Importance of length of studying and attitudes toward others for life satisfaction

Abstract

Introduction. Life satisfaction has been a major goal of both the individual and society since ancient times. Nevertheless, relatively little is known about which personal characteristics can affect our satisfaction with life. It may be assumed that higher levels of education, being related to better health, may also be a factor increasing one’s cognitive element of well-being i.e., life satisfaction. It is also known that satisfaction with one’s life is also related to positive attitudes towards other people. Nevertheless, it is not clear whether education is directly related to satisfaction with life or via certain attitudes. The purpose of the study is to analyze links between the length of education and satisfaction with life with regard to positive attitudes toward others using a representative sample. Methods and data. Expert-generated single-item questions were used to measure the level of satisfaction with life and attitudes towards other people. The study is based on the data (N=1127) of the Lithuanian National Science Programme “Welfare society”. Respondents were between 18 and 97 years of age (M=48). For statistical analysis correlation and simple mediation models were used. Results. The analysis of the data showed that higher levels of life satisfaction were predicted by years of completed education directly, and indirectly – through more positive attitudes towards others, while controlling for age, gender, level of income. Discussion. The study confirms previous findings that education is related to life satisfaction through more positive attitudes towards others and suggests that education impacts on life satisfaction not only as a promoter of higher income. Conclusion. Longer duration of studying (learning) is related to higher satisfaction with life and more positive attitudes towards others independently of gender, age and income.