Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Dec;13(6):1019-1029.
doi: 10.1007/s10902-011-9304-4.

Happiness, Mental Health, and Socio-Demographic Associations Among a National Cohort of Thai Adults

Vasoontara Yiengprugsawan  1 , Boonchai Somboonsook, Sam-Ang Seubsman, Adrian C Sleigh
Affiliations

Happiness, Mental Health, and Socio-Demographic Associations Among a National Cohort of Thai Adults

Vasoontara Yiengprugsawan et al. J Happiness Stud. 2012 Dec.

Abstract

Research on happiness has been of interest in many parts of the world. Here we provide evidence from developing countries; this is the first analysis of happiness among a cohort of Thai distance learning adults residing throughout the country (n = 60,569 in 2009). To measure happiness, we tested use of the short format Thai Mental Health Indicators (TMHI), correlating each domain with two direct measures of happiness and life satisfaction. Several TMHI domains correlated strongly with happiness. We found the mental state and the social support domains moderately or strongly correlated with happiness by either measure (correlation coefficients 0.24-0.56). The other two TMHI domains (mental capacity and mental quality) were not correlated with happiness. Analysis of socio-demographic attributes and happiness revealed little effect of age and sex but marital status (divorced or widowed), low household income, and no paid work all had strong adverse effects. Our findings provide Thai benchmarks for measuring happiness and associated socio-demographic attributes. We also provide evidence that the TMHI can measure happiness in the Thai population. Furthermore, the results among Thai cohort members can be monitored over time and could be useful for comparison with other Southeast Asian countries.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Happiness by socio-demographic characteristics among Thai cohort members, 2009
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ariyabuddhiphongs V, Jaiwong D. Observance of the Buddhist five precepts, subjective wealth, and happiness among Buddhists in Bangkok, Thailand. Archive for the Psychology of Religion. 2010;32(3):327–344.
    1. Bjornskov C. Healthy and happy in Europe? On the association between happiness and life expectancy over time. Social Science and Medicine. 2008;66(8):1750–1759. - PubMed
    1. Bok D. The politics of happiness: What government can learn from the new research on well-being. Princeton University Press; New Jersey: 2010.
    1. Bok S. Exploring happiness: From Aristotle to brain science. Yale University Press; New Haven: 2010.
    1. Borgonovi F. Doing well by doing good. The relationship between formal volunteering and self-reported health and happiness. Social Science and Medicine. 2008;66(11):2321–2334. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources