Running Head: AGE, SEX, AND INCOME IN LIFE SATISFACTION Relevance of Age, Sex, and Income in Life Satisfaction
Lisa Nguyen
University of California, Riverside 1 RELEVANCE OF AGE, SEX, AND INCOME IN LIFE SATISFACTION 2 Income and Gender Affect Life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem
Every individual in society has their own unique differences that set them apart from
everyone else, but there is one thing that is similar in all of us, the battle for life satisfaction. As
every day passes we face ongoing obstacles that affect our lives, some in our control and others
not. This research focuses on finding more knowledge and evidence on key factors of society
that may help us improve our quality of life. Unfortunately, gender equality has always been an
existing issue, but because of that female and males experience life differently, especially taking
age into consideration. As young females and males grow, their mindsets change drastically.
They learn who they are, what they want to do and what is important to them. This is when
income affects their life. The purpose of my research is to see how age, sex, and income affects
life satisfaction.
Focusing on age, children tend be the happiest as they are more carefree and have not
been exposed to harsh realities of life. Once they reach their adolescent years they are prone to
mood-changes and difficult behavior where their satisfaction in life decreases (Goldbeck,
Schmitz, T. G., Besier, Herschbach, & Henrich, 2007). These are the years where they struggle to
find themselves and are most influenced by their peers. Although it seems to see that their
satisfaction in life is at a low, studies in this area are inconsistent and need further research
(Goldbeck, et al,. 2007). When considering life satisfaction, another factor I looked into was its
correlation with sex, females and males. These two factors were analyzed through ANOVAs
showing that females reported to have lower in general (F = 5.0; p = .025) and in life satisfaction
( F = 25.3; p < .001) compared to males (Goldbeck, et al,. 2007). This research concluded that
life satisfaction decreases during aging but is still a developmental phenomenon. A cross that I RELEVANCE OF AGE, SEX, AND INCOME IN LIFE SATISFACTION 3 came by in my research with age, sex and life satisfaction was that there is also a correlation with
self-esteem showing that self-esteem is directly associated with life satisfaction.
As we mature, we start to take other’s opinions about us into greater consideration
making us more self-conscious which greatly impacts self-esteem. As social media’s influence
on society grows, individuals are forced to live under the scrutiny of their peers. They are
negatively impacted by the need fit into society’s perception of beauty or masculinity. It sets a
status quo of how we should dress or look like which highly affects one’s self-esteem. Previous
research has shown that there is a relationship between life satisfaction, sex, and self-esteem.
Mcmullin (2004) did a research which showed that women are more prone to make social
comparisons compared to men. These comparisons can impact their self-esteem by causing them
to desire physical features that they cannot have. Males tend to have a higher self-esteem when
compared to women. It is possible that this may stem from the patriarchal society we live in. It is
thought that men are to be superior to women, and this combined with the constant pressure to fit
into society’s beauty standards cause females to have a lower self-esteem. Dienier (1995)
research reported that there is a .47 correlation between self-esteem and life satisfaction which
leads back to my second hypothesis that males have higher life satisfaction than females.
Now focusing on life satisfaction and income, it is a commonly thought that money can
buy happiness because money can buy goods that can increase a person’s utility. This is not
completely true because temporary happiness and overall life satisfaction have a small
correlation (Christopher, Gordon, & Simon,. 2010). A previous longitudinal research found that
life satisfaction can depend on a person by person case. With the use of a between research
design, it was found that there is negative change in life satisfaction with an income increase and
using a within research design, there is very little change in life satisfaction with an income RELEVANCE OF AGE, SEX, AND INCOME IN LIFE SATISFACTION 4 increase (Cheung & Lucas, R.E. 2015). These mixed results can be because an increase in
income within a person can be very small while the increase in incomes between people can be
larger which causes a greater effect. The importance of income can change throughout “life
stages: independence, marriage, parenting, launching adult children, and retirement,” so during
the midlife stage, “the association between income and life satisfaction” might be strengthened
(Cheung & Lucas, 2015). Even though the strength of association might differ throughout a
lifetime, the overall the correlation between income and happiness is only 0.13 (Diener, Sandvik,
Seidlitz, & Diener, 1993).
In the current study, I am analyzing the data set of surveys specifically between the years
of 2010-2014 to be able to focus on America’s key factors of society to help improve the quality
of life. Considering the mixed results from previous studies I will be able to provide additional
evidence with the breakdown of age groups, sex, and scales of income throughout America. Sex
defined as male and female. Age is separated into three groups including ages 16-29, 30-49, and
50-99. The scale of income includes ten steps. I hypothesize that age is negatively correlated
with life satisfaction, males have higher life satisfaction than females, and income has a small
correlation with life satisfaction. RELEVANCE OF AGE, SEX, AND INCOME IN LIFE SATISFACTION
Income and Gender Affect Life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem 5 RELEVANCE OF AGE, SEX, AND INCOME IN LIFE SATISFACTION 6 References
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