快樂在年齡上的變化：U型的爭辯與臺灣兩性的差異

Happiness Changes With Age: U-Shape Debate and Gender Differences Among Taiwanese

陶宏麟(Hung-Lin Tao) ； 鄭輝培(Hui-Pei Cheng)

《人口學刊》 59期 (2019/12) Pp. 35-88

https://doi.org/10.6191/JPS.201912_(59).0002

摘要

主觀福祉（subjective well-being）包含快樂與生活滿意，一般文獻又會以生活滿意代表快樂。當代的主觀福祉研究一直在爭論其與年齡間是否具有U型關係，即年輕與年長者主觀福祉高，中年期最低。本文首先回顧20多年來國外文獻對此U型關係的爭論，接著使用臺灣家庭動態資料庫資料分析年齡與主觀福祉間的關係，本文發現年齡與主觀福祉的U型關係在總效果上比直接效果上更明顯，前者是模型中不控制其他變數，後者是控制其他變數，也就是所有因素在年齡上的變化對主觀福祉的影響為總效果，後者是排除可控制變數後，年齡對主觀福祉的影響。本文也發現生活滿意較快樂在年齡上的U型關係更為明顯，這部分與國外研究的發現一致。所得比較會影響生活滿意，比較不影響快樂，而且所得與男性的生活滿意U型形狀有關，而與女性的U型形狀無關，說明男性的主觀福祉比較會受所得影響，這也呼應國外文獻所說，物質條件的變動比較會影響認知上的主觀福祉－生活滿意，比較不影響情緒上的主觀福祉－快樂。

關鍵字

快樂 ； 生活滿意 ； 主觀福祉 ； 年齡 ； U型

並列摘要

Subjective well-being (SWB) can be represented by happiness and life satisfaction. In the literature, happiness often is represented by life satisfaction. Contemporary SWB research has been debating whether there is a U-shaped relationship between age and happiness. That is, the young and the elderly show a high level of SWB, while the middle-aged shows a low level of SWB. This study first reviews the debate over international studies on the U-shaped curve, then uses the Panel Study of Family Dynamics (PSFD) to investigate the relationship between age and SWB, and finds that the U-shaped relationship is more significant for the total effect than for the direct effect. The total effect is the effect of age on happiness derived from a model without control, while the direct effect is the effect of age on happiness derived from a model with control. Life satisfaction shows a more U-shaped pattern than happiness does, in line with the literature. Income is more correlated with life satisfaction than happiness. Men's life satisfaction U-shape is correlated to income, while women's life satisfaction U-shape is unrelated to income. This reflects the fact that one's economic condition has greater influence on cognitive SWB-life satisfaction than on emotional SWB-happiness.

並列關鍵字

happiness ； life satisfaction ； subjective well-being ； age ； U-shape

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