Subjective Well-being during the Pandemic: A Pilot Study in the Cuban Population

Background The study of aspects related to positive mental health and well-being in the general population with a gender approach is a necessity in the current context imposed by COVID-19. Objective To explore gender as a predictor of subjective well-being during COVID-19 in a sample of the Cuban population. Design A cross-sectional web-based survey design was adopted. The sample consisted of 129 Cuban participants. The Subjective Well-being-Reduced Scale (SW-RS) was used to explore subjective well-being in the sample. Descriptive statistics were used to explore the participants’ characteristics. A multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify variables independently associated with the participants’ subjective well-being. Results The gender of participants significantly predicted subjective well-being levels. The probability of males having middle or high levels of subjective well-being, rather than low levels, was 4.16 times greater than in females. The probability of males having a high self-image instead of a low one was 4.35 times greater than in females. According to the self-satisfaction dimension, the odds of males having high rather than low self-satisfaction were five times more than in females. In this sample, gender did not predict whether participants had middle or high levels of the hedonic dimension. Conclusion Our results corroborated international studies that have indicated the coincidence of lower well-being and greater psychosocial risk in women during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results also indicated the need to dig deeper into the experiences of subjective well-being from a gender perspective, and to strengthen the sufficiency and effectiveness of the actions and guidance that are offered to the population from psychological care services, the media, and public policies.


Introduction
In recent decades, there has been a change in the eld of mental health from being focused on pathologies, discomfort, and nding ways to provide interventions aimed at improvement, to focusing on the absence of disorders and the promotion of wellbeing (Martínez, 2021). us, well-being studies currently occupy a large part of the work done in the eld of psychology. ere are several perspectives related to the study of well-being (Vielma & Alonso, 2010); despite this, there is general agreement that well-being is a multivariate construct of a stable nature in mobile equilibrium (Zotova & Karapetyan, 2018).
e dominant perspectives on the study of well-being are the hedonistic tradition, which focuses on happiness, the presence of positive a ect, and the absence of negative a ect (Deci & Ryan, 2008), and the eudaimonic tradition, which focuses on living life to its fullest and realizing one's human potential (Diener, 1984). Both perspectives consider happiness and well-being as indicators of the degree to which a person is psychologically ful lled; however, each perspective has foundations that re ect very subtle di erences in their points of view. e hedonic perspective of wellbeing varies from a relatively limited focus on bodily pleasures to a broad focus on personal interests. is model focuses mainly on the results of happiness or pleasure, and stresses the perspective that well-being consists of subjective happiness, which includes as primary components satisfaction with life, the presence of a positive mood, and the absence of negative mood (Ryan & Deci, 2001).
From the eudaimonic perspective, Diener's model of subjective well-being is the one most supported by the scienti c community and is shared by the authors of this article. Diener highlights the role that cognitive and a ective evaluations play in a person's life. ese evaluations include emotional reactions to events and judgments about satisfaction and achievement. is concept includes the experience of pleasant emotions, a low level of negative emotions, and a high level of satisfaction with life (Diener, 2000).
Scienti c interest in the role that subjective well-being plays in an individual's development has led to numerous follow-on research projects. ese studies include ones that have shown the e ect of positive or negative events on the individual's subjective well-being . e meta-analysis carried out by Koydemir et al. (2020), with non-clinical adult populations, showed that positive psychological interventions increase subjective well-being. Other research has emphasized the relationship between various sociodemographic variables and subjective well-being. For example, it has been found that there are changes in subjective well-being as age advances, with a progressive decrease from early to late adolescence, and then again from 60 years of age on (Casas et al., 2012;Wunder et al., 2013).
Studies on the gender variable and subjective well-being have not been totally conclusive. e European Union's publication Quality of Life: Facts and Views (2015) stated that women reported greater satisfaction with life than men; however, they also showed a greater tendency for depressive symptoms. Senik (2015) a rmed a gender gap that varies throughout life, while Valls-Llobet (2009) asserted that gender is the foundation for determining the individual's state of health or disease. For these authors, gender di erences were associated with di erences in the prevalence of certain disorders, in the response to treatment alternatives, and in the attitude taken towards care. On the other hand, Hyde (2005) maintained that the similarities between genders and subjective well-being were greater than the di erences.
In Cuba, gender inequalities are much lower than those of other ird World countries in the region. However, studies have revealed the presence of gender inequities, especially in everyday life, which could mark di erences in the well-being of men and women. In recent decades, some studies have shown di erences between men and women in terms of sexual and reproductive health, rest time, the perception of diseases or symptoms, and the search for medical attention (Castañeda Abascal et al., 2010). Researchers have warned of inequity gaps in the distribution of caregiving tasks, with a disproportionate burden and costs to the health of females (Romero, 2019). Di erent studies have also placed women within the groups most likely to suffer di erent forms of violence and the burden of tasks within the family, which a ects their physical and emotional health (Ferrer Lozano et al. 2020), while Fleitas (2013) has shown the close relationship between gender, poverty, and health, and identi ed women as the most a ected group.

