Journal of Happiness Studies (2022) 23:3331–3346

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-022-00544-z

RESEARCH PAPER

The Role of ‘Peace of Mind’ and ‘Meaningfulness’ as

Psychological Concepts in Explaining Subjective Well-being

Vandepitte Sophie1 · Claes Sara1 · T’Jaeckx Jellen1 · Annemans Lieven1

Accepted: 12 May 2022 / Published online: 23 June 2022

© The Author(s) 2022

Abstract
Background Although extensive research has been conducted to explain what contributes
to subjective wellbeing, still a substantial part of its variance remains unexplained. This
study investigated whether psychological concepts ‘peace of mind’ and ‘meaningfulness’
contribute to SWB beyond the basic and psychological needs while using several needs
theories as a theoretical basis and thereby hypothesizing that both concepts are actionable
and help enhance SWB.
Methods The cross-sectional data (N = 3770) of the Belgian National happiness study
(2018) were used. Three components of SWB (life satisfaction, positive and negative affect)
were identified as predicted variables and used in threefold stepwise forward regression
analyses.
Results As expected both basic and psychological needs explained a considerable part of
the three SWB components. However, including meaningfulness and peace of mind in the
last step of the models resulted in a substantially higher total variance that was explained
in these components (i.e. 56.7% for life satisfaction, 37.2% for positive affect, and 56.1%
for negative affect). More specific, in the final models: basic needs, feelings of autonomy
and relatedness, peace of mind and meaningfulness were significantly associated with the
life satisfaction component. For the positive affect component: psychological needs, peace
of mind, and meaningfulness were the significantly associated factors. Finally, the negative
affect component was most significantly associated with basic needs, psychological needs,
and peace of mind, while meaningfulness did not play a significant role in explaining nega-
tive affect.
Discussion This study reconfirms the value of several needs theories in explaining the com-
ponents of SWB and the role of universal needs. The final steps of the models also indicate
that different needs contribute independently to the different SWB components. This is the
first study demonstrating that ‘meaningfulness’ and ‘peace of mind’ contribute substantially
to SWB beyond the typical basic and psychological needs.

Keywords Life satisfaction · Positive and negative affect · Subjective well-being ·

Happiness · Peace of mind · Meaningfulness

Extended author information available on the last page of the article

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3332 V. Sophie et al.

1 Background

Over the last 50 years there has been a growing interest in the subjective well-being of
individuals and nations in several research fields ranging from scientific and public policy
environments to popular writing (Ngamaba, 2017; Diener et al., 2018). As such, subjective
well-being (considered as the scientific counterpart of happiness) has increasingly being
used alongside objective economic data to investigate social progress and prosperity, to
evaluate public policy, and to predict outcomes in individuals and societies (Diener et al.,
2006; Ngamaba, 2017; Vik & Carlquist, 2018). Indeed it is known that ‘happy people’ live
longer and healthier lives, have more rewarding and stable relationships, are more produc-
tive, are more resilient against negative life events, donate more for charity, and are more
likely to help others (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005; Diener & Chan, 2011; Diener et al., 2018).
According to Ed Diener’s definition (1984) subjective well-being (SWB) contains both
life satisfaction and an affective dimension. As such, high subjective well-being can be
defined as a reflection of positive emotions and thoughts about life in terms of frequent posi-
tive affect and infrequent negative affect and a sense of high satisfaction with life as a whole
(Diener, 1984; Diener & Chan, 2011).
Early research into explaining what contributes to subjective well-being mainly aimed
to answer research questions, such as what universal physiological/basic needs (such as:
living conditions, health, income) are correlated with subjective well-being (Diener et al.,
1999). These basic needs strongly correspond to the lowest levels of Maslow’s needs hier-
archy which depicts a five stage motivational theory whereby lower hierarchical needs must
be satisfied before satisfaction of higher hierarchical needs can be accomplished (Maslow,
1943). As such, based on this approach, Wilson already concluded in 1967 that happy people
were well-paid, young, educated, religious and married (Wilson, 1967). Later, because only
a relatively small part of variance in SWB could be explained, the focus shifted towards a
more psychological approach for explaining SWB (Diener et al., 1999) which again can be
related to Maslow’s universal needs theory, but also to the self-determination theory of Ryan
& Deci (2000) and the six-factor model of psychological well-being (Ryff & Keyes, 1995)
This approach thus focused on internal psychological structures and social processes that
also contribute to an enhanced SWB, such as: the satisfaction of basic psychological needs
(autonomy, relatedness, and competence according to the self-determination theory) (Ryan
& Deci, 2000), personality traits, aspirations, comparisons, and processes of adaptation to
certain life events. Consequently, these studies mainly concluded that ‘happy’ people have
a positive temperament, are extroverted, tend to see things from the bright side, have better
social relations, can better deal with bad events, and have the necessary resources for per-
sonal progress and to accomplish their goals (Diener et al., 1999; Diener, 2012).
In the recent years, the idea of universal needs revived after it faded for years because
researchers were more convinced that socialization and adaptation shapes what contributes
to well-being (Tay and Diener 2011). In 2011, Tay and Diener conducted a cross-sectional
study into the association between the fulfillment of basic (food and shelter, safety and
security) and psychological needs (social support, love, respect, pride, mastery, and auton-
omy) and SWB (Tay and Diener 2011). They also used the discussed needs theories as a
guide to investigate whether these universal needs explain SWB. Based on their conducted
analyses they concluded that fulfillment of different needs is largely independent of whether
other needs are fulfilled. They also concluded that correlates differ among different types of

