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Studies

Ball & Robbins (1984): study US 1983

Publication

Author(s):
Ball, R.E.; Robbins, L.
Title:
Marital Status and Life Satisfaction of Black Men.
Source:
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 1984, Vol. 1, 459 - 470

Investigation

Public
18+ aged, black men, Florida, USA, 1983
Sample
Respondents
N = 253
Non Response
14%
Assessment
Interview: face-to-face
in the respondents' own home

Happiness Measure(s) and Distributional Findings

Full text:
Self report on single question:

Here is a picture of a ladder. Suppose we say that the top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the  bottom represents the worst possible life for you. Where on the ladder do you feel you personally stand at the present time?   
[  10  ]  best possible life
[    9  ]
[    8  ]
[    7  ]
[    6  ]
[    5  ]
[    4  ]
[    3  ]
[    2  ]
[    1  ]
[    0  ]  worst possible life
                          
                                                                                
Preceded by 1)  open questions about what the respondent imagines as the best possible life and the worst possible life. 2) ratings on the ladder of one's life five years ago and  where on the ladder one expects to stand five years from now.

Name: Cantril's self anchoring ladder rating of life (original)
Classification:
C-BW-c-sq-l-11-a
Author's label:
Life satisfaction.
Observed distribution
Summary Statistics
On original range 0 - 10 On range 0-10
Mean:
6.10 6.10
SD:
2.70 2.70

Correlational Findings

Author's label Subject Description Finding Marital status Married state (compared to non-married states) Socioeconomic status 'Objective' socio-economic status Age Current age (in years) Social participation Current total social participation Health Global health self-rating