Defining well-being for the inhabitants of Mexico City

Abstract

Studied worldwide, well-being is an important principle for the modern societies and needs to reflect the local cultures of the targeted populations. Semantic networks and graph theory address this issue: a definition of well-being comes directly from a sample of the targeted population. The stage one (N = 201, 52% female and 48% male, volunteers—informed consent provided—, 20 years and older, mean = 39.97 years, S.D. = 13.56 years) semantic networks defined well-being. In stage two the networks were the foundation to construct two scales which were validated (sample N = 427, 55% female and 45% male, volunteers—informed consent provided— 20 years and older, mean = 37.75 years, S.D. = 12.54 years). Analyzed with graph theory, well-being resulted in a social complex system (non-linearity, small world phenomenon, emergency), and showed the main elements to define well-being (affect and cognitive components). Its subgraphs were arranged into three main domains with subdomains: health (physical and psychological), relationships (family, friends, community) and resources (personal, material, time). The scale of satisfaction with well-being (α = .912) and the scale of experiences of well-being (α = .969) showed a good fit and obtained adequate values. Semantic networks proved to be a good resource to help in the construction of a questionnaire to study well-being with a cultural perspective.