Harmonization of Cross-National Studies of Aging to the Health and Retirement Study

This User Guide provides information about measures of well-being available in since 2002 in the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA), the Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), the Japanese Study on Aging and Retirement (JSTAR), the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), the Mexican Health & Aging Study (MHAS) and the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI). The User Guide describes the available survey measures for four categories of subjective wellbeing: (1) Evaluative, (2) Hedonic, (3) Eudaimonic, and (4) Experienced. These four categories were distinguished in a 2013 report of the US National Research Council3 and were recommended in 2013 by the OECD4 for inclusion in household population surveys, though are not the only way to divide up the large category of Subjective Well-being. We strongly encourage researchers to read these reports for further context as the reports provide background information about the history of research about subjective well-being as a social indicator of life experience which dates from the 1960s (see also Bradburn, 1969; Campbell, 1976)