E ects of the Pandemic on Well-being
ere is considerable consensus when it comes to the role that life events play as determinants of well-being. Negative and stressful events have been associated with the presence of a negative subjective state of well-being (Argyle, 2001). As the pandemic has worsened on a global scale, and forced self-care, con nement at home, and changes in lifestyle, studies have pointed to a greater incidence of emotional disorders such as depression, stress, apathy, irritability, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, anger, and emotional exhaustion (Broche-Pérez, Fernández-Castillo, & Reyes, 2020), evidencing the negative impact that the pandemic has had on the well-being of the population (Boukhris et al., 2020). For example, in a study conducted in Australia, it was found that there was a decrease in the population's subjective well-being due to the social and workplace di culties that resulted from the pandemic (Dawel et al., 2020). In particular, the researchers reported a signi cant increase in depressive and anxious symptoms among Australians.
In Germany, Zacher and Rudolph (2020) conducted a study on well-being in the general population. e results indicated that, during the months between December 2019 and March 2020, the pandemic did not signi cantly a ect the well-being of people in Germany. However, between the months of March and May of 2020, the psychological well-being of Germans was signi cantly a ected. O'Connor et al.
(2020) reported an increase in suicidal ideation in the general population during the rst wave of the pandemic in the UK, especially among young adults. In this sense, it is important to understand how some variables modulate the impact of the current pandemic on the subjective well-being of the population. One of these variables is gender, and thus the link between gender and well-being has been studied by several authors during the current epidemiological situation.
During the current pandemic, there have been di erences reported between the levels of happiness of men and women (Gausman & Langer, 2020;Yildirim et al., 2020). In general, women have reported a lower level of psychological well-being, related to the biological, psychological, and environmental factors that typically affect them. For example, in a longitudinal study conducted in Spain to explore genderrelated di erences in the psychological impact of COVID-19 lockdowns, clear di erences were found between the well-being of women and men, with women showing signi cantly lower levels of well-being (Ausín et al., 2021). Also, in a study that looked at the mental health and psychological well-being of the UK adult population during the rst six weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, men reported signi cantly higher levels of psychological well-being than women (O'Connor et al., 2020).
In Cuba, studies on the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of the population have shown that women presented with higher levels of fear . ese ndings showed that fear of COVID-19 was more severe in female participants than male ones, and that gender was a predictor of the level of fear of COVID-19 (Broche-Pérez et al., 2020).
However, there are still a limited number of studies in our context that explore aspects related to positive mental health in the general population, and that delve into the impact of COVID-19, with a focus on gender. Distinguishing gender when it comes to well-being could guide future preventative actions, helping to make them more e ective. e objective of our study was to explore gender as a predictor of psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of the Cuban population.

Methods
A cross-sectional web-based survey design was adopted.

Participants
Participants completed a survey via Google Forms®, between April 14 and August, 2020. All Cuban citizens over the age of 18 were eligible to participate in the study. Nonprobability samples were used. Snowball sampling was conducted to recruit participants. e survey was disseminated through WhatsApp groups, Facebook, email lists, and the website of the Well-being Center of the Universidad Central "Marta Abreu" de Las Villas.
A total of 129 people participated in the study (72.1% females and 27.9% males); the mean age was 36.4 years old (SD 12.3). Online consent was obtained from the participants.