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The Role of ‘Peace of Mind’ and ‘Meaningfulness’ as Psychological… 3333

well-being (life satisfaction and affective components). As such, basic needs correlate most
strongly with life satisfaction and negative feelings whereas social and respect needs more
strongly correlate with positive feelings and autonomy and respect with negative feelings.
They also compared people with high fulfillment of needs with people who had low need
fulfillment and concluded that fulfillment of needs is a prerequisite for SWB, but not enough
to ascertain high subjective well-being. As such, the authors argued that other additional
factors are relevant beyond the investigated basic and psychological needs.
This conclusion forms the starting point of the current study. In other words, this study
picks up where the authors left off by investigating if psychological concepts further con-
tribute to SWB after controlling for the lower basic and psychological needs (focus on:
autonomy, competence, and relatedness as defined by the self-determination theory). In this
light, two psychological concepts derived from the Ancient Greek philosophy were consid-
ered: ‘meaningfulness’ (as part of ‘eudaimonic well-being’) and ‘peace of mind’ (linked to
a key characteristic of ‘ataraxia’: equanimity).
First of all, ‘peace of mind’ (PoM) can be defined as an internal state of peacefulness
and harmony (Lee et al., 2013). The choice for this psychological concept as potential con-
tributing factor of SWB is linked to several philosophical movements. First, it is linked to
the Pyrrhonist practice where ataraxia was considered as a necessary prerequisite of hap-
piness (Warren, 2002). Next, in the tradition of Epicurus, equanimity - as a key feature of
ataraxia - can be defined as an even-minded state (being calm and stable) towards several
experiences despite their emotional valence (unpleasant, neutral, pleasant) and therefore
manifests as a balanced reaction to both misery and joy and protects against negative emo-
tions or events (Desbordes, Gard et al. 2015). As such, unpleasant emotions can be expe-
rienced without denying, aversion or judging, while pleasant emotions can be experienced
without overexcitement and the tendency to get addicted to those moments (Grabovac et al.,
2011). Although peace of mind does not fully capture this philosophical construct, it serves
as a valuable approach for its empirical measurement as it is closely linked to equanimity
which, as discussed, describes the capacity to find inner peace or an even-mind. Further,
PoM has always played a central role in the science of happiness of Eastern cultures, such
as Buddhism (Lee et al., 2013). Nevertheless, it has been understudied in SWB research of
modern Western cultures (Lee et al., 2013) although recent evidence indicates that peace of
mind also contributes to SWB in Western cultures. For example, a recently conducted study
by Sikka and colleagues (2018) has shown that PoM generates enhanced affect regulation,
which can be considered a prerequisite of better SWB (Sikka et al., 2018). The study of Lee
et al., (2013) that developed a Peace of Mind Scale concluded that PoM is highly correlated
with mental health and recommended to further elaborate on the role of PoM on SWB (Lee
et al., 2013). Based on the available evidence, we argue that PoM should be studied as a
potential contributing factor of SWB.
Next, ‘meaningfulness’ was identified as the second psychological concept. This concept
is linked to the Aristotelian philosophy of eudaimonia. Although traditionally most SWB
research focused on the hedonic perspective (affective or ‘feeling good’ dimension) of well-
being, there has been a growing interest in the eudaimonic perspective of well-being (the
‘living well’ dimension) (Schotanus-Dijkstra et al., 2016). Eudaimonia, as Aristotle under-
stood it, is living a complete human life by realizing one’s full human potential through
virtuous activity (arête) (Fowers, 2012). Despite Aristotle’s objectivist approach to assess
the good life, modern psychological sciences rely on subjectivist measures of the good life,

