Conclusions and Policy Implications

Abstract

Research from the 14 countries and regions represented in this volume reveals that sex and age are important variables in quality of life outcomes but that they act in complex ways in combination with era, generation, regional location, income, aspirations, economic environments and political systems to produce unique patterns of disparity. Men’s and women’s well-being scores often cross over throughout the lifespan and not all countries display a U-curve pattern of life satisfaction, especially in transition countries where the well-being of the elderly is severely compromised. The most vulnerable groups identified in this collection are mothers, women with no savings and limited income, older men, older women, those living alone and childless men. There are important policy and service provision implications of these findings but appropriate policy intervention relies on rigorous gender, generational and contextual analysis by researchers in the field. The research presented here also has key methodological implications especially in terms of the need for systematic longitudinal surveys to measure trends and the impact of global and national events on well-being and the need to develop tools which expose accurate ontological reality, especially in contexts where masking of emotions is common. The sociological imagination is a useful tool for examining the nexus between the private troubles identified in well-being measurement and the public issues which need to be addressed by policy makers to mitigate those troubles.