Transition of Objective to Subjective Well-being in Evaluation of Farmers’ Quality of Life: Utilizing New Epistemological Approach among Iranian Rice Farmers

Human well-being is one of the main goals of sustainable rural development. Indeed, human well-being demonstrates rural societies’ quality of life. This concept consists of objective and subjective well-being dimensions. Although it is assumed that objective well-being is rationally related to subjective well-being, this relationship has not been fully confirmed in past studies. Three main reasons including the geographical level of assessment, the type of data used, and different epistemological perspectives have separated objective well-being assessment from the subjective one. We used the same geographical level, type of data used, as well as epistemological perspective in order to evaluate the relationship between objective well-being and subjective well-being among rice farmers. Using a questionnaire, a survey was carried out among 384 rice farmers (Response rate= 92.3%) in the main rice cultivation areas in Iran. The study sample was chosen by a two-stages cluster random sampling technique. Face to face personal interview was also used as the form of data collection. The results of structural equation modeling illustrated that farmers’ perception of economic, social, and environmental well-being as objective well-being domains significantly explained their subjective well-being constructs including happiness as well as life satisfaction. In fact, life satisfaction and happiness would be changed once farmers mentally perceive objective well-being domains. Therefore, objective well-being indicators can affect subjective well-being constructs, including life satisfaction and happiness, if they are assessed based on farmers’ self-evaluation.