Subjective well-being: Conceptualization, assessment and Russian specifics

Abstract

The current paper provides a brief overview of subjective well-being studies in Russia. The authors analyze definitions and measurement of such concepts as «subjective quality of life», «social mood», «social well-being». The concept of «social well-being», which has the widest application among Russian social researchers, has two possible interpretations (wide and narrow). Only its narrow interpretation can be treated as a synonym for subjective well-being. The paper also describes existing Russian and cross-country datasets which can be used to investigate time trends and cross-country variation of subjective well-being.