Higher income is linked to both greater life satisfaction and more stress, study finds

For decades, psychologists and social scientists have been trying to understand what contributes to people’s mental health, happiness and overall feeling of well-being. Their efforts have already helped to design numerous social and therapeutic interventions aimed at supporting people in their personal growth and positively influencing their lives.

Researchers at Yale University recently carried out a study exploring the relationships between income, life satisfaction and stress, focusing on individuals living in the United States. Their findings, published in Communications Psychology, suggest that while having a higher income is linked to greater life satisfaction, it can also result in higher self-reported levels of stress.

“Stress is something we all experience or have heard others complain about,” Karthik Akkiraju, first author of the paper, told Medical Xpress. “This is even prevalent among those who would typically be considered affluent. Of course, there were hints from earlier works that stress is unique in its behavior compared to other positive and negative-affective emotions.”

The key objective of the recent study by Akkiraju and his colleague Narasimha D. Rao was to dig deeper into the previously reported associations between income, life satisfaction and stress. Specifically, the researchers wished to determine whether some lifestyle factors could partially explain the higher stress levels experienced by some individuals, particularly those with better-paying jobs.

“To investigate the relationship between stress, life satisfaction and income, we used the Gallup Daily Poll from the United States,” explained Akkiraju. “What we did differently from previous studies is to use cubic splines instead of linear regression models. What this gave us is the flexibility to model a non-linear relationship between stress and income.”

The data analyzed by Akkiraju and Rao was collected as part of the Gallup Daily Poll. This is a national survey that collected responses from more than 2.05 million adults living in the U.S., during a 10-year period that spanned from 2008 to 2017.

The researchers found that people who reported having more favorable lifestyles, for instance fulfilling their basic needs (i.e., housing, food, etc.) eating healthier, exercising, socializing often and having a good support network, were found to have greater life satisfaction. While this life satisfaction was found to be linked to a higher income, they also found that people living in households with yearly incomes above approximately $63,000 were more likely to experience stress.

“We found that individuals with lifestyle factors that one could reasonably assume to be desirable have a turning point at a lower income,” said Akkiraju. “Predictably, these life conditions have overall lower stress compared to those without these desirable conditions. However, paradoxically, they are also more likely to see their stress levels rise sooner as their incomes grow.”

The results of this recent study suggest that once individuals start earning enough to cover their basic needs, socialize and look after their health, they tend to become more susceptible to stress again when their income rises above a certain level. This could be associated with job-related factors, such as greater responsibilities and risks, a poorer work-life balance or other lifestyle factors.

“Regarding implications, it is tricky to ascertain whether an earlier turning point is desirable with the data we have,” said Akkiraju. “Our stress measure is a simple Yes/No question and lacks nuance in the intensity, duration, and desirability of the stress that individuals experience. We do not know if individuals seek such stressful situations (for example, through ambitious goals) or if they inexplicably find themselves in such situations due to their other needs being met.”

The recent work by Akkiraju and Rao could soon pave the way for further studies exploring the link between income and well-being, perhaps focusing on a broader range of income-related lifestyle factors. The researchers would also like to conduct similar data analyses that extend beyond the U.S., by including survey responses collected in other geographical regions.

“We hope that future works focus on collecting more data about the nature of the stress that individuals face and whether they view it as desirable,” added Akkiraju. “One area we have not explored yet is geography. In our next studies, we hope to extend our approach to smaller geographies within the United States and to other parts of the world as well.”

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