Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
Proponents of marriage like to toss around the statistic that married people (and married men in particular) are happier and healthier than the wretched ranks of the unwed. But new research has found that the happiness/health gap is narrowing, not because the married crew is losing its happy glow (though that may indeed be occurring), but because the single component is getting happier.
The study, led by Hui Liu, assistant professor of sociology at Michigan State University, used data from the National Health Interview Survey from 1972 to 2003. The researchers found that while the self-reported health of the married is “still better than that of the never-married,” the “gap has closed considerably.” Single women shouldn’t rejoice just yet: The uptick was due overwhelmingly to improvements in the health of never-married men. Liu thinks that this result may be “partly because never-married men have greater access to social resources and support that historically were found in a spouse.” (Female robots, perhaps? Or Internet porn?) Still, single women also saw an increase, and the singles health boost also spread across racial lines to both blacks and whites.
Click here for the full article.
The results of this study don’t really surprise me. I know a lot of very happy single people (and while I’m not single now, I would say that I was very happy being single, too). They just focus on work, school, friendships, and hobbies, and don’t let themselves dwell on their singleness or let themselves feel lonely. They learn to be happy with what they do have and not worry about what they don’t have. What do you think?
-MJ
Tags: Blacks, Happier, Happiness, Health, Healthier, Hui Liu, Marriage, Married, Marry, Men, Michigan State University, National Health Interview Survey, Pornography, Race, Relationships, Robots, Singleness, Singles, Sociology, Spouse, Statistics, Whites, Women
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Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Although some people may spend part of the Labor Day weekend complaining about their bosses or about job burnout, most Americans are satisfied with their jobs, a new University of Chicago study shows.
The survey found that job satisfaction increases with age, with workers over 65 among the most satisfied. The study shows that 86 percent of the people interviewed between 1972 and 2006 said they were satisfied at their jobs, with 48 percent saying they were very satisfied. Only four percent reported being very dissatisfied.
In addition to older workers, those with more education, those earning more money, and workers in the South Central states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississipi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee were the most satisfied. Blacks, Hispanics and people doing unskilled labor were the least happy, according to the report “Job Satisfaction in America: Trends and Socio-Demographic Correlates” by Tom W. Smith, Director of the General Social Survey at the National Opinion Center at the University of Chicago.
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Alabama, Americans, Arkansas, Blacks, Bosses, Burnout, Education, General Social Survey, happy, Hispanics, Job Satisfaction, Job Satisfaction in America: Trends and Socio-Demograph, Jobs, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississipi, Money, National Opinion Center, Oklahoma, Salary, Satisfaction, Tennessee, Texas, University of Chicago, Unskilled Labor, Work
Posted in Alabama, Americans, Arkansas, Blacks, Bosses, Burnout, Education, General Social Survey, Hispanics, Job Satisfaction, Job Satisfaction in America: Trends and Socio-Demograph, Jobs, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississipi, Money, National Opinion Center, Oklahoma, Salary, Satisfaction, Tennessee, Texas, University of Chicago, Unskilled Labor, Work, happy | No Comments »
