Pub Date : 2026-01-13DOI: 10.1007/s10902-026-01006-6
Alessandro Bortolotti, Claudio Di Berardino, Riccardo Palumbo
This systematic review examines the complex relationship between income, consumption, and subjective well-being, synthesizing 25 high-quality empirical and theoretical studies published between 2000 and 2025. Drawing on PRISMA guidelines and Scopus-indexed literature, the review explores the so-called “happiness-consumption paradox,” where increases in income and material consumption often yield diminishing or even negative returns to well-being. Key findings highlight the superior predictive power of consumption, particularly experiential and relational spending, over income in determining life satisfaction. Materialistic values and extrinsic goals are consistently linked to lower well-being, while spending aligned with intrinsic values and social connection fosters more enduring happiness. Cross-cultural differences and psychological mechanisms such as hedonic adaptation and social comparison are central to understanding these dynamics. Methodological advances, including longitudinal designs and econometric innovations, have enhanced causal inference. The review offers actionable insights for policy and practice, advocating for multidimensional, context-sensitive strategies to promote sustainable well-being in an era of material abundance.
{"title":"Living Well or Spending More? A 25-Year Review of Income, Consumption, and Life Satisfaction","authors":"Alessandro Bortolotti, Claudio Di Berardino, Riccardo Palumbo","doi":"10.1007/s10902-026-01006-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-026-01006-6","url":null,"abstract":"This systematic review examines the complex relationship between income, consumption, and subjective well-being, synthesizing 25 high-quality empirical and theoretical studies published between 2000 and 2025. Drawing on PRISMA guidelines and Scopus-indexed literature, the review explores the so-called “happiness-consumption paradox,” where increases in income and material consumption often yield diminishing or even negative returns to well-being. Key findings highlight the superior predictive power of consumption, particularly experiential and relational spending, over income in determining life satisfaction. Materialistic values and extrinsic goals are consistently linked to lower well-being, while spending aligned with intrinsic values and social connection fosters more enduring happiness. Cross-cultural differences and psychological mechanisms such as hedonic adaptation and social comparison are central to understanding these dynamics. Methodological advances, including longitudinal designs and econometric innovations, have enhanced causal inference. The review offers actionable insights for policy and practice, advocating for multidimensional, context-sensitive strategies to promote sustainable well-being in an era of material abundance.","PeriodicalId":15837,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Happiness Studies","volume":"95 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145961793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-12DOI: 10.1007/s10902-025-01002-2
Kate E. Mulgrew, Angela Hinz, Breanna Solomon, Melissa Redsell, Lynette O’Connor
{"title":"Looking Beyond Stigma and Depression: an Examination of Psychological Wellbeing in Young Mothers","authors":"Kate E. Mulgrew, Angela Hinz, Breanna Solomon, Melissa Redsell, Lynette O’Connor","doi":"10.1007/s10902-025-01002-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-025-01002-2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":15837,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Happiness Studies","volume":"243 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145955048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-29DOI: 10.1007/s10902-025-00989-y
Lisa Kriechel, Nadja Milewski, Martin Bujard
As a result of the Russo-Ukrainian war, several million Ukrainians fled, more than one million to Germany. Until now, most studies on mental health of Ukrainian refugees are cross-sectional and there is a clear need to observe their well-being. We employed five waves of the IAB-BiB/FReDA-BAMF-SOEP (later BiB/FReDA) Survey on Ukrainian Refugees in Germany analyzing affective balance, starting shortly after flight in summer 2022. By observing the time span between the summer of 2022 and the fall of 2024, we could emphasize potential risk and protective factors for Ukrainian refugees’ affective balance, a scale that indicates affective well-being by measuring angry, worried, happy, and sad emotions. We found that the respondents’ affective well-being increased over time, mostly due to decreasing frequencies of negative affects. Moreover, our results suggest that while the effects of worries on affective balance did not diminish upon controlling for potential protective factors, contact to Germans, German language proficiency, and pursuing a part-time job still improved affective balance. We thus conclude that over time, Ukrainian refugees’ situation in Germany improves, as well. Nevertheless, their worries about their economic, health-related, or family-related situation should not be discounted.
