Subjective Well-Being Effects of Coping Cost: Evidence from Household Water Supply in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Chindarkar, Namrata; Chen, Yvonne Jie; Gurung, Yogendra Bahadur

doi:10.1007/s10902-018-0060-6

Cited by 15 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Whereas in 2007-2008 only seven out of 50 articles used within-subjects designs, by 2017-2018 this number had risen to 16, 6 with a variety of methods being used. For example, on a shorter timescale, data collected with the Experience Sampling Method (Csikszentmihalyi and Hunter 2003) were used to investigate how detachment from workplace stresses affect the quality of interactions in romantic relationships (Debrot et al 2018), while on a longer timescale, data collected as part of a panel study of 1500 households in Nepal were used to investigate the cost of coping on different forms of well-being (Chindarkar et al 2018). Part of the appeal of within-subject designs is that they can, if properly analyzed, control stable inter-individual differences, rendering a causal interpretation of associations more plausible (although such designs do not automatically warrant causal conclusions, as time-varying confounders can offer alternative explanations).…”

Section: Moving Forward: Between-subjects Versus Within-subject Desigmentioning

confidence: 99%

Easy as (Happiness) Pie? A Critical Evaluation of a Popular Model of the Determinants of Well-Being

Brown

Rohrer

2019

J Happiness Stud

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An underlying principle behind much of the research in positive psychology is that individuals have considerable leeway to increase their levels of happiness. In an influential article that is frequently cited in support of such claims, Lyubomirsky et al. (Rev Gen Psychol 9:111-131, 2005. https ://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.9.2.111) put forward a model (subsequently popularized under the name of the "happiness pie") in which approximately 50% of individual differences in happiness are due to genetic factors and 10% to life circumstances, leaving 40% available to be changed via volitional activities. We re-examined Lyubomirsky et al.'s claims and found several apparent deficiencies in their chain of arguments on both the empirical and the conceptual level. We conclude that there is little empirical evidence for the variance decomposition suggested by the "happiness pie," and that even if it were valid, it is not necessarily informative with respect to the question of whether individuals can truly exert substantial influence over their own chronic happiness level. We believe that our critical re-examination of Lyubomirsky et al.'s seminal article offers insights into some common misconceptions and pitfalls of scientific inference, and we hope that it might contribute to the construction of a more rigorous and solid empirical basis for the field of positive psychology.

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Section: Moving Forward: Between-subjects Versus Within-subject Desigmentioning

confidence: 99%

Easy as (Happiness) Pie? A Critical Evaluation of a Popular Model of the Determinants of Well-Being

Brown

Rohrer

2019

J Happiness Stud

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“…Stevenson et al (2012), the first to do so, found that Ethiopian women's experiences of water insecurity were associated with psychosocial distress, as measured by the Falk Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-F). Since then, a number of investigative teams have documented a robust relationship between water insecurity and systematically-assessed emotional distress (Cooper, Hutchings, et al, 2019;Harris, Kleiber, Goldin, Darkwah, & Morinville, 2017;Kangmennaang, Bisung, & Elliott, 2020;Thomas & Godfrey, 2018) or symptoms of stress, distress or common mental disorders (Aihara, Shrestha, Kazama, & Nishida, 2015;Aihara, Shrestha, & Sharma, 2016;Boateng et al, 2018;Boateng et al, 2020;Brewis, Choudhary, & Wutich, 2019a, 2019bChindarkar, Chen, & Gurung, 2019;Cooper-Vince et al, 2017Espinosa-Montero et al, 2016;Maxfield, 2020;Mushavi et al, 2020;Shrestha et al, 2018;Slekiene & Mosler, 2019;Snodgrass, Upadhyay, Debnath, & Lacy, 2016;Subbaraman et al, 2012Subbaraman et al, , 2014Tallman, 2016Tallman, , 2019Tsai et al, 2016;Workman & Ureksoy, 2017;Young et al, 2019). Most of these studies have been conducted in lower-income economies, but scholarship based in the United States-in Texas colonias (Jepson, 2014;Jepson & Vandewalle, 2016) and Flint, Michigan (Cuthbertson, Newkirk, Ilardo, Loveridge, & Skidmore, 2016;Fortenberry et al, 2018;Sneed, Dotson, Brewer, Pugh, & Johnson-Lawrence, 2020)-has documented similar associations between water insecurity, emotional distress, and mental ill-health.…”

Section: Background: Lines Of Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Water and mental health

2020

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There is a well‐established connection among water quality, sanitation, and physical health. The potentially important relationship between water and mental health is considerably less studied. Reviewing evidence from ethnography, geography, folklore, indigenous studies, rural medicine, drought research, and large‐n statistical studies, we argue there is now good theoretical rationale and growing evidence of water insecurity as a possible driver of mental ill‐health. Furthermore, some nascent evidence suggests that emotionally meaningful interactions with water might improve mental health outcomes. Leveraging these literatures, we address the many ways in which mental health outcomes are conceptualized and operationalized in water research, including as emotional distress, perceived stress, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, somatic symptoms, and quality of life. We outline arguments supporting seven possible (and likely interlocking) mechanisms that could explain such a relationship: (a) material deprivation and related uncertainty, (b) shame of social failure, (c) worry about health threats, (d) loss of connections to people and places, (e) frustration around opportunity losses and restricted autonomy, (f) interpersonal conflict and intimate partner violence, and (g) institutional injustice or unfairness. However, we explain that as most existing studies are ethnographic, qualitative, or cross‐sectional, a causal relationship between water and mental ill‐health is yet to be confirmed empirically. More research on this topic is needed, particularly given that poorly understood connections may create barriers to achieving Sustainable Development Goals 3 (health) and 6 (water). We further suggest that tracking mental health indicators may provide unique and as‐yet underappreciated insights into the efficacy of water projects and other development interventions. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Water, Health, and Sanitation Human Water > Water as Imagined and Represented

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“…Accounting for interactions and spillovers of policies and projects with subjective well-being might make evaluations more meaningful. As an example, a study on unreliable urban water supply in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal examines impacts of household coping costs (including those for collecting, pumping, purchasing, storing, and treating water) on well-being, which captures both evaluative (life satisfaction) and hedonic (feeling and emotions) reactions (Chindarkar et al 2018). Findings reveal that coping cost is positively correlated with life satisfaction.…”

Section: Well-being and Inclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%