Associations between the Importance of Well-Being Domains and the Subsequent Experience of Well-Being

Prior cross-sectional research suggests that the importance assigned to well-being domains may be associated with actual self-reported well-being in these same domains. However, cross-sectional data cannot discern directionality, leaving an open question as to whether valuing well-being leads to higher actual well-being or the other way around—higher levels of well-being lead to valuing well-being more. In the present study, we used longitudinal data from 1209 employees to examine the associations between the perceived importance of six well-being domains (emotional health, physical health, meaning and purpose, social connectedness, character strengths, and financial stability) and subsequent well-being in these domains reported approximately 1 year later. Lagged linear regression models demonstrated that valuing character strengths and valuing social relationships were most strongly associated with subsequent well-being. None of the valuations were associated with higher subsequent emotional well-being and only one (importance of physical health) predicted physical health. We also found that higher valuations of character strengths and physical health were associated with lower ratings of subsequent financial stability. A stronger sense of the importance of each well-being domain was predictive of subsequent character strengths. Our findings suggest that living well appears to be achieved by valuing immaterial goods, especially social connectedness and character strengths, as opposed to domains such as financial stability or physical health.