Yes I’m very interested in reading this research that you did at the University of Zimbabwe - can you tell me where I can find it or perhaps email me the article?

And UEL does have various open events - for informations see this link:
http://www.uel.ac.uk/openday/index.htm

Keep in touch!
Bridget

You may be interested in a series of studies conducted by students at the University of Zimbabwe about ten years when the current economic chaos was in its early stages.

Students explored the effects of social support on happiness in different settings. The students used three sets of variables.
a) happiness
b) social support (by different groups defined for each setting e.g, partners, friends, supervisors for people in work)
c) demographic factors (for example, education level, number of family members with an income stream).

As expected, social support had a substantial impact on happiness and indeed happiness was not related to objective conditions.

The design allowed us to tease out what kind of social support was useful.

Education level moderated the relationship between social support by your boss and happiness, for example. The more educated the person, the less dependent they were on their boss for support.

Relevant to your article and its emphasis on families, one of the settings was students about to leave school on completion of their O levels [GSCE][high school exams]. Happiness was correlated to social support by their families (not friends or teachers) and their perception of social support was correlated to the number of people in their immediate and extended families with an income stream.

What is more, when we factor analysed the earning patterns of their families, we found a strong single factor solution. The students were showing considerable wisdom that their life chances depended upon their position in a wider economic network. (NB All the students were in the same school or at least the same geographical and economic catchment).

Does UEL have any open events? I come down to London every few months and would love to make contact.

For me money is a security issue. I think once I had enough of it to believe my basic needs are met and enough to do the activities that are engaging, then the extra money loses its value exponentially to the time lost and the effort expended to obtain it. Plus if earning the extra loot means burnout and strains family relations, then the money is detrimental.

I don’t know if others could relate to this viewpoint.

Great article to read before July 4th weekend here in the US!

Thanks,
Senia