Procedure
All subjects were asked to ll out the Subjective Well-being-Reduced Scale (SW-RS) questionnaire: We used the scale adapted by Torres-Acuña (2003). Its abbreviated version was validated for the Cuban population and showed acceptable psychometric properties (α = .70). e results of the exploratory factor analysis performed on the scale showed a structure of four factors with acceptable reliability indices.
Factor 1 (F1) was associated with the hedonic aspects of well-being, such as leisure time, fun, and socialization (i.e., "I like to have fun"). e second factor (F2) explored the dimension of satisfaction with life (i.e., "I think that I have achieved what I wanted as a person"). e third factor (F3) explored satisfaction with daily activities, sense of purpose, and the eudaimonic dimension of well-being (i.e, "I face my tasks with a good mood"). e fourth factor (F4) grouped items on which the individual reports a self-image of being healthy, through a positive perception of their mood (i.e., "I think I have good health"). Each item was answered using a Likert scale as follows: 1 = Never or almost never; 2 = Sometimes; 3 = Very o en; 4 = Almost always; and 5 = Always. (Rodríguez-Martín et al., 2012).
Data Analysis e study was approved by the ethics committee of the Department of Psychology of the Universidad Central "Marta Abreu" de Las Villas. Informed consent to be included in the study was obtained from all participants. Participation was voluntary, and the anonymity of the participants was guaranteed. e data was processed using SPSS v21.0. Descriptive statistics were used to explore the participants' characteristics. Logistic regression (LR) was the best statistical choice for processing the data, as it took two main criteria into account: 1) the type of sample and the non-parametric design of the data analysis, and 2) the practical value of the results obtained through LR in the current epidemiological situation. Scores on the well-being scale were grouped by levels (high, medium, and low); the results allowed for the detection of people who might be at-risk, taking the predictor variables as a reference.
LR allows the test of models which can predict categorical outcomes with two or more categories. e independent variables can be either categorical or continuous, or a mix of both (Field, 2009(Field, , 2012Pallant, 2005). A model of the main e ects for multinomial logistic regression was constructed to identify variables independently associated with well-being. e three subjective wellness levels were established according to the method established by Rodríguez-Martín, Molerio, Castillo, and Pedraza (2012). ese authors describe three levels for each factor as well as for the global variable. e threshold of statistical signi cance used in this study was p < 0.05.

Respondent Characteristics
e characteristics of the respondents are shown in Table 1. e larger proportion of respondents were women (72.1%). e mean age was 36.47 years (SD ± 13.01), and most participants were in the 29-41 age group (34.31%). Boundaries of age groups were established according to sample percentiles. Age was measured in all three categories, to put in the middle the values of SD, minimum and maximum only respond to spatial location. Results from the SW-RS are shown in Table 2. Global well-being scores registered a mean of 37.75 (SD ± 7.30). e middle level of well-being showed the highest frequencies for F4 (M = 7.44, SD ± 1.77, 55.0%) and F1 (M = 10.82, SD ± 2.02, 48.1%), as well as for the global score (49.6%). e highest level of subjective well-being occurred in the "Self-satisfaction" dimension, with a score of 32.6% (M = 10.87, SD ± 2.73).

Association between Gender of Participants and Subjective Well-being
Gender was investigated using Multinomial logistic regression (LR). Demographic was explored as a demographic factor independently associated with levels of subjec- Note. CI = Con dence Intervals. a = Reference Category. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.
tive well-being. e factor Activities performed was not included in the LR because of the existence of empty cells in the expected frequency. ere were two cells (33.3%) with frequencies lower than 5, so, according to the standard set by Pallant (2005), that factor was not included in the LR. Preliminary analyses were performed to ensure no violation of the assumptions of linearity, independence of errors, and multicollinearity (Field, 2012). Table 3 shows nal analysis was conducted on a total of 129 valid cases. Gender predicted both whether participants had middle or low global well-being during the Coronavirus pandemic [b = -1.43, Wald X2(1) = 5.86, p < 0.05], and whether they had high or low levels of well-being [b = -1.44, Wald X2(1) = 4.76, *p < 0.05]. In both cases, comparing the e ect on females with that on males, the odds ratio indicated that as the variable changed, the change in the odds of having middle or high levels of well-being instead of low levels were .24. e odds that males had middle or high levels of well-being rather than low levels was 1/.24, or 4.16 times greater than for females.
Gender also signi cantly predicted whether people had a high or low healthy self-image [b = -1.46, Wald X2(1) = 5.24, p < 0.05] and self-satisfaction [b = -1.63, Wald X2(1) = 6.95, p < 0.01]. e odds of males having a high self-image instead of a low one were 1/.23, or 4.35 times greater than in females. According to the selfsatisfaction dimension, the odds that males had high rather than low levels of selfsatisfaction were 1/.20, or 5 times more than females.
In the sample, gender did not signi cantly predict whether participants had middle or high levels in the hedonic dimension.

