IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i15p7929-d602149.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relationship between Social Skills and Happiness: Differences by Gender

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos Salavera

    (Faculty odf Education, University of Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain)

  • Pablo Usán

    (Faculty odf Education, University of Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain)

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between social skills and happiness in 1st-year Teaching School students, as well as possible gender differences. The sample comprised 243 Teaching School students (Primary Education) in Zaragoza, including 110 men (45.27%) and 133 women (54.73%), aged 18–25 (average age 20.23 years; s.d. = 1.586). In order to analyse the relationship between social skills and subjective happiness, the Scale of Social Skills and Subjective Happiness Scale were used. While men scored higher in all social skills-related factors, women scored higher in all factors related to happiness. The study shows that factors such as self-expression in social settings and the ability to say no and cut off social interactions have a direct and significant effect on happiness among men, while self-expression in social settings and the ability to express anger led to a higher perception of happiness among women. Similarly, situations such as asking for and defending rights have an indirect and significant effect in men, reducing their levels of happiness. In the case of women, no social skills factors were found that led to lower happiness. It may be concluded that significant gender differences exist, although broader and lateral studies are needed in order to examine the relationship between gender identities, social skills and subjective happiness more in depth, and thus, understand the effect of these constructs in the development of personality.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Salavera & Pablo Usán, 2021. "Relationship between Social Skills and Happiness: Differences by Gender," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-9, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:15:p:7929-:d:602149
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/15/7929/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/15/7929/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sonja Lyubomirsky & Heidi Lepper, 1999. "A Measure of Subjective Happiness: Preliminary Reliability and Construct Validation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 137-155, February.
    2. Stefano Bartolini & Ennio Bilancini & Francesco Sarracino, 2013. "Predicting the Trend of Well-Being in Germany: How Much Do Comparisons, Adaptation and Sociability Matter?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 169-191, November.
    3. Ed Diener & Shigehiro Oishi & Louis Tay, 2018. "Advances in subjective well-being research," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 2(4), pages 253-260, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wendy L. Arteaga-Cedeño & Miguel Á. Carbonero-Martín & Luis J. Martín-Antón & Paula Molinero-González, 2022. "The Sociodemographic-Professional Profile and Emotional Intelligence in Infant and Primary Education Teachers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Mengyuan Sui & Haifeng Ding & Bo Xu & Mingxing Zhou, 2022. "The Impact of Internet Use on the Happiness of Chinese Civil Servants: A Mediation Analysis Based on Self-Rated Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-16, October.
    3. Miguel Á. Carbonero-Martín & Wendy L. Arteaga-Cedeño & Luis J. Martín-Antón & Paula Molinero-González, 2022. "Group Segmentation as a Strategy for Implementing the Intervention Programme in Emotional Education for Infant and Primary Teachers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Carlos Salavera & Pablo Usán & Alberto Quilez-Robres, 2022. "Exploring the Effect of Parental Styles on Social Skills: The Mediating Role of Affects," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-12, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Patricia Angeli da Silva Pigati & Renato Fraga Righetti & Victor Zuniga Dourado & Bruna Tiemi Cunha Nisiaymamoto & Beatriz Mangueira Saraiva-Romanholo & Iolanda de Fátima Lopes Calvo Tibério, 2022. "Resilience Improves the Quality of Life and Subjective Happiness of Physiotherapists during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-22, July.
    2. Olga Bogolyubova & Polina Panicheva & Yanina Ledovaya & Roman Tikhonov & Bulat Yaminov, 2020. "The Language of Positive Mental Health: Findings From a Sample of Russian Facebook Users," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, May.
