LIFE IN KUMAUN : STUDY OF LIFE SATISFACTION IN KUMAUNI WOMEN

This study was a part of the major project from ICSSR, New Delhi and it was aimed to ascertain the impact of culturalvariation, chronological age and marital circumstances on life satisfaction. It was contended that :1- life satisfaction and happiness would be affected by variation in culture.2- young and old participants would differ in relation to their scores on life satisfaction.3- discrepancy in the scores of life satisfaction would be appeared in women living with their husbands and living farfrom husband.Two hundred and forty women ranging between 25-60 years served as participants and arranged according to therequirements of 3*2*2 factorial design with three types of cultures (Bhotia, Buxa, General Kumauni) X two levels ofchronological age (25-30 years and 55-60 years) X two types of marital circumstances (wives living with husbands) andwives living far from the husbands) i.e; 20 participants per cell. Measures of life satisfaction were used to get the indicesof life satisfaction in participants.Data analysis was made by analysis of variance and correlation. It was noted that all independent variables laid theirimpact as main effect and interaction mode. Also, correlation coefficients showed close knit.Findings were discussed in terms of cultural variation, chronological age and marital circumstances as effectors of lifesatisfaction. At last, need of intervention programs to raise the mental faculty of vulnerable people was also discussed.