Little is known about individual patterns of life satisfaction (LS) over the life course. Therefore, we examine individual long-term patterns by making a distinction between the shape of the LS pattern and its mean level. Further, in order to contribute to the discussion about the impact of personality and life events on LS, we examine the effects of both factors on the mean level and the pattern. A Dutch Panel Study is used in which young adults were followed for 18 years (N = 766). Six satisfaction patterns are defined: stable, increasing, decreasing, U-shaped, reversed U-shaped and fluctuating. A stable pattern is found to be most common, but the majority of the young adults have a changing LS pattern. The multivariate analyses show that neuroticism exerts negative and extraversion positive effect on the long-term LS mean. Life events in the relationship domain are related to the mean level and the pattern of LS. In addition, there are several interaction effects of events and personality.
Young adulthood is a life-phase in which many changes occur. These changes often have profound consequences for individuals’ future careers, for instance with regard to occupational achievement and family formation (Settersten, Furstenberg, & Rumbaut, 2005). These changes may also affect another important individual outcome, subjective well-being (Kohler et al., 2005 and Schulenberg et al., 2005). However, there is an ongoing debate about to what extent long-run changes in subjective well-being will occur. Some argue that well-being is quite resistant to change because it is predominantly determined by genes (Diener et al., 1999 and Lykken and Tellegen, 1996). We refer to this perspective as ‘personality-oriented’. Although important life events may have some lasting effect on well-being, personality is expected to have a larger impact, leading to relative high levels of long-run stability in well-being. In contrast, others argue that life events such as marriage, parenthood or divorce, and fluid changes such as related to one's income position (see e.g. Blanchflower & Oswald, 2004) elicit permanent changes in well-being. This is referred to as the ‘event-oriented’ perspective. Personality is less important in this perspective, and is largely thought to have a moderating effect. Recently, theoretical attempts have been made to reconcile or integrate these two viewpoints (Headey, 2007 and Hobfoll, 2002), but empirical work that examines long-term changes in subjective well-being is still relatively scarce.
This study aims at contributing to this research literature in two ways. First, rather than studying average changes in well-being during young adulthood, we examine whether different individual patterns of change can be distinguished. Second, we study to what extent these long-term patterns can be explained by the combination of personality and life events, in order to contribute to the discussion about the importance of these factors for well-being.
Subjective well-being is a multi-dimensional concept that focuses on the subjective evaluation of life (Diener et al., 1999). It includes both a cognitive and an affective component. The cognitive component is usually measured by asking people how satisfied they are with their life as a whole. It measures a long-term evaluation of well-being, in contrast to the affective component, which evaluates people's more instantaneous positive and negative feelings. Given the long time-span of this study, our focus is on the cognitive evaluation of well-being, life satisfaction (LS). This focus is even more appropriate, given that life satisfaction can also be viewed as the balance of affective experience over a certain period (Ehrhardt, Saris, & Veenhoven, 2000). To examine changes in life satisfaction, we use a Dutch Panel Study in which young adults are followed during a period of 18 years. In the next section, we discuss personality- and event-oriented theories, previous research and the effects of personality and life events in the family domain on the mean level and pattern of life satisfaction.
2. Theoretical approaches to long-term change in LS
2.1. Personality-oriented theory
One important perspective on changes in life satisfaction across the life course is offered by the revised dynamic equilibrium theory (Headey, 2006). The original dynamic equilibrium theory was developed by Headey and Wearing (1989) and closely resembles the set-point theory, that was based on Helson's adaptation level theory (1964). The original theory assumes that everyone has a certain set-point or equilibrium level of well-being, determined by genes and personality (Headey, 2007 and Lykken, 2000). Genes are supposed to explain as much as 50–80% of the variation in well-being (Lykken & Tellegen, 1996). Moreover, genes determine personality to a large extent, which makes personality a very stable construct as well (Fujita and Diener, 2005, Huppert, 2005 and Robins et al., 2002). Life events may cause a temporary fluctuation in LS, but a set-point level will be reached within a few months after the event has taken place (Suh, Diener, & Fujita, 1996). This quick and complete return to the pre-event level of LS is called the adaptation effect. Because of the adaptation effect and the stable factors that determine LS, long-term changes in LS are unlikely.
A number of recent studies did observe an adaptation effect for some people, but also found that the level of life satisfaction fluctuated for others (Ehrhardt et al., 2000 and Fujita and Diener, 2005). In response to these findings, the set-point and the dynamic equilibrium theory were revised. In the revised version of the set-point theory, Diener, Lucas, and Scollon (2006) conclude among other things, that people can have several set-points. In addition, the likelihood of change was expected to depend upon personality and the experience of very important life events. In the revised version of the dynamic equilibrium theory, Headey (2006) maintains that personality is still the starting point for predicting development in well-being. Personality traits like neuroticism, extraversion and to a lesser extent openness to experience, are supposed to affect well-being both directly and indirectly, by determining the number of positive and negative events that a person experiences and the intensity of these events. However, it
