Quality of research on correlates of subjective well-being in adulthood

Social scientists in general and social gerontologists in particular have investigated extensively the correlates of subjective well-being in adulthood. This paper examined whether ratings of study quality for 280 research reports on the correlates of subjective well-being in adulthood vary with year of report, type of report, journal focus, and study quality dimension. Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that Year of Report and Journal Focus were related to quality of study ratings. There were differences by Year of Report on ratings of significance of the problem, adequacy of sampling, appropriateness of statistical analyses, and adequacy of research report. Studies published in journals with an "aging" focus relative to those in journals with a "non aging" focus were rated higher on adequacy of the measuring instrument and reasonableness of the conclusions. The mean rating across all items was 2.67, indicating that the average study was judged to meet less than "some requirements." Concerns are noted for definition of the problem, relevance of the population, adequacy of sampling, and adequacy of control for errors.