Subjective happiness and health behavior among a sample of university students in India
Karl Peltzer (Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa, University of Limpopo, and Madidol University), and Supa Pengpid (University of Limpopo and Madidol University), 2013, 41(6), 1045–1056

It is encouraging to see in Social Psychology today a much greater focus on topics such as subjective well-being. In this study (Peltzer & Pengpid, 2013) the authors study links between health behaviors and happiness in an Asian population. They used a random sample of 800 university students, who were taking nonhealth undergraduate courses, at Gitan University, Visakhaptnam, India.

Multivariate analysis showed that better social support, better personal mastery, normal sleep duration, no current tobacco use, and eating breakfast daily or almost daily, were statistically associated with happiness. However they did not find associations with other health behaviors, which have been shown in other studies to be associated with happiness. These were body weight, frequency of eating meals in a day, eating fruit daily, alcohol use, physical activity, injury, seat belt use, brushing teeth at least twice a day and having a dental check up at least once a year.

As a Social Psychology researcher in the area of Human Happiness myself (see Stewart, 1976*), I am pleased to see the way that the concept of happiness is being further investigated. What could be a more important topic!

Robert A. C. (Bob) Stewart, PhD | Editor-in-Chief
Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal

*Stewart, R. A. C. (1976). Satisfaction in stages of the life cycle. Levels of general happiness and frequency of peak experience. Social Behavior and Personality, 4, 105–108.