Newsletter de l’Observatoire du Bien-être n°42 – Mai 2021

Notre Note de conjoncture montre une chute marquée de nos métriques de bien-être. La période de résistance qui avait commencé avec le premier déconfinement semble être arrivée à sa fin. Les jeunes sont particulièrement touchés par cette dégradation.

À l’occasion de plusieurs publications, nous revenons également sur ce que nous permettent d’apprendre les enquêtes existantes et de pointer là où existe une marge de progression en France.

Observatoire

Le Bien-être des Français – Mars 2021

Du déconfinement aux mesures de freinage en passant par les déconfinements, le bien-être des Français en temps de Covid-19 a connu des hauts et des bas. Au cours de l’année 2020, il a suivi des fluctuations fortes, tout en oscillant autour d’un niveau moyen assez stable, comme cela a été le cas aussi dans d’autres pays. En 2021, la situation change. La dernière vague de notre tableau de bord révèle une usure du moral des Français. Après avoir pesé sur le bien-être émotionnel, la dégradation atteint maintenant la satisfaction de vie des Français et le sentiment que leur vie a du sens. Les jeunes (dans un sens assez large) sont particulièrement touchés. Cette usure constitue une nouvelle contrainte d’acceptabilité des mesures de lutte contre l’épidémie.

Mathieu Perona et Claudia Senik, « Le Bien-être des Français – mars 2021 Un an après : l’usure », Observatoire du Bien-être du Cepremap, n°2021-02, 14 avril 2021.

Mesurer le bien-être en France

Suite à la parution du Bien-être en France, le webzine Variances des anciens de l’Ensae nous a invité dans ses colonnes. Plutôt que de proposer un résumé du rapport, nous avons choisi de parler plus précisément des sources de données sur le bien-être subjectif – et du retard de la France en ce domaine.

Mathieu Perona, « Mesurer le bien-être en France », Variances, 06 avril 2021.

Une décennie de données sur le bien-être subjectif

Après le bilan de l’Insee revenant sur les neuf ans depuis l’introduction dans SRCV de questions sur le bien-être, le What Works Wellbeing dresse un premier bilan des dix ans de collecte de métriques de bien-être par l’ONS britanique. À la différence de l’approche française de l’insertion sur une enquête très riche en information sur les individus et les ménages, l’ONS a inclus ces questions dans l’Annual Population Survey, qui couvre chaque année 360 000 personnes. Cette taille d’échantillon ainsi que la collecte en continu permet à l’ONS de calculer les métriques de bien-être à une fréquence hebdomadaire – ce qui s’est révélé précieux pour le suivi en continu des conséquences de l’épidémie et des restrictions sanitaires. Le What Works Wellbeing lance également une série de fiches d’information. La première analyse de la manière dont les différentes dimensions du bien-être subjectif varient avec l’âge.

Covid-19

When Will the Lockdown End? Confinement Duration Forecasts and Self-Reported Life Satisfaction in Spain: A Longitudinal Study.

Abstract: This paper reports results from a longitudinal study on the impact of the lockdown on daily self-reported life satisfaction levels during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. A stable panel (N = 1,131) of adult subjects were surveyed during 84 consecutive days (March 29-June 20, 2020). They were asked to report daily life satisfaction and health state levels. Interestingly, daily life satisfaction increased during the lockdown. At the beginning of the experiment, subjects were asked to guess the end-week of the lockdown, against a possible monetary reward for accurate forecasts. Subjects predicting a longer lockdown period reported a higher average level of daily life satisfaction. Females reported on average lower levels of daily life satisfaction, but exhibited a stronger tendency to report higher levels of life satisfaction, the longer their lockdown forecast. Individual heterogeneity in life satisfaction levels can be partly attributed to personality traits, with neuroticism having a negative effect, while extraversion and agreeableness having a positive effect on daily life satisfaction.

Sabater-Grande G, García-Gallego A, Georgantzís N, Herranz-Zarzoso N. “When Will the Lockdown End? Confinement Duration Forecasts and Self-Reported Life Satisfaction in Spain: A Longitudinal Study.” Frontiers in Psychology. 2021 ;12:635145. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.635145.

Présentation grand public pour The Conversation : Confinement : les effets délétères des annonces trop optimistes

Reporting on one’s behavior: a survey experiment on the nonvalidity of self-reported COVID-19 hygiene-relevant routine behaviors

Abstract: Surveys based on self-reported hygiene-relevant routine behaviors have played a crucial role in policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, using anchoring to test validity in a randomized controlled survey experiment during the COVID-19 pandemic, we demonstrate that asking people to self-report on the frequency of routine behaviors are prone to significant measurement error and systematic bias. Specifically, we find that participants across age, gender, and political allegiance report higher (lower) frequencies of COVID-19-relevant behaviors when provided with a higher (lower) anchor. The results confirm that such self-reports should not be regarded as behavioral data and should primarily be used to inform policy decisions if better alternatives are not available. To this end, we discuss the use of anchoring as a validity test relative to self-reported behaviors as well as viable alternatives to self-reports when seeking to behaviorally inform policy decisions.

