Experience of well-being: a cross-generational study in India

The present study was conducted to see the impact of social support, social relations, and autonomy on happiness in intergenerational experiences. It also tried to examine the role of demographic variables (age, location and gender) on such experiences. The study involved a total of 185 participants from 48 families where each of the four members in the family namely, father, mother, son, and daughter-in-law, were administered scales related to perceived social support, social relations, autonomy, and happiness. The finding of the study suggests that highly educated people perceive high levels of social support, social relations, and autonomy which, in turn, affect their happiness. People who perceive higher social support and better social relations perceive higher levels of happiness. It was also found that education and social support are significant predictors of happiness. Results further revealed that younger rural females experienced better social relations as compared to younger rural males and a similar finding was also found for the young urban males and females. Additionally, the results indicated that rural older males and urban older females perceive better social relations than urban males and the rural female.