    3. Zijun Yin & Bin Xuan & Xiaoyan Zheng, 2023. "Academic Passion and Subjective Well-Being among Female Research Reserve Talents: The Roles of Psychological Resilience and Academic Climate," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-11, February.
    4. Hirose, Junichi & Kotani, Koji & Managi, Shunsuke, 2023. "Do autonomy and inquisitiveness contribute to SDGs? Implications from the matrilineal island of Palau," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 303-318.
    5. Gabriela Mihaela Mureșan & Melinda Timea Fülöp & Cristina Ciumaș, 2021. "The Road from Money to Happiness," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-13, September.
    6. Martin Wetzel & Jonathan Wörn & Bettina Hünteler & Karsten Hank, 2022. "Heterogeneity in Trajectories of Life Satisfaction After Reunification: The Role of Individual Resources and Life Stage in Former East Germany," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 1103-1123, February.
    7. Foliano, Francesca & Tonei, Valentina & Sevilla, Almudena, 2024. "Social restrictions, leisure and well-being," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    8. Julio Torales & Iván Barrios & Osvaldo Melgarejo & Noelia Ruiz Díaz & Marcelo O’Higgins & Rodrigo Navarro & Diego Amarilla & José Almirón-Santacruz & Israel González-Urbieta & Tomás Caycho-Rod, 2024. "Hope, resilience and subjective happiness among general population of Paraguay in the post COVID-19 pandemic," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 70(3), pages 489-497, May.
    9. Aline Lopes Moreira & Jorge Castellá Sarriera & Leonardo Fernandes Martins & Lívia Maria Bedin & Maria Angela Mattar Yunes & Luciana Cassarino Perez & Murilo Ricardo Zibetti, 2022. "Psychometric Properties of Children’s Subjective Well-Being Scales: a Multigroup Study Investigating School Type, Gender, Age and Region of Children in the South and Southeast Regions of Brazil," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(2), pages 657-679, April.
    10. Ihsana Sabriani Borualogo & Ferran Casas, 2023. "Bullying Victimisation and Children’s Subjective Well-being: A Comparative Study in Seven Asian Countries," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(1), pages 1-27, February.
    11. GOROVEI Alina-Alexandra, 2020. "Does Work Make You Happy? Job Satisfaction And Happiness In The Modern World," Revista Economica, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 72(1), pages 76-86, April.
    12. Stefano Bartolini & Francesco Sarracino, 2021. "Happier and Sustainable. Possibilities for a post-growth society," Department of Economics University of Siena 855, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    13. Leiv Gabrielsen & Pål Ulleberg & Reidulf Watten, 2012. "The Adolescent Life Goal Profile Scale: Development of a New Scale for Measurements of Life Goals Among Young People," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(6), pages 1053-1072, December.
    14. Lars Kunze & Nicolai Suppa, 2014. "Bowling Alone or Bowling at All? The Effect of Unemployment on Social Participation," Ruhr Economic Papers 0510, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    15. Zhang, Jing & Chen, Mingliang & Xie, Zhaohan & Zhuang, Jingyi, 2022. "Don't fall into exquisite poverty: The impact of mismatch between consumers and luxury brands on happiness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 298-309.
    16. Câmara, Ester & Pocinho, Margarida & Jesus, Saúl Neves & Agapito, Dora, 2024. "Senior Tourists’ Well-being, Happiness, and Satisfaction with Life: A Systematic Literature Review," Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, Cinturs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, University of Algarve, vol. 12(2), pages 87-109.
    17. Aline Riboli Marasca & Maurício Scopel Hoffmann & Anelise Reis Gaya & Denise Ruschel Bandeira, 2021. "Subjective Well-Being and Psychopathology Symptoms: Mental Health Profiles and their Relations with Academic Achievement in Brazilian Children," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(3), pages 1121-1137, June.
    18. Federico Contu & Daniela Di Santo & Conrad Baldner & Antonio Pierro, 2023. "Examining the Interaction between Perceived Cultural Tightness and Prevention Regulatory Focus on Life Satisfaction in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-10, January.
    19. Robert Weech-Maldonado & Michael J. Miller & Justin C. Lord, 2017. "The Relationships among Socio-Demographics, Perceived Health, and Happiness," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 289-302, June.
    20. Fatima Wasif & Tara McAuley, 2024. "Exploring Close Relationships and Executive Functions as Unique and Joint Predictors of Adolescent Subjective Well-Being Across the Transition to High School," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 25(6), pages 1-21, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:15:p:7929-:d:602149. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.