In the last blog posts, we introduced the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)’s Positive Peace Report 2022. Our work at IDare is founded on the belief that when young women and men have their potential for transformation activated, they become a critical factor not only in changing their own world but in global stability now and into the future. Therefore, this week we are taking a closer look at one of the Positive Peace Report’s indicators of Positive Peace, namely: Life Satisfaction. Specifically looking at satisfaction by age and gender.
Life Satisfaction
The IEP rely upon 24 indicators which they believe represent the best available globally comparable data with the strongest statistically significant relationship to levels of peace (2022, p.19). Where Positive Peace is defined as “the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies” which “creates an optimal environment for human potential to flourish” (IEP, 2022, p.4). One quality which IEP believe is systemically linked to those countries with higher levels of Positive Peace is social resilience. As a gauge for social resilience, the IEP believe it can be highly correlated with measures of wellbeing and life satisfaction.
But what does life satisfaction mean?
The IEP use the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Better Life Index in their analysis of life satisfaction. Whereby, the OECD measures how people evaluate their life as a whole rather than their current feelings. To form the basis of understanding ‘how’s life?’ the OECD use an index based on 11 topics that they have identified as essential, in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life.
- Housing
- Income
- Jobs
- Community
- Education
- Environment
- Civic Engagement
- Health
- Life Satisfaction
- Safety
- Work-Life Balance
Most simply we can understand greater life satisfaction when individuals are not weighed down by concerns about survival or excessive poverty (IEP, 2022, p.7). However, what is important to note is that development does not necessarily correlate with higher levels of satisfaction. Cultural influences can impact levels of satisfaction reported by populations. The IEP use the example of Japan and Mexico to draw this out.
In 2020, Japan which has a high Positive Peace Index score and is broadly aligned with Ireland, France, Belgium and Germany has a level of satisfaction with life that is close to the bottom of the OECD range (IEP, 2022, p.63). Loneliness and isolation are widespread amongst the population, especially for men. Additionally, the Japanese culture imposes a heavy work and schooling burden on citizens (IEP, 2022, p.63). Themes of which are explored in the 2019 novel “Breasts and Eggs” which paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan.
Whilst Mexico, which is among the lowest levels of social resilience according to the Positive Peace Index, sees high degree of life satisfaction reported by its population. A degree of life satisfaction that is on par with France, Spain and Italy: towards the middle of the OECD range. In trying to understand the relationship between Mexico and life satisfaction, the IEP note the following:
“Firstly, Mexicans tend to rank religious beliefs highly among their personal and societal values. Religious people tend to enjoy a greater level of fulfilment and content – or resignation when facing difficulties – than the non-religious. Secondly, Mexicans also highly value family interactions including with extended families, who creating a strong support network upon which individuals can rely in times of difficulty. Thus, the effects of lack of trust in governments and official support institutions is partly compensated for by access to reliable and tightly knit personal support networks including family members and friends” (IEP, 2022, p.64).
It’s now interesting to look at the variations recorded across age and gender.
Age
The youngest respondents of the OECD’s Better Life Index are 15 years of age and the IEP report substantial differences in the relationship between satisfaction with one’s standards of living and the Positive Peace Index dependant on the age of the respondent.
Very young respondents – those between 15 and 20 years of age – report an inverse relationship between satisfaction and Positive Peace. Whereby, young people in countries with high degrees of societal resilience tended to declare less satisfaction with their standards of living. Only 21% of 15- to 20-year-olds in very high or high Positive Peace nations reported satisfaction with standards of living versus 26% of 15- to 20-year-olds in low Positive Peace states.
What may appear as counter-intuitive, that wealthier young people are more dissatisfied than less wealthier youngsters is something that has been confirmed multiple times by UNICEF, The Children’s Society and others (IEP, 2022, p.66) This result could be related to: excessively high expectations for future lives, mental health issues, obesity, concerns about global inequality and environmental threats for example (IEP, 2022, p.66). Additionally, because they are constantly being invited to compare their looks, their opportunities, and lifestyles?
Furthermore, is it because young people are likely to adapt their life satisfaction both to their own realities and to the examples and norms set by the societies they live in? Does that mean that some disadvantaged children report that they are ‘satisfied’ with their lives because they cannot realistically expect better?
However, levels of education did cause an impact on satisfaction level. Although respondents answering questions surrounding levels of education, include respondents of all ages, it is interesting to ponder on the result that 87% of secondary educated respondents in very high level or high Positive Peace nations reported satisfaction with standards of living (IEP, 2022, p.67).
Gender
According to the IEP:
- More countries had men reporting a lower level of satisfaction with their standards of living than women where the difference between the genders was more than two percentage points. The top five countries were:
- Taiwan (where women were 8.2% more satisfied than men)
- Turkey (where women were 7.4% more satisfied than men)
- Iran (where women were 6.7% more satisfied than men)
- Slovakia (where women were 6.5% more satisfied than men)
- Mauritius (where women were 6.4% more satisfied than men)
Where males reported being more satisfied with their own standards of living compared to women tended to be in authoritarian states:
- United Arab Emirates (where men were 40.5% more satisfied than women)
- Bahrain (where men were 19.7% more satisfied than women)
- Saudi Arabic (where men were 12.9% more satisfied than women)
- Dominican Republic (where men are 6.8% more satisfied than women)
- Pakistan (where men are 5.7% more satisfied than women)
It seems intuitive that greater degrees of satisfaction in life is seen in countries with higher levels of Positive Peace but there are some outliers. Whereby, men in United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt report higher levels of satisfaction with their living standards than in countries with similar levels of Positive Peace (IEP, 2022, p.65). Overall, men were less satisfied than women in many western democracies though.
It is interesting to think about these outliers and the cultural norms present in these societies and how they may interact with one’s self-assessment to life satisfaction. How do we adapt our life satisfaction by the societies we live in? One particular social environment which may explain the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt outliers is freedom. Therefore, how the availability of options individuals has to shape their own life. In these four countries, are men able to choose and control their lives more than women?
Understanding the components of what people consider a happy and meaningful life is not only helpful in thinking about how collectively, societies should move towards more positive peace but also, in what an individual person should expect from one’s society.
Eleri Connick
References
UNICEF. Child Well-Being in Rich Countries (2013). https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc11_eng.pdf
Institute of Economics and Peace. (2022). Positive Peace Report 2022. https://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/PPR-2022-web-1.pdf
Our World in Data. (2021). Happiness and Life Satisfaction. https://ourworldindata.org/happiness-and-life-satisfaction#culture-and-life-satisfaction
