APPENDIX F:

Demographic Factors and SHAQ Outcomes

Sex. The only significant findings were that females were a little happier (r =.09)[40] and had better relationships (r =.15) while males had higher incomes (r =.18).

Age.  Higher age was mildly related to both low anxiety (r =.11) and low anger (r =.13). I didn’t find a significant age-happiness correlation as some have. However, I found that people over 50 were slightly happier (r =.05). I also found significant relationships between being older and low depression (r =.05), low anxiety (r =.11), and low anger (r =.13). Age was one of the best predictors of income (r =.45); probably because students and younger people have not had time to advance in their careers. Similarly, higher age related to education completed (r =.25). Age was negatively related to health (r = -.07) and was not related to relationship outcomes.

Religion.  Belonging to a particular religious group was only weakly related to outcome variables. Being Jewish (r =.06) or Methodist (r =.05) correlated the highest with happiness; being agnostic was most negatively related (r = -.09). Fundamentalist Non-Baptists were slightly less depressed (r =.08) and less anxious (r =.07) than other people. There were few other significant correlations. However, looking at values typically associated with religions, paints a different picture. Correlations with happiness, low depression, low anger, and low anxiety for Spiritual intimacy were .26, .12, and .05; for Giving to others’ happiness, were .36, .14, and .11; for Impact, change world, were .27, .12, and .09; for Obedience to God, were .23, .11, and .02ns[41]; and for Religion, were .28, .06, and .02ns. Thus, internalized values espoused by religions were important factors. This finding is consistent with other studies showing that the positive effects of religion are present primarily for people who internalize the teachings.

Ethnic group and nationality. Other Asian[42] (r =.08) and Mexican (r =.08) had highest positive correlations with happiness; European had the most negative (r = -.05. People who spoke other European[43] languages were unhappy (r = -.11).  German (r = -.09) and other European (r = -.13) speaking people had higher anger/aggression scores. Depression was slightly less (r =.07) among Chinese language and other Asian (r =.07), but was mostly unrelated to language, ethnicity, or religion.

Occupational category. Students (r =.08), people professionals (r =.08), educators (r =.07), and managers (r =.06) were the happiest; only other occupation had a negative correlation (r = -.06).  Others were also the most depressed (r = -.06) and least healthy (r = -.08).  While students were the happiest, they were also the most anxious (r = -.07) and the healthiest (r =.08) of the occupational groups.