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Table 1 Characteristics of the Continuous: Minimum Max-

study participants (N = 3770) Mean (SD) imum
Categorical:
% (n)
Demographics
Age, mean (SD) 44.7 (15.55) 15 87
Gender, % (n) 41.2% (1553)
Male 58.6% (2209)
Female 0.2% (8)
Trans person
Educational level, % (n) 11.8% (446)
Low 33.8% (1273)
Middle 54.4% (2051)
High
Region, % (n) 81.5% (3072)
Flanders 5.9% (223)
Brussels 12.6% (475)
Wallonia
Occupational status, % (n) 62.9% (2371)
Employed 2.5 (94)
Housewife/man 4.2 (159)
Unemployed 16.6 (625)
Retired (or early retirement) 6.6 (248)
Unable to work 5.9 (221)
Student 1.4 (52)
Other
Equivalised Income, mean € 2025.37 €0 €
(SD) (1096.14) 6050
Basic needs
Satisfaction with safety, mean 7.44 (1.95) 0 10
(SD)
Subjective health, mean (SD) 6.92 (2.02) 0 10
Satisfaction of financial situa- 6.56 (2.53) 0 10
tion, mean (SD)
Satisfaction with living condi- 7.76 (2.08) 0 10
tions, mean (SD)
Sleep deprivation, mean (SD) 2.45 (1.28) 1 5
Satisfaction of psychological
needs
Psychological needs, mean 1.54 (1.48) -4 4
(SD) 1.24 (1.45) -4 4
Autonomy 1.22 (1.59) -4 4
Relatedness
Competence
Psychological concepts
Peace of mind, mean (SD) 6.78 (1.71) 2 10
Meaningfulness in life, mean 7.24 (1.88) 2 10
(SD)
Subjective well-being (pre-
dicted variables)
Life satisfaction, mean (SD) 6.7 (1.87) 0 10
Positive affect, mean (SD) 2.29 (0.49)
Negative affect, mean (SD) 0.52 (0.17)

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The Role of ‘Peace of Mind’ and ‘Meaningfulness’ as Psychological… 3335

such as meaningfulness. According to the philosopher Susan Wolf (2012), a good life is a
meaningful life. Such a sense of meaningfulness emerges from the fulfillment of meanings
or values – the things people find important in life (Baumeister, 1991; Bauer et al., 2015).
The concept of meaningfulness can thus be interpreted as a subjective sense of living a good
life, as a subjective impression of eudaimonia, and in that way, meaningfulness represents
a sense of eudaimonic well-being. Eudaimonia - including ‘meaningfulness’ - has theoreti-
cally most often being approached as a SWB outcome (Diener et al., 2018). In contrast to
this approach, we agree with the growing evidence suggesting that eudaimonic well-being is
actionable (Ryan & Martela, 2016; Ryff, 2017; Diener et al., 2018) because it should not be
considered as a kind of happiness, but as a good way of life that provides ingredients - such
as ‘meaningfulness’ - that contribute to an enhanced SWB (Ryan & Martela, 2016; Diener et
al., 2018). Moreover, when absent there is a substantial risk for mental illness (Ryff, 2017).
As a result, awareness is also growing that promoting positive mental health is important in
treating mental health problems (Ryff, 2017). An example of this is the use of ‘well-being
therapy’ where the eudaimonic well-being approach is actively used by promoting positive
psychological experiences to prevent mental illness or relapse (Ryff, 2017). More infor-
mation on well-being therapy interventions can be consulted in (Ryff, 2014). Hence, this
rationale indicates that eudaimonic well-being -including meaningfulness- can contribute to
a higher subjective well-being.
In summary, this study further builds on the research of Tay and Diener (2011) and aims
to investigate the potential additional roles of two psychological phenomena in further
explaining the different types of SWB (life evaluation, positive and negative affect) in indi-
viduals. In other words, this study investigates to what extent ‘meaningfulness’ and ‘peace
of mind’ contribute to explain life satisfaction and positive and negative affect beyond the
well-known basic needs and the psychological needs. ‘Meaningfulness’ thus represents a
(cognitive) evaluation that a particular value or meaning has been fulfilled (Bauer, 2016),
whereas ‘peace of mind’ is closely related to ‘equanimity’ which can be seen as an adaptive
form of affect regulation (Desbordes et al., 2015). As both psychological constructs (poten-
tially) tap into different routes to enhanced SWB – a cognitive and an affective route – we
deem them relevant candidates to further the research of Tay and Diener (2011).

2 Methods

2.1 Data source

The present study uses the cross-sectional data based on a sample (N = 3770) of the Belgian
National NN-UGent happiness study that was held between December 6th, 2017 and Janu-
ary 3rd, 2018 (Annemans, 2018). After the researchers obtained approval from the Ethical
Committee of the Ghent University Hospital the data-collection phase started during which
people completed an online anonymous questionnaire. Inclusion criteria to participate were
living in Belgium and sufficient understanding of Dutch or French. More detailed informa-
tion on the Belgian National NN-UGent happiness study and the published reports can be
consulted elsewhere (Annemans, 2018, Annemans L 2020, Annemans & Vandepitte, 2020).
The participants’ characteristics are outlined in Table 1.

