Times change. Life in Britain in the 1980s is not the same as that experienced in the 1990s, nor indeed in the new millennium. Politics shift, economies unwind, cultures reform. Well-being today may not be what it was half a century ago – the mix of factors affecting well-being is likely to vary over time. This chapter is about the temporal dynamics of well-being.

One of the problems of previous well-being research (identified in Chapter 2) has been the lack of longitudinal analysis. Previous research has been limited by its treatment of subjective well-being as a static phenomenon (Kahn and Juster, 2002), with studies seeking to measure subjective well-being through a single survey. Advances in the collection of social information at national and international levels mean that longitudinal analysis of subjective well-being is being addressed through repeat panel surveys or an accumulation of cross-sectional studies. However, much of this analysis is at the national level and fails to address the factors affecting individuals and their subjective well-being. By using panel data, this study is able to analyse subjective well-being of the same individuals over time. It can thus move towards a greater understanding of the factors that are associated with positive subjective well-being over the life course and through history.

The purpose of this chapter, then, is to provide new knowledge in well-being studies by looking at changes in circumstances in order to assess the importance of prolonged exposure (or lack of exposure) to different life situations as well as identify conditions that can maintain or promote positive subjective wellbeing. Several different methods could be used to analyse changes over time. For the purposes of this research it is approached in two different ways: firstly, by a longitudinal analysis using data for each year between 1991 and 1999; secondly, by identifying changes in circumstances between two time periods; 1993–96 and 1996–99.

Taking the first of these methodologies, the key aim is to identify factors associated with maintaining high subjective well-being from 1991 to 1999.