SOCIAL ROLES AND SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING - A DECOMPOSITION OF RACE DIFFERENCES

This paper examines the relative importance of exposure and response to social roles for explaining race differences in subjective well-being. Data pooled from several years of General Social Survey interviews are used to demonstrate substantial race and gender differences in the effects of particular combinations of social roles on subjective well-being. Further examination of these differences suggests that in addition to race differences in access to role configurations that are beneficial for subjective well-being, there are race and gender differences in the response to those configurations.