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3336 V. Sophie et al.

2.2 Measures

2.2.1 Components of subjective well-being

Life satisfaction (the evaluative component of SWB) was identified as the predicted variable
and was measured with the widely known Cantril Ladder (Cantril 2001, Bjornskov 2010,
Veenhoven, 2012) which asks the following question: “Please imagine a ladder with steps
numbered from zero at the bottom to ten at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best
possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you.
On which step of the ladder do you feel you personally stand at the present time?”(OECD
2013). This one-item question has proven reliability. As such, a correlation of 0.75 between
the Cantril Ladder from the Gallup World Poll and life satisfaction as measured in the World
Values Survey was found (Bjornskov, 2010).
Positive and Negative affect (the affective component of SWB) were questioned using
an abbreviated version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedules (PANAS) (Watson et
al., 1988). Positive affect was the sum of positive emotions items divided by the number
of items, while negative affect was the sum of negative emotions divided by the number
of items. As a result their respective scales ranged between: 0–4 (never to always). The
Cronbach’s alpha of both affect scales was 0,798 in the negative affect scale and 0,661 in
the positive affect scale.

2.2.2 Sociodemographics

The following sociodemographic variables are controlled for in the model: age, gender, edu-
cational level, region, occupational status, and equivalised income. Educational level was
divided in three groups according to the International Standard Classification of Education:
low educated (from early childhood education to lower secondary education), medium edu-
cated (upper secondary education to post-secondary non-tertiary education), and high edu-
cated (short-cycle tertiary education to doctoral degree or equivalent). Gender was divided
in three categories: woman, man, trans person. The variable region distinguished between
Flanders, Brussels, and Wallonia. Occupational status contained the following categories:
professionally active, unemployed, unable to work, retired (or early retirement), student,
housewife/husband, informal caregiver, career break, or other situation. Household income
was calculated based on the OECD-modified equivalence scale (EUROSTAT 2018) that
assigns one adult household member a value of 1, while each other adult member receives
a value of 0.5, and each child member a value of 0.3.

2.2.3 Basic needs

Satisfaction with one’s safety (circumstance), living conditions, financial situation, daily
main activity (job, voluntary work, studies, chores), sleep and subjective health were ques-
tioned. To obtain information on the first four variables, a question was asked about how
satisfied one was with a certain life domain nowadays on a 11 point Likert scale ranging
from 0 (totally unsatisfied) to 10 (totally satisfied). Subjective health was also evaluated
with an eleven point Likert scale whereby ‘0’ represented the worst imaginable health and

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The Role of ‘Peace of Mind’ and ‘Meaningfulness’ as Psychological… 3337

‘10’ the best imaginable health. Finally, sleep deprivation was evaluated with a five point
Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always).

2.2.4 Psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness

According to the Self-Determination Theory (concerned with human motivation and per-
sonality) three basic intrinsic psychological needs were identified that determine the well-
being and growth, the intrinsic motivation and the self-regulation of individuals: autonomy
(a sense of psychological freedom), competence (sense of effectiveness and mastery) and
relatedness (sense of connection with important others) (Ryan & Deci, 2000). When these
three innate psychological needs are fulfilled, this stimulates intrinsic motivation and leads
to enhanced internally regulated motivation, well-being, creativity and performance, while a
lack of fulfillment of these needs causes diminished motivation (more externally regulated)
and well-being. In this study, the basic psychological needs were measured with a short-
ened version of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (6 items)
(Chen et al., 2015). This scale combines a balanced combination of satisfaction (positively
formulated) and frustration (negatively formulated) items of which the latter are especially
predictive of ill-being (problematic behavior and psychopathology) (Vansteenkiste & Ryan,
2013). Each psychological need was evaluated by combining a positive and a negative item
on a 5-point Likert scale ranging between 0 (never) and 4 (always). Scores for each psycho-
logical need were then calculated by subtracting the positive item from the negative item
of each particular need. This resulted in a score between − 4 (high frustration) and 4 (high
satisfaction). The correlations were respectively: 0.57 for the autonomy items, 0.61 for the
competence items and 0.58 for the relatedness items.

2.2.5 Peace of mind

To collect data on the peace of mind an abbreviated version of the recently developed
“Peace of Mind Scale“ was used (Lee et al., 2013). As such, the following two statements
were questioned in Dutch (based on forward-back translation) using a 5 point Likert scale
from 0 (not at all) to 5 (all of the time): ‘my mind is free and at ease’ and ‘I have peace and
harmony in my mind’. The scores in this scale, by combining the two questions, ranged
between 0 (very low peace of mind) and 10 (very high piece of mind). A correlation of 0,868
indicated good reliability.

