Heterogeneous effect of time allocation on happiness and depression: a causal tree and causal forest approach

• In Event: 30260 - Joint Roundtables: Section on Social Psychology and Section on Sociology of Emotions
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 7: Social Psychology of Mental Health

Abstract

This study investigates the heterogeneous effects of social time allocation, time spent with others for social relationships with obligations and time spent alone on happiness and depression. Utilizing data from Koreans’ Happiness Survey (2021, N = 16,547), this study examined partial effects, average treatment effect, and conditional average treatment effects using a causal tree and a causal forest machine learning algorithm. Results show that time allocation for social interactions fulfilling obligations and time spent alone are likely to decrease levels of happiness and increase levels of depression. A sense of control was found to be critical in determining effect differences of social time allocation. While no heterogeneous effects were found in depression, those with lower levels of self-efficacy experienced a fourfold decrease in happiness and those with higher levels of locus of control experienced a threefold increase in depression. This study contributes to the current literature on happiness and sense of control by demonstrating that education increases perceived control of time, which can protect individuals from the negative impact of time allocation on psychological wellbeing.

Author

• Eunjae Kim, Korea University