Hispanic Subjective Happiness and Mental Health

Background and Purpose: Hispanics in the U.S. are at high-risk on many social indices. They tend to have lower incomes and education, are over-represented in criminal justice and child welfare systems, and often face racism and discrimination because of their race/ethnicity and immigrant status. In this study, we examine correlates and predictors of the “Hispanic Happiness Paradox” which is related to the finding of some studies that although Hispanics may lack resources, they tend to score higher on indices of happiness compared to other groups. Also, Hispanics have been found to report less mental health issues than non-Hispanics. In this paper we sought to explore the subjective happiness of Latinos and its relationship to mental health.

Methods: This is a secondary analysis of 2018 data from the General Social Survey (GSS). The dependent variable is an ordinal variable that asks, “If you were to consider your life in general these days, how happy or unhappy would you say you are, on the whole?” We hypothesized that potential predictors of happiness included race/ ethnicity, gender, age, education, level of income, marital status, and being foreign born. Stereotype logistical regressions were used to model the relationship between perceived happiness and explanatory variables. We also looked at Latino happiness in relation to mental health by looking at three questions:1) “Has a doctor, nurse, or other health professional EVER told you that you had depression?” 2) “In the past seven days, how often have you been bothered by emotional problems such as feeling anxious, depressed or irritable?” 3) “For how many days during the past 30 days was your mental health not good?”

Results: In the stereotype logistic regression for happiness, significant predictor variables included being Hispanic, marital status, age, place of birth, and income. Hispanics were more than 17 times more likely than non-Hispanic Whites to say they were “very happy” as opposed to “not very happy”. The other variables were negatively related and as expected. That is, being younger, widowed, divorced, separated, or never married, and having less income were predictors of not being “very happy”. Those born in the U.S. were less happy than the foreign-born. A correlational analysis found that happiness was correlated with mental health. We found that Hispanics (both U.S. born and foreign-born) reported lower days of poor mental health, and lower rates of being told they had depression . They were also less likely to report mental health problems in the “past seven days”.

Conclusions and Implications: Our findings seem to suggest that there does seem to be an “Hispanic Happiness Paradox”. Despite the many struggles facing them, they not only persevere, they overcome and exhibit resiliency. We also found that Hispanics also report fewer issues regarding mental health. This may lead us to wonder if, in fact, they are really underutilizing mental health services or if they view them as unnecessary. Certainly, perceived happiness may be a protective factor for mental health problems.