2.2.6 Meaningfulness

Meaningfulness data were based on Diener’s Flourishing scale whereby only the item refer-
ring to having a purposeful life was selected and divided in two items because in the Dutch
language (forward-back translation) ‘purpose’ and ‘meaningfulness’ are not the same con-
cepts (Diener et al., 2010). As such, two questions were asked: ‘my life has a purpose’ and
‘what I do in life is meaningful’. To answer these questions a 5-point Likert scale was used
ranging from completely disagree to completely agree. The total score on this scale, by com-
bining the two questions, varied between 0 (no meaningful living) and 10 (very meaningful
living). A correlation of 0.79 indicated good reliability.

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3338 V. Sophie et al.

2.3 Statistical analysis

The eligible variables for the model were included in the multiple regression model using
a three step forward selection process starting with the basic needs and sociodemographic
variables, second, including the psychological needs and finally, adding the ‘meaningful-
ness’ and ‘peace of mind’ variables. Additionally, for each step, the Adjusted R squared was

Table 2 Factors contributing to Step 1: basic needs

subjective well-being based on
Life Posi- Nega-
stepwise general linear models
satisfactiona tive tive
affecta affecta
Subjective health .23** .15** − .17**
Sleep deprivation − .07** − .05* .24**
Satisfaction with financial situation .27** .08** − .10**
Satisfaction with living conditions .22** .14** − .10**
Satisfaction with safety .08** .11** − .16**
Adjusted R2 bin step 1 45.4% 16.3% 33.8%
Step 2: basic + satisfaction of psychological needs
Life Posi- Nega-
satisfactiona tive tive
affecta affecta
Subjective health .19** .08** − .10**
Sleep deprivation − .03* .02 .16**
Satisfaction with financial situation .22** .01 − .02
Satisfaction with living conditions .18** .08** − .04*
Satisfaction with safety .04* .05* − .10**
Autonomy .10** .12** − .12**
Relatedness .10** .11** − .09**
Competence .14** .28** − .35**
Adjusted R2 bin step 2 50.6% 27.9% 48.9%
Step 3: basic + satisfaction of psychological needs + peace of
mind + purpose in life
Life Posi- Nega-
satisfactiona tive tive
affecta affecta
Subjective health .14** .03 − .05**
All analyses are controlled for:
age, gender, educational level, Sleep deprivation − .003 .04* .13**
region, occupational status, and Satisfaction with financial situation .19** − .02 .01
equivalised income; Satisfaction with living conditions .15** .05* − .02
a
standardised beta coefficients, Satisfaction with safety .02 .02 − .07**
b
adjusted R squared represents
Autonomy .06** .08** − .08**
the total amount of variance
explained in the predicted Relatedness .06** .05* − .05**
variables (life satisfaction, Competence .03 .14** − .24**
positive affect, negative affect), Peace of mind .24** .22** − .37**
**p ≤ 0.001, *p < 0.05. Missing
Meaningfulness in life .16** .27** .009
data were not included in the
model Adjusted R2 bin step 3 56.7% 37.2% 56.1%

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The Role of ‘Peace of Mind’ and ‘Meaningfulness’ as Psychological… 3339

reported in order to evaluate if the model improved when adding new variables while cor-
recting for the higher number of parameters relative to the sample size.
Alongside building the model, collinearity diagnostics (Variance Inflation Factor, Tol-
erance) were performed and correlations (see correlation matrices in Appendix 1) were
analyzed to test for potential multicollinearity (Posada & Buckley, 2004). Based on these
analyses, none of the variables had to be removed. Also, the assumptions underlying the
use of multiple regression analysis were checked via graphical plotting of the residuals. All
analyses were conducted in IBM SPSS statistical software (version 24.0).

3 Results

3.1 The role of basic needs in explaining subjective well-being

As discussed above threefold stepwise forward regression analyses were conducted after
inspecting the univariate associations (consultation based on request). Based on these anal-
yses, equivalised income was removed due to multicollinearity (equivalised income and
financial satisfaction).
Next, in the first step of the models basic needs were entered whilst controlling for sev-
eral demographics (age, gender, educational level, region, and occupational status). The
results of this first step are displayed in Table 2. The adjusted R squared (explained vari-
ance) was 45.4% in the predicted variable life satisfaction, 16.3% in the dependent variable
positive affect, and 33.8% in the predicted variable negative affect. For all the three SWB
components (life satisfaction, positive and negative affect) all the included basic needs (sub-
jective health, sleep deprivation, satisfaction with financial situation, satisfaction with liv-
ing conditions, satisfaction with safety) were significantly associated with the dependent
variable. For life satisfaction: subjective health (p ≤ 0.001), satisfaction with the financial
situation (p ≤ 0.001) and with the living conditions (p ≤ 0.001) were identified as factors with
high relative importance in relation to life satisfaction as the standardized beta coefficients
of these factors were nominally the highest (Siegel, 2016). For positive affect: subjective
health (p ≤ 0.001) and satisfaction with living conditions (p ≤ 0.001) were identified as strong
positively associated factors. Finally, for the predicted variable negative affect, sleep depri-
vation was identified as a strong positively associated factor (p ≤ 0.001) with the nominally
highest standardized beta coefficient.