Hansen, P., Larsen, E., & Gundersen, C. (2021). Reporting on one’s behavior: A survey experiment on the nonvalidity of self-reported COVID-19 hygiene-relevant routine behaviors. Behavioural Public Policy, 1-18. doi:10.1017/bpp.2021.13

Lockdowns widen the gender gap in mental health

Abstract: Women, the young, and the less educated have borne the brunt of the economic damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns in terms of job and earnings losses. As this column reports, women have also suffered far more from social distancing measures than men in terms of their mental health. Evidence from the Spring 2020 ‘stay-at-home’ orders in US states indicates that this widening gender gap in mental health cannot be explained by respondents earning less than usual, working less than usual, losing their job, struggling to pay their bills, or changing their work patterns or number of hours spent on childcare.

Abigail Adams-Prassl, Teodora Boneva, Marta Golin, Christopher Rauh, “Lockdowns widen the gender gap in mental health”, VoxEU,27 April 2021

Lu sur le web

Who got the Brexit blues? The Effect of Brexit on Subjective Wellbeing in the UK

Abstract: We use the 2015–16 waves of the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Understanding Society) to look at subjective wellbeing around the time of the June 2016 EU membership Referendum in the UK (Brexit). We employ measures of both evaluative and affective wellbeing, namely life satisfaction and mental distress, respectively. We find that those reporting lower life satisfaction in 2015 were more likely to express a preference for leaving the EU in 2016, while mental distress was less predictive of pro-Brexit attitudes. Post-Referendum, those with Leave preferences enjoyed an increase in life satisfaction but there was no change in average life satisfaction in the overall sample. In contrast, the average level of mental distress increased in the sample post- Referendum, with no significant difference between those preferring to remain in or to leave the EU. We test the robustness of our results by considering a number of potential caveats, such as sample selection, unobserved individual fixed effects and the interval between interviews. Overall, our results suggest that levels of subjective wellbeing may be both a cause and a result of the 2016 Brexit vote.

Powdthavee, Nattavudh, Plagnol, Anke C., Frijters, Paul and Clark, Andrew, (2019), Who got the Brexit blues? The Effect of Brexit on Subjective Wellbeing in the UK, LSE Research Online Documents on Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological interventions to improve mental wellbeing

Abstract: Our current understanding of the efficacy of psychological interventions in improving mental states of wellbeing is incomplete. This study aimed to overcome limitations of previous reviews by examining the efficacy of distinct types of psychological interventions, irrespective of their theoretical underpinning, and the impact of various moderators, in a unified systematic review and meta-analysis. Four-hundred-and-nineteen randomized controlled trials from clinical and non-clinical populations (n = 53,288) were identified for inclusion. Mindfulness-based and multi-component positive psychological interventions demonstrated the greatest efficacy in both clinical and non-clinical populations. Meta-analyses also found that singular positive psychological interventions, cognitive and behavioural therapy-based, acceptance and commitment therapy-based, and reminiscence interventions were impactful. Effect sizes were moderate at best, but differed according to target population and moderator, most notably intervention intensity. The evidence quality was generally low to moderate. While the evidence requires further advancement, the review provides insight into how psychological interventions can be designed to improve mental wellbeing.

van Agteren, J., Iasiello, M., Lo, L. et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological interventions to improve mental wellbeing. Nat Hum Behav (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01093-w

Life Satisfaction and the Human Development Index Across the World

Abstract: We use annual data on over 150 countries between 2005 and 2018 to look at the relationship between subjective well-being (both cognitive and affective) and the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI appears to be more closely related to cognitive than affective well-being. We also consider the relationships between the three HDI components (the Income, Health and Education Indices) and well-being, and find that, on average, the Income Index has the strongest predictive power. Importantly, we find that the three HDI components only matter equally in Western and rich countries. Our analysis contributes to the discussion about cultural sensitivity in paradigms of societal development in two ways. We first show that differences in preferences towards development aims exist. Second, we propose a weighting procedure for a culturally-sensitive version of the HDI.

Yin, Rémi, Lepinteur, Anthony, Clark, Andrew and D’Ambrosio, Conchita, (2021), Life Satisfaction and the Human Development Index Across the World, Working Papers, HAL.

No effect of different types of media on well-being

Abstract: It is often assumed that traditional forms of media such as books enhance well-being, whereas digital media do not. However, we lack evidence for such claims and media research is mainly focused on how much time people spend with a medium, but not whether someone used a medium or not. We investigated the effect of media use on well-being, differentiating time spent with a medium and use vs. nonuse, over a wide range of different media types: music, TV, films, video games, (e-)books, (digital) magazines, and audiobooks. Results from a six-week longitudinal study representative of the UK population (N = 2,159) showed that effects were generally small; between but rarely within people; mostly for use vs. nonuse and not time spent with a medium; and on affective well-being, not life satisfaction. Together, these results do not support policies intended to encourage or discourage media use because of effects on well-being.

Johannes, Niklas, Tobias Dienlin, Hasan Bakhshi, and Andrew K. Przybylski. 2021. “No Effect of Different Types of Media on Well-being.” PsyArXiv. April 28. https://psyarxiv.com/zgb5y