The Gross National Happiness Abridged Survey

1. The Gross National Happiness Abridged Survey Michael Pennock, Population Health Epidemiologist, Vancouver Island Health Authority, Victoria, BC. Canada michael.pennock@viha.ca Dasho Karma Ura, Director, Centre of Bhutan Studies Thimphu Bhutan drphilos@yahoo.co.uk

2. During the fall of 2006 a population survey measure of Gross National Happiness was developed and pretested by the Centre of Bhutan Studies for use in Bhutan. The final survey instrument was composed of 1500 variables across eleven domains and took between 4 to 7 hours to administer. Attempted to use items from other national or international surveys so that comparisons with other applications would be possible.

3. Why Another Survey? • There are variety of surveys that measure happiness and life satisfaction • Other individual surveys measure individual domains • GNH Survey attempts to incorporate happiness and domains into one survey instrument

4. CURRENT STATUS: Bhutanese Survey • 300+ interviews completed • Another 800+ to be completed by spring • Preliminary data analysis on original sample now being done by CBS

5. Generalizability Many of the items were specific to the Bhutanese context and would not be relevant to other cultures or nations. Six hour interview not feasible in most applications A shorter and more generic version of the survey is being developed for use in other jurisdictions.

6. CHALLENGESBhutanese Survey • Material wellbeing in non-cash economy • Five point response scales • Household heterogeneity • Time use • Translation of concepts such as quality of life

7. Largest Challenge • Breadth of domains • Everything is related to happiness/unhappiness • How do you measure “everything” without a six hour interview

8. HAPPINESS AND WELLBEING • subjective happiness • general life-satisfaction • enjoyment of life and satisfaction with specific life dimensions • general life-stress • Combined into aggregate score

9. SPIRITUALITY • Importance of spiritual beliefs and activities

10. HEALTH • General Health Questionnaire • Self-rated health • Activity Limitations

11. FAMILY AND COMMUNITY • Social Support • Interpersonal Trust • Family Relationship • Community Belonging • Community Involvement • Community Security and Stability

12. TIME USE AND BALANCE • Time Stress • Satisfaction with Time Use

13. CORE VALUES • Importance of 13 core value dimensions

14. CULTURAL VITALITY • Importance of cultural affiliation • Minority group membership • Experience of discrimination • Satisfaction with value directions in community

15. GOVERNANCE • Satisfaction with political governance • Respect for rights and freedoms • Effectiveness of government institutions

16. ENVIRONMENT • Importance of environment • Satisfaction with environmental conditions

17. LIVING STANDARDS • Satisfaction with material circumstances • Areas of financial hardship • Relative wealth • Satisfaction with housing

18. Next Steps • Critique from other cultural and language groups • Finalize abridged survey with further reductions in number of items • Further analysis of CBS data to identify summary variables • Pretest in different cultures

19. Interested? Contact michael.pennock@viha.ca