Life Satisfaction Study Yields Some Surprises

When Roy Chen, a graduate student in the Rehabilitation Counseling Program at Michigan State University in East Lansing, recently completed a study of 228 adults with neuromuscular or neurological disorders who volunteered to answer a Web-based or mailed survey, some of the results were consistent with previous research and commonly held beliefs, but others were not.

Not surprisingly, the study found that participants with relatively high levels of physical functioning reported more satisfaction with their lives than did other participants; that having hope for amelioration of the disability correlated with a high acceptance of the disability; and that married people reported a higher level of life satisfaction than did never married or divorced subjects.

By contrast, some findings were at odds with common wisdom. Results failed to support employment status as a significant contributor to life satisfaction. And, contrary to expectations, the study found that people with strong religious convictions were less, rather than more, accepting of their own disabilities than those without strong beliefs.

People with long-standing disabilities reported being more satisfied than people with disabilities of more recent onset; and disabled women were in general more satisfied with their lives than disabled men.

Chen notes several caveats in interpreting these results, including the relatively small number of participants and the study’s inability to determine personality or attitudinal differences between people who chose to respond to the survey completely, partially or not at all.