Abstract
This paper studies the impact on quality of life of the post-communist transformations in Romania using the perspective of subjective well-being, a social indicator that shows individuals subjective evaluations of their lives. It focuses on the sex and age differences in subjective well-being in Romania after 1990 and tests some hypotheses found in the literature. Across the time span 1990–2005, men were found to be happier than women. The difference is significant for adults over 30 years and is higher when subjective well-being is measured with affective indicators. Similar to most of the European countries, in 1990 the elderly showed the highest levels of subjective well-being. However, the sharp deterioration of their living conditions after the post-communist transformation contributed to a decline in their happiness levels, and by 1999 younger generations were taking the lead in this respect. The variations in the levels of subjective well-being, over time and circumstance, suggest that this indicator is sensitive to changes in living conditions.
A previous version of this paper was published in Romanian under the title: “Diferenţe de sex şi vârstă în bunăstarea subiectivă: România 1990–2005”, Analele Universităţii din Oradea, Fascicula Sociologie-Filozofie-Asistenţă Socială, vol.V, 2006, pp. 201–216.
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Bălţătescu, S. (2014). Gender and Age Differences in Subjective Well-being: Romania 1990–2005. In: Eckermann, E. (eds) Gender, Lifespan and Quality of Life. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 53. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7829-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7829-0_7
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