The mediating role of individuals' health status on subjective well-being in Turkey and EU countries: A Generalized structural equation model application

Happiness and life satisfaction are two important concepts that reflect individuals' perceptions of their lives and are frequently researched in fields such as psychology and sociology. Understanding people's general life satisfaction and happiness levels is one of the critical elements that determine not only individual well-being but also social well-being. Therefore, studies on happiness and life satisfaction are of great importance for policy makers and social scientists. When sociological and psychological effects are considered, it can be stated that subjective health has universal importance and greatly affects individuals' happiness and life satisfaction. Subjective health refers to how an individual perceives his or her own health. An individual's positive perception of his or her health increases his or her satisfaction with life and general happiness level. In this study, individual happiness and life satisfaction in Turkey and EU countries were comparatively examined using the World Values Survey (WVS) data through subjective health using Generalized Structural Equation Modeling (GSEM). Individuals' perceptions of their own health play an important role in shaping their general life satisfaction and happiness. According to the findings, the mediating variable, subjective health, has a direct and positive effect on life satisfaction and happiness. It has been observed that this effect is 4 times greater on happiness than on life satisfaction. It is striking that the most important factors affecting life satisfaction are the professions and married of individuals in Turkey, while employment status, married and religious belief are the most important factors on happiness.