A Study of Factors Affecting Social Happiness in Iran: A Meta-analysis of Conducted Research

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Education, Mazandaran University

2 Phd Student (Sociology)

3 PhD Student, Department of Sociology, University of Tabriz

Abstract

Happiness given the importance of social happiness in Iran, several studies have been conducted in this field in recent years. Due to the abundance and diversity of studies conducted in the field of social happiness, it is necessary to conduct a combinative research, like meta-analysis, in this area. The main question of this research is: What are the most important factors affecting social happiness in the findings of researches conducted in Iran?
The population of the study consists of almost all research papers that studied social happiness and were published between 2001 and 2015 in Iran. Finally 24 researches were selected and analyzed by Comprehensive Meta-analysis software (CMA2).
The results showed that life satisfaction, self-esteem, religious and social relations – compared to other variables – have significant impacts on social happiness in Iran. The results of effect size showed that the relationship between life satisfaction and social happiness in the studies reviewed is positive and high level (effect size = 0.61). Also the relationship between self-esteem and social happiness in the studies reviewed is positive and high level (effect size = 0.58). Random combined effects show that the relationship between religious and social happiness, which stands at 0.39, is positive and moderate. The relationship between social relations and social happiness is also positive and moderate (effect size = 0.37).

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