Happiness of Mexican Americans.

Abstract

Despite arguments on both sides, no one knows how happiness compares between Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic Whites. This was investigated using responses of 328 female and 276 male Mexican Americans and 7,226 female and 5,870 male non-Hispanic Whites to items about happiness, satisfaction in eight domains of life, and demographics included on 11 surveys from 1985 through 2000 representative of the U.S. population. There were virtually no differences in the happiness of Mexican American men and non-Hispanic White men, but Mexican American women were not as happy as non-Hispanic White women when both were 18 to 30, were married, were economically well-off, held white-collar jobs, and were born in this country. Demographic variables and satisfaction in eight domains of life were largely unrelated to the happiness of Mexican Americans of both sexes, suggesting almost all information about happiness from studies of non-Hispanic Whites does not apply to them.