Yiengprugsawan Vasoontara, Somboonsook Boonchai, Seubsman Sam-Ang, Sleigh Adrian C
National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University, Building 62, Acton 2601, Canberra, Australia;
J Happiness Stud. 2012 Dec;13(6):1019-1029. doi: 10.1007/s10902-011-9304-4.
Research on happiness has been of interest in many parts of the world. Here we provide evidence from developing countries; this is the first analysis of happiness among a cohort of Thai distance learning adults residing throughout the country (n = 60,569 in 2009). To measure happiness, we tested use of the short format Thai Mental Health Indicators (TMHI), correlating each domain with two direct measures of happiness and life satisfaction. Several TMHI domains correlated strongly with happiness. We found the mental state and the social support domains moderately or strongly correlated with happiness by either measure (correlation coefficients 0.24-0.56). The other two TMHI domains (mental capacity and mental quality) were not correlated with happiness. Analysis of socio-demographic attributes and happiness revealed little effect of age and sex but marital status (divorced or widowed), low household income, and no paid work all had strong adverse effects. Our findings provide Thai benchmarks for measuring happiness and associated socio-demographic attributes. We also provide evidence that the TMHI can measure happiness in the Thai population. Furthermore, the results among Thai cohort members can be monitored over time and could be useful for comparison with other Southeast Asian countries.
幸福研究在世界许多地区都备受关注。在此，我们提供来自发展中国家的证据；这是对居住在泰国各地的远程学习成年人群体（2009年有60569人）的幸福状况进行的首次分析。为了衡量幸福程度，我们测试了泰国心理健康指标简表（TMHI）的使用情况，将每个领域与幸福和生活满意度的两项直接测量指标进行关联。几个TMHI领域与幸福程度密切相关。我们发现，无论采用哪种测量方法，心理状态和社会支持领域与幸福程度呈中度或强相关（相关系数为0.24 - 0.56）。另外两个TMHI领域（心理能力和心理素质）与幸福程度无关。对社会人口学属性与幸福程度的分析表明，年龄和性别影响不大，但婚姻状况（离异或丧偶）、家庭收入低以及无带薪工作都有强烈的不利影响。我们的研究结果为衡量幸福程度及相关社会人口学属性提供了泰国基准。我们还提供了证据表明TMHI能够衡量泰国人口的幸福程度。此外，泰国队列成员的结果可以随时间进行监测，并且可用于与其他东南亚国家进行比较。
