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A Multiple Cohort Study of the Gender Gradient of Life Satisfaction during Adolescence: Longitudinal Evidence from Great Britain *
Author(s) -
Chrysanthou Georgios Marios
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
oxford bulletin of economics and statistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.131
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1468-0084
pISSN - 0305-9049
DOI - 10.1111/obes.12446
Subject(s) - life satisfaction , british household panel survey , demography , cohort , psychology , longitudinal study , depression (economics) , cohort study , propensity score matching , developmental psychology , medicine , demographic economics , social psychology , sociology , economics , pathology , macroeconomics
This study is unique in exploiting 12 youth cohorts (aged 11–15) from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) spanning 1996–2017 to investigate the gender gradient of adolescent life satisfaction. We find robust evidence of a cross‐cohort gender gap particularly at the extremes of the adolescent life satisfaction distribution. Male adolescents are significantly more likely to report complete life satisfaction (by around 6%–14%) and females to report dissatisfaction (by around 3%–7%) indicating a higher female depression propensity. An intra‐household gender gap is found for female adolescents raised with opposite sex siblings. Previous period life satisfaction is the strongest determinant of prospective higher self‐reported male satisfaction levels.