Normative modernization, social integration, and collective wellbeing: Evidence from a cross-national dynamic panel...

Cross-national evidence does not establish whether changing normative environments are associated with population wellbeing independently of social integration. Using repeated International Social Survey Programme data, the reported analysis aggregates individual responses into 286 country-wave observations across 52 countries. Two-step System GMM models estimate persistence and conditional associations while treating the lagged outcome as endogenous. Reported estimates indicate persistence in countries' relative wellbeing positions. Social integration has a modest positive association with wellbeing, while the composite modernization association is small and imprecise. Gender egalitarianism and environmental concern show modest positive domain-specific associations; inequality attitudes, religiosity, and work modernization do not. The modernization association is more positive at higher integration levels. These findings are conditional associations, not causal effects. Interpretation is restricted by low ICC(1) values, incomplete cross-national measurement invariance, a changing-domain composite, and only three directly observed social-integration waves. The evidence therefore supports a bounded conclusion: aggregate normative indicators are associated with relative wellbeing positions differently across domains and integration levels.