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Subjective Well-being Among Those Who Exchange Sex and Money, Yunnan, China and Thailand

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Abstract

This work explores differences in subjective well-being (SWB) between two samples. Survey data from Yunnan China was collected by Yang and Luo in 2003 and was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. A second pilot data set was collected in Thailand during January and February 2007. Predictors of SWB were explored among the Yunnan sample as a whole, between Yunnan men who traded money for sex and Yunnan women who traded sex for money, and between Yunnan women who traded sex for money and Thai women who traded sex for money. For Yunnan women who exchanged sex for money, only age nears significance as a predictor of SWB. For Thai women who sell sex, age was not a significant predictor of SWB; however, having more education and feeling one’s relative income was good were associated with SWB all else equal. The authors propose that, among this sample of Thai sex workers, sex work has become normalized in Thailand.

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Correspondence to Elizabeth Monk-Turner.

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The authors wish to thank the College of Arts and Letters at Old Dominion University for helping support this work.

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Monk-Turner, E., Turner, C. Subjective Well-being Among Those Who Exchange Sex and Money, Yunnan, China and Thailand. Soc Indic Res 99, 13–23 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9568-9

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