Discussion
e objective of this study was to explore gender as a predictor of subjective well-being during COVID-19 in a sample of the Cuban population. Our results showed that the gender of participants did signi cantly predict the level of subjective well-being in a sample of this population.
Being male was a predictor of medium to high levels of subjective well-being during COVID-19. Gender also signi cantly predicted whether people had a high or low healthy self-image and self-satisfaction. Furthermore, gender did not signi cantly predict whether participants had medium or high levels on the hedonic dimension. ese results con rmed the ndings of previous studies. For example, in a study conducted by Yildirim et al. (2020) on 4,536 Turkish adults, the authors examined the e ects of vulnerability, perceived risk, and fear on COVID-19 preventive behaviors. e authors reported that women were more vulnerable than men to experiencing fear.
On the other hand, Burdett et al. (2020) reported that the decline of women's mental health in the UK was twice that reported by men. In Germany, a greater decline in the psychological well-being of women than of men due to COVID-19 has been reported. e growth of the negative impact of the pandemic on women's psychological well-being corresponded to the progression of the disease in that country (Mutz, 2020).
In a qualitative study carried out in Argentina, women showed greater intensity in their reactions to fear and anguish. Women also showed a greater level of responsibility in self-care, and were more self-re ective about the consequences of the pandemic (Johnson et al., 2020). Similar results were found by Hill et al. (2016) in the di erent dimensions they studied; their results showed that gender had a strong e ect on self-image. A metaanalysis by Gentile et al. (2009) found that men scored signi cantly higher than women on self-satisfaction (d = 0.33). is meta-analysis examined gender di erences in 10 speci c domains of self-esteem across 115 studies, including 428 e ect sizes and 32,486 individuals.
In general, women tend to experience more negative a ect, and their subjective well-being deteriorates more than men's. However, women also show more adaptive ways of coping with stress and tend to manage their emotions better. is is a tentative explanation as to why in the present study gender did not predict medium and high levels of the hedonic dimension of subjective well-being. In this regard, LeFebvre & Huta (2021) only found a signi cant di erence in the motivation for hedonic pleasure between men and women in subjects 20 to 29 years old (sample: 701 women and 623 men, ages 18-87). LeFebvre and Huta (2021) did not nd di erences in the motivation for hedonic comfort.
e COVID-19 crisis has strengthened the di erences between men and women in terms of mental health and well-being, although this had already been happening. Pre-pandemic studies found that men are less likely to su er from common mental health disorders than women (Shepherd, 2016). Xu and Wang (2021) found that older women have more abundant and meaningful activities of daily living and receive more emotional support than men, and that these di erences are related to their gender roles.
To understand the results found in this study of subjective well-being from a gender perspective, it is important to understand that it is a socially constructed category, and take into account its strong cultural variation among di erent countries (Álvarez, 2014). During socialization, emotional expression and caretaker roles are encouraged in women, while men are o en told that they should be "strong" and should not show their emotions (Álvarez, 2015).
On the other hand, there are studies that suggest that the di erences in subjective well-being between women and men are due to the intensity of their emotions, not the frequency with which these emotions are experienced. Reviews of gender di erences in subjective well-being consistently agree that women tend to experience higher levels of unpleasant a ect than men, but that these di erences are limited to internalizing moods. Women report more frequent and intense internalized moods, such as sadness, fear, nervousness, shame, and guilt. In general, women tend to report more intense and frequent negative, unpleasant, and internalized emotions than men (Lucas & Gohm, 2000).
In summary, to explain the variability reported during the pandemic in the mental health indicators of both genders, multiple factors must be considered. Some factors predate the pandemic (such as the social construction of gender), and other factors are speci c to this period of time (such as the burden of the caregiver role and remote work). ese results must be taken into account when designing actions aimed at enhancing the subjective well-being of Cuban women.

Conclusion
In conclusion, our ndings showed that the gender of participants signi cantly predicted the level of subjective well-being in a sample of the Cuban population. e results corroborated research carried out in other contexts where it was suggested that women have lower levels of well-being, which could in turn be associated with greater psychosocial risk during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
e results emphasized the importance of considering gender di erences when designing interventions aimed at improving subjective well-being. In addition, our study o ers initial results that could be useful in the design of actions aimed at promoting health.

Limitations
is research is not without limitations. First, the sample for this preliminary study is small. In future studies, the sample size should be increased to obtain more generalizable results. Furthermore, it is a cross-sectional study, so it is di cult to capture the causal relationships between gender and subjective well-being. It is important to develop longitudinal studies that explore the relationship between both of these variables and other variables that could be mediating this relationship at di erent times during the pandemic.

Ethics Statement
e data was approved by the ethics committee of the Department of Psychology of the Universidad Central "Marta Abreu" de Las Villas (2020.03.23).