How commuting affects subjective wellbeing

By Ben Clark, Kiron Chatterjee, Adam Martin, A. Davis. Transportation, 2019

245 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Commuting between home and work is routinely performed by workers and any wellbeing impacts of commuting will consequently affect a large proportion of the population. This paper presents findings from analyses of the impact of commuting (time and mode) on multiple aspects of Subjective Well-Being (SWB), including: satisfaction with life overall and the SWB sub-domains of job satisfaction, satisfaction with leisure time availability and self-reported health. Measures of strain and mental health (GHQ-12) are also examined. Six waves of individual-level panel data from Understanding Society (2009/10 to 2014/15) are analysed, providing a sample of over 26,000 workers living in England. Associations between commuting and SWB are identified, paying particular attention to those arising from individual changes in commuting circumstances over the six waves. It is found that longer commute times are associated with lower job and leisure time satisfaction, increased strain and poorer mental health. The strongest association is found for leisure time satisfaction. Despite these negative associations with the SWB sub-domains, longer commute times were not associated with lower overall life satisfaction (except where individuals persisted with them over all six waves). Workers in England appear to be successful in balancing the negative aspects of commuting against the wider benefits, e.g. access to employment, earnings and housing. Differences amongst selected population sub-groups are also examined. The job satisfaction of younger adults and lower income groups are not found to be negatively associated with longer commute times; longer commute times are more strongly negatively associated with the job satisfaction of women compared to men. With respect to mode of transport, walking to work is associated with increased leisure time satisfaction and reduced strain. The absence of the commute, via working from home, is associated with increased job satisfaction and leisure time satisfaction. Overall, the study indicates that shorter commute times and walkable commutes can contribute to improved SWB—particularly through the release of leisure time. But life satisfaction overall will only be maintained if the benefits of undertaking the commute (earnings and satisfactory housing/employment) are not compromised.

Subfields: Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science, Transportation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5f4eb4ededfcc64498201584e335364529269577

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Citations in the corpus

The gender gap in mental well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak: evidence from the UK (2020, methodology): “The GHQ-12 from this survey has been widely used, both in psychological (e.g. Bridger and Daly 2019) and other social sciences research (e.g. Clark et al. 2019; Davillas et al. 2016; Davillas and Jones 2020; Powdthavee et al. 2019).”
Commuting and wellbeing: a critical overview of the literature with implications for policy and future research (2019, methodology): “and reduced leisure time satisfaction (Clark et al., 2019). Only limited differences in SWB were found for using different commute modes. Walking to work is associated with decreased strain in people’s lives and increased leisure time satisfaction. Lorenz (2018)”
Gender Differences in Job Search: Trading off COMMUTE AGAINST WAGE* (2020, background): “10 Gender differences in commuting time/distances have been documented by the urban planning (MacDonald, 1999; Crane, 2007) and the health and well-being literature (Roberts et al., 2011; Clark et al., 2019; Stutzer and Frey, 2008) but have not been analyzed in relation to the gender wage gap.”