• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.177-189
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• 2015

This study investigates the effects of economic factors on happiness in terms of life satisfaction, one of the most important goals in human life, and examines the moderating role of financial management in the effect of financial stress. Data were collected total 341 individuals in Daejeon, Korea(235 college students and 105 women). The factors influencing life satisfaction were analyzed multiple regression analysis. Effects of moderating variables were tested hierarchical regression analysis. Subjective financial stress was related to both individualistic happiness and collectivistic happiness, whereas objective financial stress had a negative effect only on collectivistic happiness. Financial management (specifically control of expenditure behaviors) had positive effects on both individualistic happiness and collectivistic happiness. Financial management moderated the relationship between financial stress and happiness. The results have important implications.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.155-173
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• 2021

Purpose - Previous research points out that South Korean perceive their happiness less than Chinese and Japanese, although the three nations belong to the same Northeast Asia cultural sphere. This study aims to find out the reasons for the relatively low perception of happiness in South Korea and develop policy options to improve the relatively low perceived happiness in South Korea. Design/methodology/approach - For the analyses, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis were performed based on the World Values Survey data (Wave 7). Findings - First, South Korean perceived happiness less than Chinese due to 'satisfaction with the financial situation of household' and 'in-group trust'. More specifically, although there was no difference in the impact of 'satisfaction with the financial situation of household' on perceived happiness in South Korea and China, South Korean evaluated 'satisfaction with the financial situation of household' lower than Chinese. In addition, the impact of 'in-group trust' on happiness in South Korea was less than that in China, where the level of 'in-group trust' was also lower in South Korea than China. Second, South Korean perceived happiness less than Japanese due to 'in-group trust'. Although South Korean had a higher level of 'in-group trust' than Japanese, the impact of 'in-group trust' on perceived happiness was less in South Korea than Japan. The contribution of 'in-group trust' to perceived happiness, calculated with the regression coefficient of 'in-group trust' multiplied by the mean of 'in-group trust', was evaluated lower in South Korea than Japan. Research implications or Originality - This study identifies the mechanism leading to low perception of happiness in South Korea, based on the World Values Survey data.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.101-124
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• 2017

Recently, 'happiness' has become a major issue of national level, exceeding the matter of personal issue. Especially, Korea has actually increased its GDP by focusing on the economic growth for decades, and now it has achieved the economic/technical development as an IT power. However, Korean people's satisfaction with life called 'happiness index' is moving back every year. Even though there have been continuous efforts to enhance the national happiness by mentioning it as an essential issue in the national level, there are not many researches related to it. This study drew measures to enhance happiness by extracting happiness factors and unhappiness factors of Korea through social network service. Especially, it aims to analyze, compare, and apply happiness factors and unhappiness factors of three countries such as the US, UK, and Brazil with higher happiness indexes than Korea. For this, through the topic modeling of text mining technique, postings including keywords about happiness and unhappiness were collected/analyzed from Twitter of Korea, the US, UK, and Brazil. The significance of this study is to discuss measures to increase happiness and to decrease unhappiness by mining/analyzing the actual public opinions about happiness and unhappiness in four countries like Korea, the US, UK, and Brazil by using the topic modeling. Through this, the quality of life of Korean people could be improved by suggesting measures to enhance happiness and to decrease unhappiness in the level of individual, family, society, and government.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.245-252
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• 2020

Background: Happiness is one of the most important indicators of health, wellbeing, and quality of life among older adults. The objective of the study was to investigate factors associated with happiness among senior citizens residing in rural areas using the 2017 National Survey of Older Koreans. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted among 3,149 senior citizens living in rural areas using secondary data from the 2017 National Survey of Older Koreans. Happiness was measured by a single question and responses were recorded dichotomously. Descriptive and inferential statistics were computed at a 5% level of significance. Results: In all, 64.5% of the participants considered themselves as happy most of the time in the last 1 week. In the study, socio-demographic factors did not predict happiness except age. Satisfaction with a health status, financial situation, relationship with children, cultural satisfaction, and satisfaction with friends and society were positively associated with happiness among senior citizens residing in rural areas of Korea. Odds of reporting happiness were higher among those who traveled in the last 1 year, visited elderly welfare centers, and were involved in voluntary work than among those who did not. Conclusion: Happiness among senior citizen was significantly associated with life satisfaction with regard to health, finance, relationship with family, friends and society, and social activity participation.

• Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2020

As people's income rises dramatically, people's happiness seems not as high as expected. In fact, there are two different arguments about the relationship between income level and happiness. The focus of the debate is whether the correlation between income and probability of happiness is positive or negative. Therefore, we hypothesizes that the relationship between income and probability of happiness presents an inverted U-shaped curve. Then, this paper sets China as an example to explore the effect of income on happiness. The data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2015 is employed to conduct empirical analyses under the Probit model and the Zero-Inflation-Passion model. The empirical findings indicate that the effect of income on happiness presents an inverted U-shaped curve and significantly in statistic. Meanwhile, spouse's income, educational level, marriage time and house property have a positive and significant effect on happiness. Conversely, age and local living standards have a negative and significant effect on happiness. Unfortunately, even though registered residence and children have a negative effect on happiness, they do not get through the significant test. In order to ensure the robustness of our empirical results, we test the robustness of the above empirical results by adjusting the sample size. The results of robustness test verify that our empirical results are robust. Moreover, this paper also makes a small contribution to the current literature with a sample from China.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.31-47
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• 2016

This research examines the effects of consumers' moderation and simplicity, autonomy, and income level on happiness, and based on this, classifies consumer types and examines the differences in consumer happiness and life happiness in accordance with this classification. The questionnaire survey was conducted on adults in their 20's through 60's. Moreover, hierarchical regression analysis, cluster analysis, and the analysis of variance were conducted. The results of this research are as follows. First, on consumer happiness, moderation and simplicity, income level, autonomy, education level, and gender had significant effects; on life happiness, moderation and simplicity, income level, autonomy, and education level had significant effects. Second, consumers were classified into three types according to moderation and simplicity, autonomy, and income level, and when making a comparison based on these factors between consumer happiness and life happiness, both consumer happiness and life happiness showed significant differences, but the detailed aspects were different. In the case of consumer happiness, non-autonomous moderation and simplicity type were reported to have the highest sense of happiness, followed by autonomous moderation and simplicity type, and passive moderation and simplicity type, but in the case of life happiness, autonomous moderation and simplicity type were reported to have the highest sense of happiness, followed by non-autonomous moderation and simplicity type, and passive moderation and simplicity type.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.575-587
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• 2015

This study explores economic and psychological factors as well as dietary, clothing, and dwelling lifestyle factors that influence the happiness of college students. For this, a survey of 570 students (222 males and 348 females) was conducted using 72 categories, including general characteristics, the happiness index, the health index, and economic, psychological, dietary, clothing, and dwelling factors. Gender differences in student characteristics were analyzed through an independent samples t-test, and relationships between variables were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficients. Variables showing significant correlations with the happiness index were classified as independent variables for the dependent variable of the happiness index and used for a regression analysis. The happiness index showed no significant gender difference, but it was higher for males than for females. Males scoring higher in the economic lifestyle and self-esteem, among others, were more likely to think practically, and their economic lifestyles were relatively rational. In both genders significant positive correlations were found between the happiness index and allowance satisfaction, the allowance level, the economic lifestyle, self-esteem, major satisfaction, and peer satisfaction. Variables more likely to influence the happiness index for males were self-esteem, peer satisfaction, the economic level, major satisfaction, and regular exercise, whereas those for females were self-esteem, peer satisfaction, and stress eating. These results indicate that emotional factors such as self-esteem and peer satisfaction were more likely to influence the happiness index of college students for both genders than economic and physical factors.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.1-17
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• 2017

The current research examines whether and when cause marketing, whereby firms link product sales to the support of a charity or cause, can increase charitable giving and happiness. Previous research suggests that cause marketing might reduce charitable giving and happiness among consumers. However, the present research finds the opposite result by introducing nostalgia as a moderator; cause marketing can enhance consumers' charity giving when their nostalgia is triggered. Moreover, results show that charitable giving increased by cause marketing improves feelings of happiness, suggesting that people view charitable behavior as a means of enhancing happiness. Interestingly, charitable giving and happiness are promoted by the situational priming of nostalgic events, but not by chronic individual differences such as nostalgia proneness.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.129-144
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• 2009

This study investigated Korean elementary school children's happiness by gender and grade and by attendance in after-school programs during weekdays and weekends. Participants were 3,608 children in Korean provincial areas except Jeju-do; they responded to the Happiness Scale developed by the researchers. Data were analyzed by frequency, percent, and t-test. Results were (1) children's happiness level was high; girls' happiness level was higher than boys'. As they moved up in school grade, happiness level decreased. (2) Their attendance in after-school programs during weekdays and weekends decreased their happiness level in leisure and extra academic activity, but it increased happiness in school/community life and sibling relations. Conclusions were that reduction in the amount of children's after-school programming would increase children's happiness.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.161-169
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• 2019

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine the effect of a Happiness Self-Coaching program for new graduate nurses working in cancer care units. Methods: A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest, nonequivalent control-group design was applied to conduct the study. Study participants were new graduate nurses employed within 12 months and working as shift employees at G university hospital, located in J city. A total of 21 new graduate nurses participated in the study, 10 in the experimental group, and 11 in the control group. The happiness self-coaching program was conducted weekly for 70 minutes from February 1 to June 6, 2016 for 6 weeks. The experimental group received the Happiness Self-Coaching program through lectures, presentation, group activities, and strength card play. Data were analyzed by using repeated measure ANOVA and paired t-test. Results: The experimental group demonstrated significantly higher happiness (F=6.82, p=.003) and self-efficacy (F=3.38 p=.045) levels compared to the control group. Conclusion: The Happiness Self-Coaching program was effective in enhancing new graduate nurses' happiness and self efficacy. It is recommended that nursing organizations to apply the Happiness Self -Coaching program to facilitate adaption of new graduate nurses in cancer care units.