{"title":"The Affective Well-Being of Ukrainian Refugees in Germany: Evidence from Five Waves of Representative Panel Data","authors":"Lisa Kriechel, Nadja Milewski, Martin Bujard","doi":"10.1007/s10902-025-00989-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-025-00989-y","url":null,"abstract":"As a result of the Russo-Ukrainian war, several million Ukrainians fled, more than one million to Germany. Until now, most studies on mental health of Ukrainian refugees are cross-sectional and there is a clear need to observe their well-being. We employed five waves of the IAB-BiB/FReDA-BAMF-SOEP (later BiB/FReDA) Survey on Ukrainian Refugees in Germany analyzing affective balance, starting shortly after flight in summer 2022. By observing the time span between the summer of 2022 and the fall of 2024, we could emphasize potential risk and protective factors for Ukrainian refugees’ affective balance, a scale that indicates affective well-being by measuring angry, worried, happy, and sad emotions. We found that the respondents’ affective well-being increased over time, mostly due to decreasing frequencies of negative affects. Moreover, our results suggest that while the effects of worries on affective balance did not diminish upon controlling for potential protective factors, contact to Germans, German language proficiency, and pursuing a part-time job still improved affective balance. We thus conclude that over time, Ukrainian refugees’ situation in Germany improves, as well. Nevertheless, their worries about their economic, health-related, or family-related situation should not be discounted.","PeriodicalId":15837,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Happiness Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145847240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-26DOI: 10.1007/s10902-025-00998-x
Nathan Widjaja, Shannon Ang
{"title":"Social Capital in a Meritocracy: Understanding Class Inequalities in Young Adults’ Life Satisfaction","authors":"Nathan Widjaja, Shannon Ang","doi":"10.1007/s10902-025-00998-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-025-00998-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":15837,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Happiness Studies","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145830192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-22DOI: 10.1007/s10902-025-00984-3
Alima Akter Methila, Sumiya Pervin, Akib Ul Huque
{"title":"Effects of Past, Present, and Future-Oriented Communication Savoring on State Optimism and State Affect","authors":"Alima Akter Methila, Sumiya Pervin, Akib Ul Huque","doi":"10.1007/s10902-025-00984-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-025-00984-3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":15837,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Happiness Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145808084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-22DOI: 10.1007/s10902-025-00993-2
Pablo Pons, Adriana Mira, Amanda Díaz-García, Azucena García-Palacios, Rosa María Baños
{"title":"Interventions Based On Positive Psychology for Suicide Prevention: A Systematic Review","authors":"Pablo Pons, Adriana Mira, Amanda Díaz-García, Azucena García-Palacios, Rosa María Baños","doi":"10.1007/s10902-025-00993-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-025-00993-2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":15837,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Happiness Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145808088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-17DOI: 10.1007/s10902-025-00988-z
Andrew R. Chang, Jamie Baik, Justin A. Chen, Courtney Stevens, Sari L. Reisner, Cindy H. Liu
{"title":"Disparities in Psychological Wellbeing by Sexual Orientation: Results from the 2022 National College Health Assessment","authors":"Andrew R. Chang, Jamie Baik, Justin A. Chen, Courtney Stevens, Sari L. Reisner, Cindy H. Liu","doi":"10.1007/s10902-025-00988-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-025-00988-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":15837,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Happiness Studies","volume":"153 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145770611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-17DOI: 10.1007/s10902-025-00991-4
Tracy K. Wong, Kedi Zhao
The association between positive affect regulation and well-being has often been examined at the intrapersonal level, but positive affect regulation may also occur at the interpersonal level and be shaped by contextual factors. Thus, positive affect regulation strategies, including savoring and dampening, were examined in relation to well-being (i.e. positive affect and life satisfaction) at the intra- and inter-personal levels, while also considering the moderating effects of stressor intensity and perceived controllability. Participants included 281 emerging adults ( M age = 21.29; 71% female-identifying), who responded to a 14-day daily diary. Multilevel analyses indicated that individuals reported lower well-being on days when they engaged more in dampening, but greater well-being on days when they engaged more in emotion-focused and self-focused positive rumination. Co-savoring was also positively associated with well-being, but co-dampening was not. Perceived controllability, but not stressor intensity, moderated the associations of dampening, self-focused positive rumination, and co-savoring with life satisfaction. These findings suggest that regulating positive affect independently and with social others has implications for well-being, and that contextual factors also matter.
{"title":"Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Regulation of Positive Affect: The Moderating Effects of Stressor Intensity and Perceived Controllability","authors":"Tracy K. Wong, Kedi Zhao","doi":"10.1007/s10902-025-00991-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-025-00991-4","url":null,"abstract":"The association between positive affect regulation and well-being has often been examined at the intrapersonal level, but positive affect regulation may also occur at the interpersonal level and be shaped by contextual factors. Thus, positive affect regulation strategies, including savoring and dampening, were examined in relation to well-being (i.e. positive affect and life satisfaction) at the intra- and inter-personal levels, while also considering the moderating effects of stressor intensity and perceived controllability. Participants included 281 emerging adults ( <jats:italic>M</jats:italic> age = 21.29; 71% female-identifying), who responded to a 14-day daily diary. Multilevel analyses indicated that individuals reported lower well-being on days when they engaged more in dampening, but greater well-being on days when they engaged more in emotion-focused and self-focused positive rumination. Co-savoring was also positively associated with well-being, but co-dampening was not. Perceived controllability, but not stressor intensity, moderated the associations of dampening, self-focused positive rumination, and co-savoring with life satisfaction. These findings suggest that regulating positive affect independently and with social others has implications for well-being, and that contextual factors also matter.","PeriodicalId":15837,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Happiness Studies","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145770610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-15DOI: 10.1007/s10902-025-00992-3
Benjamin D. Rasmussen, Ronald D. Rogge
{"title":"Optimizing the Measurement of Life Satisfaction Beyond the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) Via the Development and Validation of the Satisfaction and Quality of Life Scale (SQLS)","authors":"Benjamin D. Rasmussen, Ronald D. Rogge","doi":"10.1007/s10902-025-00992-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-025-00992-3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":15837,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Happiness Studies","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145752965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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