Population Well-Being Lab

Population Well-being Lab

Canadian Happiness Report 2024

· ·

In the first series of Canadian Happiness Reports published in 2022, we drew attention to the downward trend of Canadians’ evaluations of their quality of life since the early-2010s and the well-being disparities that exist in Canada. Since then, there has been a growing concern about declining standards of living in Canada (e.g., inflation, home prices have soared, overburdened health services, and a mental health crisis especially among young people). While we as a country look to address these and other disparate issues with limited resources, we believe it is especially important to understand how Canadians’ well-being is changing and who in Canada is most and least satisfied with their lives. Therefore, in this report, we investigate trends in Canadian well-being over time and across provinces, identify at-risk groups in Canada experiencing low well-being, and Understand trends in Canadian youth well-being. We also examine the limitations of studying and measuring well-being in Canada.

OSF link: https://osf.io/rdzhy/

For optimal viewing, please download the full report from OSF, as some formatting may not display correctly in the embedded viewer on this site.

Sign up for newsletters

If you would like to receive newsletters from our lab where we will present our latest findings along with other engaging content sign up here: http://eepurl.com/h7lX4r

We Are Hiring a Postdoctoral Fellow!

· ·

The Population Well-being Lab at the University of Toronto is hiring a Postdoctoral Fellow to join us to study population-level determinants and consequences of happiness! We are especially interested in increasing our research capacity to investigate the well-being impact of war and conflict given recent events. The postdoctoral fellow will gain access to large existing datasets, such as the Gallup World Poll (over 2 million participants surveyed across over 160 countries).

Our Lab has a ‘glocal’ focus. At the local level, our Lab recently released a Canadian Happiness Report, documenting a worrying decline in happiness in Canada since the late 2000s. At the global level, we are currently working on multiple projects related to the well-being impact of war and conflict in collaboration with Syrian and Ukrainian researchers. The long-term goal of these efforts is to develop evidence-based interventions and policies to improve well-being at scale. To study a wide range of social issues, our Lab highly values the diversity of our team members.

For more information about the lab, please visit: 

https://cheung.artsci.utoronto.ca/

For the full job ad, please see: 

https://www.psych.utoronto.ca/sites/www.psych.utoronto.ca/files/Population%20Well-Being%20Postodoctoral%20Fellowship.pdf

For more information about the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Program, please visit: 

https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/faculty-staff/research-supports-services/find-funding#banting-postdoctoral-fellowship-program

https://banting.fellowships-bourses.gc.ca/en/home-accueil.html

Canadian Happiness Report (May 2022)

· ·

The Canadian Happiness Report series is dedicated to communicating empirical findings on Canadians’ wellbeing to the public. Our goal is to aid in developing a rigorous and effective QoL framework for Canada using the latest data and methods. In the first report, we found that Canadian well-being has been on a downturn since the late 2000s. In this report, we document well-being inequalities across demographics and capture the current variation in some key indicators that make up the Department of Finance’s QoL framework. Our next report will feature an in-depth review of community and population-scale QoL interventions which could be used in Canada to reverse the decline in well-being.

OSF link: https://osf.io/d837y

For optimal viewing, please download the full report from OSF, as some formatting may not display correctly in the embedded viewer on this site.

Sign up for newsletters

If you would like to receive newsletters from our lab where we will present our latest findings along with other engaging content sign up here: http://eepurl.com/h7lX4r

Felix Cheung’s upcoming workshops (April and June)

· ·

Pre-registration: A Tool for Improving Transparency and Replicability of our Science


University of Toronto Social Science Methods Week 2022
1 pm to 4 pm, April 26 (Tue), Zoom
Details and registration: https://sociology.utoronto.ca/events-2-2/university-of-toronto-social-science-methods-week/university-of-toronto-social-science-methods-week-2022/

Description:
The replication crisis and the subsequent meta-science movement suggest that the replicability of published findings is not ideal. One of the key causes to the replication crisis is related to questionable research practices. For example, p-hacking, cherry-picking, and data dredging refer to practices where researchers selectively report significant results after conducting many statistical tests. To address this, meta-scientists have proposed pre-registration – the pre-specification of data collection and analytical plan prior to implementing a study – as a potential solution. In this workshop, I will overview the advantages of pre-registration, address common criticisms of pre-registration, introduce the components in a pre-registration, outline the steps to pre-register a study on Open Science Framework, and discuss how to write up a pre-registered study. To reach a wider audience, I will also discuss the different considerations in studies using primary data (i.e., data that your research team collects) and secondary data (i.e., existing data). Researchers at all levels who conduct studies using quantitative methods are welcome to attend. To get the most out of this workshop, you are especially encouraged to prepare a soon-to-be-implemented and original study idea so we can try pre-registering your study together!

Doing Open and Replicable Science

Canadian Centre for Research Analysis and Methods Sessions 2022
Two-day course (June 23-24), in-person at the University of Calgary, downtown campus
Details and registration: https://www.ucalgary.ca/news/canadas-top-quantitative-methodologists-coming-calgary-offer-person-training-researchers

Description:
Transparency and replicability are cornerstones of science. In 2015, a landmark study showed that only 39% of published studies are replicable by independent teams of researchers. Since then, there have been major advances in doing more open and replicable science. Transparency in study planning, analytical codes, and research materials facilitate independent verifications of a study. Improving replicability of research means that we can have stronger confidence in making decisions based on empirical findings. This short course will cover how to do open and replicable science.

Toronto Star interview on Canadian Happiness Report

· ·

“So Canada placing 15th in the World Happiness Report is good, right? Not so fast, researchers say”

https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2022/03/28/so-canada-placing-15th-in-the-world-happiness-report-is-good-right-no-so-fast-researchers-say.html

Our Canadian Happiness Report:

https://cheung.artsci.utoronto.ca/canadian-happiness-report-march-2022/

If you would like to receive newsletters from our lab where we will present our latest findings along with other engaging content sign up here: 
https://forms.office.com/r/N5S5YtV9Ab