Investigating the Subjective Well-Being of United States Regions

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to provide an introduction to some recent research that addresses these questions about well-being. Specifically, we review and attempt to resolve some discrepancies that have emerged in the literature regarding the regional differences that do exist, and we reanalyze county-level data on the correlates of well-being to investigate the robustness of previously identified regional associations. Because these investigations are relatively recent, there is still much to learn about how regions differ in their well-being. However, the evidence suggests that meaningful differences do exist, and thus, there is great potential to learn about the causes of well-being through the analysis of large-scale regional data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)