Introduction
The paper is dedicated to the study of factors influencing the happiness of women, whose lives were affected by the Katrina Hurricane, one and four years after the hurricane (Calvo, Arcaya, Baum, Lowe, & Waters, 2015). The study used a validated questionnaire to determine the happiness of women, where the same questions were asked one and after four years after the hurricane. The surveyed women were mainly non-Hispanic black origin, the average of 25 years old, having two children.
Main body
The level of happiness of the respondents one year after the hurricane has significantly decreased (the number of women who chose a “not at all happy” option has increased by 3.5 times), remaining almost intact even after four years. The biggest number of respondents selected a positive ‘somewhat happy’ answer both after one and four years. The amount of “very happy” respondents has increased after four years, almost reaching the pre-hurricane values.
About one-third of the respondents lost a family member, and a major part of them had severe to enormous damage caused to their properties. The average amount of their total household income increased 1.4 times in the course of four years. The social support of the women has significantly increased one year after the hurricane, experiencing a slight reduction 4 years later. The number of times the respondents were attending religious services has slightly increased after four years, compared to the results of one year after the hurricane.
Conclusion
Approximately eight percent of women reported that they became less happy four years after the hurricane, compared to one year after. However, this unhappiness is most likely linked with the absence of a partner. The respondents who reported high happiness rates were more likely to report the same rates one year after. Most probably, it is linked with the characteristics of the personality that were not taken into consideration in this study.
The index of baseline happiness did not depend on the stressful situations, linked with property damage or death of a family member. The income of the family, the factor of religiosity, as well as hurricane-related stressors had no significant influence on the happiness of a woman both in one year and four-year perspectives. Only the factor of losing a close person could pre-define the decrease in the level of happiness after one and four years after the hurricane.
References
Calvo, R., Arcaya, M., Baum, C. F., Lowe, S. R., & Waters, M.C. (2015). Happily ever after? Pre-amd-post disaster determinants of happiness among survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16(2), 427-442.