# The Gender Life Satisfaction/Depression Paradox

## TL;DR

Women report higher life satisfaction than men but are also more likely to say they are depressed, a paradox that this study explores using data from the European Social Survey.

## Contribution

The study confirms the gender life satisfaction/depression paradox and identifies affect intensity as a potential explanation.

## Key findings

- The paradox is stable across various demographic and geographic factors in the European Social Survey.
- Women show greater affect intensity, meaning their life satisfaction is more influenced by events and less resilient to shocks.
- The paper discusses biological, genetic, cultural, and personality rationales for the observed patterns.

## Abstract

According to the gender life satisfaction/depression paradox women are significantly more likely to report higher levels of life satisfaction than men after controlling for all relevant socio-demographic factors, but also significantly more likely to declare they are depressed. We find that the paradox holds in the cross-country sample of the European Social Survey and is stable across age, education, self-assessed health, macroregion and survey round splits. We find support for the affect intensity rationale showing that women are relatively more affected in their satisfaction about life by the good or bad events or achievements occurring during their existence and less resilient (less likely to revert to their standard levels of happiness after a shock). We as well discuss biological, genetic, cultural, personality rationales advocated in the literature that can explain our findings.