Chapter 9analyses can be found in online Annex 9, and description of
the sample characteristics is provided in online Table A9.1.
Our model includes age and sex, since it can be seen from
Figure 9.1 that there are differences across ages and that
men tend to rate their life- satisfaction slightly higher than
women do. We also include ethnicity, dividing our sample
into white European versus nonwhite groups, education,
income, and employment status.^7 Educational attainment,
economic resources, and being in paid employment have
all been shown in previous chapters and in other work to
relate to life- satisfaction, so we investigate the impact of ad-
ditional factors having taken these into account.^8 In Figure
9.2, we include four sets of factors simultaneously in our
analysis and present standardized regression coefficients.
Social relationships and engagement constitute the first set
of factors (Figure 9.2, first panel). We include a range of vari-
ables such as whether the individual is married, loneliness,
the size of their social networks, the social support that they
receive from these networks, their involvement in organiza-
tions such as social clubs, and their cultural engagement. By
cultural engagement, we mean the extent to which respon-
dents go to concerts or the theater, visit museums and gal-
leries, and so on. Respondents who are married compared
with never married or divorced have higher life- satisfaction,
as do those who are less lonely, and receive more social sup-
port. Additionally, respondents who are more engaged with
life in terms of participation in organizations and in cultural
activities enjoy greater life- satisfaction. Loneliness shows
the strongest inverse relationship with life- satisfaction.
When it is removed from the model, widowhood becomes
significantly associated with lower life- satisfaction.