Happiness Indices among Persons with Profound and Severe Disabilities during Leisure and Work Activities: A Comparison

Happiness indices were observed during naturally occurring work and leisure activities for individuals with severe (n = 12) and profound (n = 7) disabilities. Both groups showed more happiness indices during leisure than work activities, although the difference for the profound group was small (8% versus 5%) compared to the severe group (18% versus 4%). There was a significant difference between groups for leisure, but not for work activities. These results extend previous research on happiness indices, which has focused exclusively on individuals with profound disabilities, to individuals with severe disabilities and offer a beginning social validity database for individuals with profound disabilities.