Life Satisfaction in 18- to 64-Year-Old Swedes: In Relation to Gender, Age, Partner and Immigrant Status

Satisfaction with life as a whole and with 10 domains of life was assessed in a nationally representative Swedish sample of 1207 women and 1326 men aged between 18 and 64 years, using a generic self-report checklist (LiSat-11), with levels of satisfaction ranging along a six-grade ordinal scale from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 6 (very satisfied). The main findings are that, with marginal exceptions, life satisfaction is gender independent, while age is systematically and positively associated with vocational and financial situations. Having no partner and being a first-generation immigrant implies for most LiSat-11 items a relatively low level of satisfaction. Factor analysis of the domain-specific items yields a gender-independent four-factor structure, which is robustly independent of different scaling reductions. Gross levels of satisfaction (dichotomized scales 1-4 vs 5-6) of seven domains were significant classifiers (odds ratio 1.7-3.9) of gross level of satisfaction with life as a whole. This investigation provides reference values for LiSat-11, which, with its ease of administration may be an adequate instrument for analysing, in terms of subjects' cognitive appraisal of emotions, aspirations-achievement gaps.