Professor Steven Barger and three graduates of the Master of Arts in Psychological Sciences program, Timothy Broom, Michael Esposito, and Taylor Lane, had their manuscript” Is subjective well-being independently associated with mortality? A 14-year prospective cohort study in a representative sample of 25 139 US men and women published in BMJ Open,” a peer-reviewed, online open access journal. The primary study goal and analysis plan for this original research were preregistered at the Center for Open Science in December 2018.
The authors used a representative sample of healthy U.S. adults to explore the relationship between subjective well-being and mortality, and to examine whether that relationship is independent of self-rated health and socioeconomic status. Although greater subjective well-being was associated with longer life, well-being was no longer predictive when statistically adjusting for one’s own perceived health status. This study closely replicates findings from a large UK study of women.
Barger, S. D., Broom, T. W., Esposito, M. V., & Lane, T. S. (2020). Is subjective well-being independently associated with mortality? A 14-year prospective cohort study in a representative sample of 25 139 US men and women. BMJ Open, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031776