The Family Journal, Ahead of Print.
Psychologists believe that life satisfaction is a crucial indicator of an individual’s overall health and happiness, regardless of their work or culture. This topic has been extensively researched, with the authors identifying novel antecedents of life happiness. Life satisfaction and health are strongly related, and enhancing one area can improve the other. Frequent shifts in life satisfaction can be harmful to overall health and life expectancy. However, there is still potential to investigate life satisfaction from a fresh perspective, particularly in the Indian context. This study aimed to investigate the factors influencing people’s levels of pleasure in life, focusing on three categories of women in the Kashmir region: single women, married women, and widowed women. The study used a quantitative research design, including all three types of women: married, unmarried, and widowed. The research objectives were to study optimism, spirituality, resilience, and social support as predictors of life satisfaction among unmarried, married, and widowed women in Kashmir. The findings showed that optimism, spirituality, resilience, and perceived social support all have a beneficial impact on one’s level of life satisfaction. Self-confidence under pressure has the biggest impact on life satisfaction, while optimism has the lowest effect amongst all variables.