Benefits of Grit and a Sense of Control: A Cross-Cultural Examination on Subjective Well-Being

• In Event: 067 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 14. Subjective Well-Being, Generativity and Healthy Aging

Abstract

This paper proposes a cross-cultural examination of mechanism in which psychological resources are associated with subjective well-being. Previous studies in sociology and psychology have demonstrated that subjective well-being is positively associated with having a higher level of the two psychological components —sense of control which refers to the belief that people can control their life outcomes and grit which refers to passion and perseverance for a long term goal (Duckworth et al. 2007; Duckworth et al. 2011; Duckworth and Quinn 2009; Mirowsky and Ross 1991; 1998; 2007). The relationship between these two psychological resources and life outcomes, however, has been almost exclusively investigated in a single nation, the United States. Using data from a cross-cultural project titled “Moral Schemas, Cultural Conflict, and Socio-Political Action (2014),” this paper examines the relationship between psychological resources and subjective well-being in the United States, France, and Turkey. A small-to-moderate correlation between grit and the sense of control is commonly found in these countries, suggesting the majority of people are either high or low in grit and the sense of control but there are still a considerable size of people who occupy off-diagonal positions in the grid. OLS regression results reveal that having different combinations of the two psychological resources is associated with one’s sense of well-being differently across cultures: a salient role of the two psychological resources in individual’s subjective well-being is clearly shown in France and the United States, while it is hardly found in Turkey.

Author

• Hye Won Kwon, University of Iowa