3.2 The role of psychological needs in explaining subjective well-being

In the next step of the models the adjusted R squared increased towards 50.6% for life
satisfaction, towards 27.9% for positive affect and towards 48.9% for negative affect. The
strongest increases in the explained variance were thus detected in the dependent variables
positive (+ 11.6%) and negative affect (+ 15.1%). Further, all the basic needs that were
already included in the first step of the models remained significant despite two excep-
tions: satisfaction with the financial situation was no longer significantly associated with the
positive and negative affect components and sleep deprivation was no longer significantly
associated with positive affect while it remained a significantly associated factor of negative
affect (p ≤ 0.001).

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3340 V. Sophie et al.

The newly added psychological needs (autonomy, relatedness, competence) were sig-
nificantly associated with all three SWB components. However, the strongest associations
were found between competence and the predicted variables positive affect (p ≤ 0.001) and
negative affect (p ≤ 0.001). For both predicted variables, competence was the predictor with
the nominally highest standardized beta coefficient.

3.3 The additional role of ‘peace of mind’ and ‘meaningfulness’ in explaining

subjective well-being

In the final models the adjusted R squared increased towards 56.7% for life satisfaction
(+ 6.1%), 37.2% for positive affect (+ 9.3%), and 56.1% for negative affect (+ 7.2%) with
the strongest increase detected in positive affect.
In this final step of the model, peace of mind became one of the strongest associated fac-
tors in all three SWB components compared with the other basic needs and psychological
needs, more specific: life satisfaction (p ≤ 0.001), positive affect (p ≤ 0.001), and negative
affect (p ≤ 0.001). For all three SWB components, the standardized beta of peace of mind
was nominally stronger compared to those of the other basic and psychological needs.
Next, meaningfulness also played a crucial role in the life satisfaction (p ≤ 0.001) and
in the positive affect (p ≤ 0.001) components of SWB. Nevertheless, in the negative affect
component, meaningfulness was not an associated factor.
Regarding the earlier included basic needs, the results of the final step of the models
indicated that basic needs became less important in explaining positive and negative affect
compared to life satisfaction. For both positive and negative affect, the standardized beta
coefficients of the basic needs were nominally among the weakest in the model. This cor-
responds to the findings in the two earlier steps of the models where basic needs already
played a more important role in life satisfaction than in positive and negative affect. How-
ever, while subjective health, satisfaction with the financial situation and satisfaction with
the living conditions remained important in explaining life satisfaction, sleep deprivation
and satisfaction with safety were no longer significantly associated. The latter two factors
did however remain significantly associated with negative affect (both p ≤ 0.001). Regarding
the psychological needs, especially competence remained important in explaining positive
(p ≤ 0.001) and negative affect (p ≤ 0.001), while this factor was no longer significantly asso-
ciated with life satisfaction. Autonomy and relatedness remained significantly associated
with all dependent variables.

4 Discussion

This study investigated whether the psychological concepts ‘meaningfulness’ and ‘peace of
mind’ contribute to SWB (in terms of life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect)
beyond basic and psychological needs of which it is accepted that they play an impor-
tant role. Next, this study provides detailed evidence about the importance of the different
needs in relation to the different SWB components. As a starting point the evidence and
conclusions discussed in the research of Tay and Diener (2011) were used where six basic
and psychological needs and their relation with the different components of SWB were

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The Role of ‘Peace of Mind’ and ‘Meaningfulness’ as Psychological… 3341

