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Needs and well-being across Europe : Basic psychological needs are closely connected with well-being, meaning, and symptoms of depression in 27 European countries
Martela, Frank Lehmus-Sun, Annika Parker, Philip D. Pessi, Anne Birgitta Ryan, Richard M.
Martela, Frank
Lehmus-Sun, Annika
Parker, Philip D.
Pessi, Anne Birgitta
Ryan, Richard M.
Abstract
In the quest to identify the key sources of subjective well-being, self-determination theory (SDT) has proposed that three basic psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—are fundamental to well-being across cultures. To understand their influence on well-being, we analyzed data from European Social Survey on 27 European countries (n = 48,550) using structural equation modeling with alignment invariance that allowed us to get comparable indicators across the countries. Both across Europe, and within each of the 27 countries, SDT’s basic psychological needs—both when examined alone and when examined together—were strongly related to key indicators of well-being (happiness, life satisfaction, and meaning in life) and a key indicator of ill-being (symptoms of depression), even controlling for demographic factors and socio-economic position. Moreover, basic needs substantially and sometimes fully mediated the effects of socio-economic position on well-being, underscoring their status as crucial to human well-being.
Keywords
subjective well-being, psychological needs, meaning in life, depression, cross-cultural
Date
2023
Type
Journal article
Journal
Social Psychological and Personality Science
Book
Volume
14
Issue
5
Page Range
501-514
Article Number
ACU Department
Faculty of Education and Arts
Institute for Positive Psychology and Education
Institute for Positive Psychology and Education
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access
Open