Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
June 1, 2011
Abstract:
In recent decades, what matters for individual quality of life (QoL) has increasingly been the focus of empirical social science research. However, individuals are rarely asked directly what is important for their quality of life as part of large-scale surveys. The present analysis studies perceptions of what matters for QoL in a large-scale longitudinal dataset—the British Household Panel Survey—which includes an open-ended question on QoL in three waves spanning ten years. We find that concepts of QoL change over the life course and differ between men and women. We hypothesize that changes in perceptions of QoL are related to important life events, such as the birth of a first child and retirement. These life events constitute ’turning points’ after which individuals often shift their priorities of what matters for their QoL. We further explore whether such shifts in priorities are stable or disappear more than five years after the life event.
Published in
Applied Research in Quality of Life
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 6 , p.115 -137
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11482-010-9119-1
Subjects
Notes
not held in Res Lib - bibliographic reference only
#513854