investigated. However, the current study goes one step further by investigating whether two
psychological concepts further contribute to SWB.
In order to answer this research question three 3-step multiple regression models were
built, inspired by several needs theories (Maslow, 1943; Ryff & Singer, 1998; Ryan & Deci,
2000). As such, in a first step factors corresponding to lower basic needs were entered in the
models, followed by including factors related to the typical psychological needs (derived
from the self-determination theory), and finally including meaningfulness and peace of
mind in the latest step. The latter was done under the assumption that both meaningfulness
and peace of mind additionally contribute to achieve SWB.
Based on the results of this study several conclusions can be drawn that form a first
theoretical basis for future policy recommendations. First, in congruence with the study of
Tay & Diener (2011), this research reconfirms that using needs theories as a starting point
was appropriate and has led to an increase in the variance that was explained in SWB by
this stepwise procedure (Tay and Diener 2011). Next, as Ryan & Deci (2000), and Maslow
(1943) argue, these findings also indicate that universal needs exist and that fulfilling them
is related to enhanced SWB (Maslow, 1943; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Further, our evidence is
also in congruence with Tay & Diener (2011) who concluded that fulfilment of the classical
basic and psychological needs is a prerequisite, but is not enough to achieve a high level
of SWB (Tay and Diener 2011). As the authors argued that other factors are relevant in
explaining SWB as well without simply attributing those to genetic components, this study
indeed confirmed this hypothesis by showing that peace of mind and meaningfulness also
substantially contribute to SWB.
The first step of the models indicated that basic needs play an important role in the differ-
ent components of SWB and especially in life satisfaction where already 47% of its variance
was explained by these needs. This finding is again in line with Tay & Diener (2011) who
also concluded that basic needs are most important in explaining life satisfaction. A novel
and remarkable finding is that sleep deprivation is highly related to negative affect, while its
role is rather limited in the other SWB components.
Next, including psychological needs caused an additional increase in the total variance
explained in the three components, with the highest increase in positive and negative affect.
First, the results in this step underpin the extensive evidence into the importance of fulfill-
ing psychological needs besides fulfilling basic needs as claimed by the self-determination
theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Vansteenkiste & Ryan, 2013). Further, this evidence also cor-
responds to the earlier research of Tay & Diener (2011) who also pointed out that psycho-
logical needs where more strongly associated with positive and negative affect (Tay and
Diener 2011) than with life satisfaction and with Steverink et al., (2020) who also concluded
that different social needs (here focus on: affection, behavioral confirmation, and status)
contribute to different types of well-functioning (defined as: psychological strength, life
satisfaction, positive affect, and the absence of loneliness and negative affect) (Steverink
et al., 2020). Based on both studies and our new evidence it becomes clear that it is not
only important to look at both basic and psychological needs, but also to focus on different
social needs independently as they contribute differently to our overall well-being. Finally,
while not measured in the study of Tay & Diener (2011), the current study also pointed out
that competence is most strongly related to positive and negative affect, more than to life
satisfaction.

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3342 V. Sophie et al.

The most novel finding of this study was that including meaningfulness and peace of
mind resulted in a substantial increase in the total variance that was explained in the differ-
ent components of SWB. More specific, the explained variance in life satisfaction increased
towards 56.7%, in positive affect towards 37.2%, and in negative affect towards 56.1%.
The latter thus confirms our hypothesis that additional factors related to psychological con-
cepts do play a role in explaining SWB beyond the typical basic and psychological needs.
Remarkably here is that while both concepts were associated with life satisfaction and posi-
tive affect, in the negative affect component only peace of mind was strongly associated and
meaningfulness was not associated with negative affect. A possible explanation could be
that meaningfulness, or the cognitive evaluation that a particular value or meaning has been
fulfilled (Bauer, 2016), predominately provokes positive evaluations about one’s life (i.e.
life satisfaction) and positive feelings. With regard to negative emotions, however, emo-
tion regulation or PoM might be a more effective strategy than meaningfulness to diminish
these emotions. Indeed, as the meta-analysis of Berking and Wuperman (2012) suggests,
maladaptive emotion regulation is related to various forms of psychopathology. Moreover,
several other conclusions can be drawn based on the final models without claiming the
direction of causal relationship between the predicted SWB components and the needs.
First, it should be noted that several basic needs (satisfaction with living conditions, satis-
faction with the financial situation, and perceived health) remained important in the latest
step of the life satisfaction model which was not the case in the affective components. This
shows that the life satisfaction component of SWB highly depends on basic needs even
when psychological needs may be fulfilled. Moreover, this finding contains a clear policy
message to keep investing in health for all and ‘good societal livability’. Further, the results
in the final positive affect model suggest that especially feelings of competence, peace of
mind and meaningfulness had the highest relative importance in relation to positive affect.
This is an important finding as it shows that people must experience feelings of competence,
have inner peace and experience meaningfulness in what they undertake in order to report
high levels of positive affect even when other basic and psychological needs are fulfilled.
Finally, the final negative affect model indicated the apparent importance of good sleep,
feelings of competence and high peace of mind for experiencing low negative affect inde-
pendently of whether other basic and psychological needs have been met. This finding again
contains an important message. If we want to avoid or prevent negative feelings/emotions
which lead to lower levels of SWB it is important to have enough sleep, experience inner
peace and feel competent.
Some strengths and weaknesses should be mentioned allowing to better understand the
context of these findings. A first strength is that this study had a notable large sample size
based on a sample of Belgian citizens. Although we also constructed a representative sub-
sample of this sample (N = 1700), we decided to use the full sample for two reasons: the
main purpose in the research was to investigate associations between variables and the mod-
els were controlled for demographic characteristics. A second strength is that many vari-
ables and concepts potentially related to SWB were questioned, as such allowing to build
these three step models and to consider a wide range of factors. Third, the results of this
study have contributed to new evidence into this research field by introducing meaningful-
ness and peace of mind variables as potential and actionable contributing factors of SWB.
Fourth, we were able to draw some clear conclusions based on the results of our models that
can be further investigated and translated into valuable policy recommendations.

