Happiness over the Life CourseSo much for the determinants of outcomes at age 16. But
childhood is an ongoing experience. It is therefore interest-
ing to look also at the determinants of outcomes earlier in
childhood— at 5 and at 11. These are shown in the online
Full Tables 10.1– 10.3. The determinants are very similar to
those we have seen at age 16.
In fact we can, remarkably, trace the long- term influence of
the primary school teacher each pupil had both when they
were aged 8 and 11. First, we can measure for each teacher the
value- added that their pupils derived from the teacher— in that
year of teaching— by looking at the teacher’s average impact
on their emotional health, behavior, and math scores at the
time. Interestingly the teacher had more effect on their emo-
tional health than on their mathematical knowledge (in terms
of explained variance). And then we can show that the teach-
er’s value- added at ages 8 and 11 was still influencing the pu-
pils at age 20— both in terms of their entry to higher education
and their employment record. But more on this in Chapter 14.
Conclusions
From the present whistle- stop tour, some key conclusions
are already clear.
- Income explains only a relatively small part of the
variation in the happiness of the population. - Human relationships are much more important,
especially close personal partnering. - Mental health is the most important single factor
explaining the variation in the happiness of the pop-
u lation.