Abstract
Latin Americans report high life satisfaction levels; as a region Latin America has the highest mean life satisfaction in the world. The affective situation of Latin Americans is also outstandingly high. The many political and socio-economic problems reflect on average life evaluation levels. Cultural factors associated to family satisfaction and satisfaction in relational domains play an important role in explaining high life satisfaction in Latin America. Some intra-region differences exist and the average figures cannot be extended to the whole population or to all the countries in the region.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Any regional classification of the world is arbitrary; in this case the classification follows cultural and geographical criteria. The classification’s purpose is not to define a compartmentalization of the world or to contribute to the cultural literature; it is just to depict the situation of Latin American countries in comparison to the rest of countries in the world.
References
Argyle, M. (2002). The psychology of happiness. New York, NY, US: Routledge.
Rojas, M. (2017). The subjective object of well-being studies. In G. Brule & F. Maggino (Eds.), Metrics of subjective well-being: Limits and improvements (pp. 43–62). Berlin: Springer.
Rojas, M., & Chávez, P. (2019). Subjective well-being of the P’urhépecha people: Between tradition and modernity. In C. Fleming & M. Manning (Eds.), Routledge handbook of indigenous wellbeing (pp. 330–341). Abingdon: Routledge.
Rojas, M., & Veenhoven, R. (2013). Contentment and affect in the estimation of happiness. Social Indicators Research, 110(2), 415–431.
Yamamoto, J. (2011). Necesidades universales, su concreción cultural y el desarrollo en su contexto. Hacia una ciencia del desarrollo. In M. Rojas (Ed.), La Medición del Progreso y del Bienestar. Propuestas desde América Latina (pp. 93–102). México: Foro Consultivo Científico y Tecnológico.
Yamamoto, J., Feijoo, A. R., & Lazarte, A. (2008). Subjective wellbeing: An alternative approach. In J. Copestake (Ed.), Wellbeing and development in Peru. Local and universal views confronted. New York: Palgrave MacMillian.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rojas, M. (2020). The Well-Being Situation in Latin America. In: Well-Being in Latin America. Human Well-Being Research and Policy Making. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33498-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33498-7_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-33497-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-33498-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)