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The Role of ‘Peace of Mind’ and ‘Meaningfulness’ as Psychological… 3343

Our study also had some weaknesses. First, although it was certainly a major strength
that many concepts were questioned, this approach resulted in the necessity to shorten or
slightly adapt several measurements in order to limit the time to fill out the questionnaire
to avoid response bias. As a result, several measurements were no longer strictly validated
measures and the reported Cronbach’s alpha’s were lower (but still sufficient) because only
a restricted number of items were selected to measure several constructs. Also, when Dutch
versions were not available in the literature, we had to translate them using a forward back
translation method. Second, due to the cross-sectional nature of our data no causal rela-
tionship or bidirectional causality between variables could be investigated. Therefore, in
future studies, experimental interventions targeted to fulfill certain needs is highly desir-
able. Third, we did not include interaction terms in our model as a previous similar high-
quality study concluded that there was a large independence of needs in affecting SWB (Tay
and Diener 2011). Fourth, we only used self-report questionnaires which can induce bias
from a person’s mood or social desirability bias. However, social desirability bias should
have remained limited because the questionnaire was strictly anonymous. Nevertheless,
future research could benefit from using additional measurement methods to obtain infor-
mation about needs and SWB. Finally, because an online questionnaire was used, only peo-
ple who have access and who are familiar with internet participated. Also, as people were
recruited via social media and a research and consulting company, we have no data on the
non-response.
Next, important to mention as well, is that income was excluded from our model due to
its high conceptual overlap with ‘satisfaction with the financial situation’. The latter was
chosen over income because it is a wider concept also taking into account the impact of
loans and debts and because it has been argued that once needs are taken into account the
role of income disappears in explaining SWB (Tay and Diener 2011).
Finally, although a large percentage of the total variance was explained by our model,
there is still room for improvement in explaining SWB. As such, additional factors that we
have not captured in our model could also contribute to subjective well-being. One hypoth-
esis is that a person’s tendency to experience ‘joy in life’ (not measured in this study) could
be added. The latter could be conducted under the assumption that this concept covers a
certain personal emotion or state that also contributes to SWB, but that was not yet captured
by other variables. Finally, it would have been interesting to add a person’s intrinsic aspira-
tions (such as: meaningful relationships, personal growth, and community contributions)
and extrinsic aspirations (wealth, fame, and image) to our model because previous research
has already revealed that having strong extrinsic aspirations is negatively associated with
well-being, while having strong intrinsic aspirations is positively associated with well-being
(Ryan et al., 1999). Therefore, future research investigating the potential added value of
these concepts to SWB could complete our model.
In conclusion, this study contributed to today’s knowledge about SWB by explaining a
large amount of its variance based on three models that integrated elements of several needs
theories. Next, the results confirmed that meaningfulness and especially peace of mind con-
tribute substantially to SWB beyond the typical basic and psychological needs. Further, this
study strengthens the existing rationale for approaching peace of mind and meaningfulness
as actionable factors that are related to high SWB, instead of rather approaching them as
SWB outcomes. Finally, this study showed that different types of needs play an independent
role in the different components of SWB. As such, life satisfaction is seemingly the most

13
3344 V. Sophie et al.

correlated with basic needs, peace of mind and meaningfulness; positive affect is seem-
ingly most strongly related to high feelings of competence, peace of mind and meaningful-
ness; and negative affect is seemingly most strongly associated with sleep deprivation, low
competence and low peace of mind. These insights can serve as a starting point to develop
adequate interventions and policy measures in order to enhance SWB.

Funding This study had obtained funding from NN Belgium. The funding resources have no role in the
development of the design, conduct, analysis of this study, and final publication decisions.

Availability of data and material The data supporting this article can be made available from the correspond-
ing author on reasonable request.

Code Availability Not applicable.

Declarations

Conflict of interest The authors declare to have no conflict of interest.

Consent for publication Consent for publication does not apply for this manuscript.

Ethics approval This study has obtained ethical approval from the ethical committee of the University of
Ghent (B670201940146).

Informed consent All participants signed the informed consent before participation.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which
permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give
appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence,
and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the
article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is
not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory
regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright
holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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Authors and Affiliations

Vandepitte Sophie1 · Claes Sara1 · T’Jaeckx Jellen1 · Annemans Lieven1

Vandepitte Sophie PhD

[email protected]
Claes Sara
[email protected]
T’Jaeckx Jellen
[email protected]
Annemans Lieven PhD
[email protected]
1
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Public Health and Primary Care,
Interuniversity Centre for Health Economics Research (I-CHER), Ghent University, Ghent,
Belgium

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