was positively related to happiness in the whole population, but it was significant only for the younger group. It is possible that social trust and social capital are different across age groups (Cooper et al., 2011b); the younger group had higher trust than the middle-aged group and the older group. There has been little discussion about age differences in social trust in previous studies. If social trust decreases over time, then social capital would also decrease when the individuals grow older. Furthermore, there will be fewer social connections among older individuals, and therefore the happiness from social connections is expected to be much less for the elderly.

While social connection was significantly related to happiness for the younger and middle-aged groups, socioeconomic status was more important for the older cohort. The older cohort has usually experienced a poor and insecure youth because of previous wars, and economic security has been reported as a component of successful aging for the Taiwanese elderly (Hsu, 2007). However, older individuals with higher education were less happy. It is possible that the individuals with a higher education expect more in life, but they are not satisfied with their current status. The statement "contentment is happiness" (Zhang et al., 2014) is most likely true. Further research about the relationship between education and happiness is suggested.

The subjective rating of quality of life showed the biggest effect on happiness of all the predictors in all three age groups. Quality of life can be measured as an overall subjective rating, which is similar to the concept of subjective wellbeing. Past research has indicated that happiness is a component of subjective wellbeing (Bishop et al., 2010). Quality of life can also be measured in different dimensions of life, such as physical, psychological, social, environment, etc. (WHOQOL Group, 1995), which involves more practical issues in social policy and health/social services. If all the objective dimensions of quality of life were improved, then subjective wellbeing (as well as the happiness) would also be increased. Policy makers should work on these quality-of-life issues in social policy to improve the subjective wellbeing of the people.

Happiness is usually viewed as the maximum of positive affect.Diener et al. (1991)argued that happiness is the frequency of positive affect versus negative affect. In this study, negative affect was significantly related to happiness, which is consistent with previous research (Moreno et al., 2014). Furthermore, the centered effect of negative affect was larger in the older group than the younger and the middle-aged groups. Negative affect or psychological distress may be a more serious problem for older individuals and may thus effect their happiness to a larger extent.

Past studies have found that living a healthy lifestyle is related to happiness (Nyqvist et al., 2008;Peir, 2006;Shahab and West, 2009;Zander et al., 2013). In this study, we found that the smokers of all age groups were less happy. Smoking is sometimes a coping strategy for individuals when they are under stress or feel depressed (Kleinke et al., 1982). Research has also demonstrated that smoking may be related to depressive symptoms (Kendler et al., 1993;Patton et al., 1998). This study found that the social and light drinkers were more likely to be happy than the non-drinkers, particularly for the middle-aged group; heavy drinkers reported less happiness, although the finding was not significant. Research has found that moderate drinking is related to better psychological wellbeing (Ferreira and Weems, 2008). In addition, social drinking is drinking for positive social outcome (Foster and Neighbors, 2013). Thus, social drinking may represent an active social life, which is the actual reason for happiness. Regular exercise was not significantly related to happiness as expected. However, regular exercise was positively related to happiness for the older group, even when the health indicators (self-rated health and chronic disease morbidity) were controlled. This finding implies that doing regular exercise not only promotes physical health but also may be beneficial for emotional health in older individuals. The use of the internet was not significantly related to happiness for any age group. However, using the internet was negatively related to happiness for the younger group and the middle-aged group, but positively related to happiness in the older group. In Taiwan, almost all young individuals use the internet for study, work, leisure or social networking. It is also common for middle-aged individuals to use the internet for work and leisure. Determining whether there is an internet addiction problem for the younger and middle-aged groups, and therefore less connection with the real world needs further research.