تاثیر زمان، نوع و شدت ناتوانی در رفاه ذهنی افراد معلول

Despite the existence of a large volume of literature on subjective well-being (SWB) of the general population, very few studies have focused on individuals with disabilities. The present study uses data on 24,036 Canadians with disabilities to investigate factors affecting their SWB. It found that SWB, measured here by level of happiness, decreases with severity of disability but is independent of the type of physical disability. Those born with a disability are likely to be happier as compared to those disabled later on in life. Per capita family income has no effect on happiness. However, unemployment decreases happiness. Happiness is found to be U shaped in age, bottoming out around 40 years of age. Some of these results vary when the sample is split according to the timing, type or severity of disability.

Subjective well-being (SWB) defined as either life satisfaction or happiness has been studied in considerable detail by psychologists and to some extent by sociologists and political scientists.1 However, until recently economists have been reluctant to do so. The reason for this neglect is the subjective nature of the variable, a variable that measures ‘what people say’ rather than ‘what people do’. It is true that self-reported well-being has potential shortcomings such as response bias, memory bias and defensiveness. However, subjective data have proved to be stable and useful. It has been shown by Diener, Suh, Lucas, and Smith (1999) that the stable component of satisfaction dominates the mood effects. Senik (2005) surveys empirical literature on SWB and illustrates the role that subjective data could play in investigating utility and social interactions that are beyond the scope of the method of revealed preference, and to guide economic policy in the light of citizens’ preferences. Diener and Suh (1997) discuss how measures of SWB, economic indices and social indicators can complement each other in assessing quality of life. An extensive overview of the field of SWB and its economic significance can be found in Frey & Stutzer (2002a) and Frey & Stutzer (2002b).

Approximately one-sixth of the Canadian population suffers from some type of disability. This proportion will rise in the future because of a demographic change. The percentage of the elderly population is on the rise and aging is associated with higher disability rates. Hence, studies focussing on this section of the population gain further importance. The present study looks at factors affecting the subjective well-being of Canadians with disabilities using data from the 1991 Health and Activity Limitation Survey conducted by Statistics Canada. It is found that happiness or well-being is negatively related to the severity of disability but is independent of the type of physical disability. The results also reveal that those disabled at birth are likely to be happier as compared with those disabled later on in life. A reason for this could be that the former group has been used to the disability ever since birth. Some of the other results show that per capita income does not have an effect on happiness. However, the unemployed are less happy as compared to the working. The young and the old are happier than the middle aged, suggesting a U-shaped relationship between happiness and age. Though comparable data on happiness is unavailable for the non-disabled in the data set used in the present study, comparing it with Hill (2004) it is seen that their happiness levels are higher than the disabled. In this paper, it is seen that severity of disability and unemployment, have a negative effect on happiness. Providing the disabled with assistive devices or modifying structures would help obviate the effects of disability and thus reduce severity. This in turn would lead to an increase in their well-being. Also, it might be the case that a large number of the unemployed disabled are unemployed because they are unsuccessful in finding an employer who is willing to accommodate their disability by providing them with the proper assistive technology or offering them reduced hours or modified duties among other accommodations. If this is the case, then accommodating disabled workers will lead to a decrease in their unemployment rates and increase in well-being, both psychological and economic.