What Makes Them Happy?: Measuring the happiness of Certified Public Accountants through the COVID-19 Pandemic in Cotabato Province, Philippines

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11594/ijmaber.07.05.06

Keywords:

Certified Public Accountants, COVID-19, Happiness

Abstract

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments across the world have enforced lockdown measures to limit the transmission of the virus. Although these restrictions have been effective in reducing physical health risks, they have also raised concerns about their negative impact on individuals’ well-being, particularly in terms of life satisfaction and happiness. This paper analyzes the feeling of happiness of the Certified Public Accountants in the Cotabato Province and measures their satisfaction with the 10 happiness domains, to aid the limited understanding of how an outbreak can affect people’s well-being. The central idea is to assess the overall happiness of the respondents, investigate the relation of happiness and 10 domains, and to identify which of these domains affect their happiness. Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was used to examine the relationship between happiness and the ten happiness domains. Multiple regression was used to identify the domains that significantly predicted happiness. Results showed that all ten domains were significantly and positively correlated with happiness. The final regression model identified health, environment, time balance, governance, and psychological well-being as significant predictors of happiness.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

  • Christian Eligius A. Jimenez, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde

    Dr. Jimenez is a Certified Public Accountant, a lawyer and a member of the bar, and a Licensed Professional Teacher, major in Social Science. He completed his Master’s in Development Economics degree from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, his Juris Doctor degree from Arellano University School of Law, and his Doctor Business Administration degree from Ateneo de Davao University. He is working as a Bank Supervisor at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas where he also facilitates the Professional Excellence Program of the organization and trains new Bank Examiners. He has also authored textbooks in Managerial Economics and High School Economics with Rex Bookstore and Phoenix Publishing, respectively. A Certified Lean Six Sigma-Green Belt (CLSSGB), he is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Dr. Jimenez was also the Department Chair for Legal Management and Social Sciences at the Lyceum of the Philippines University-Manila, while being a faculty member at the University of Santo Tomas and Philippine Normal University, and a part-time teacher for Senior High School in Lourdes School-QC. He also taught Economics with Land Reform and Taxation, Micro and Macroeconomics, Legal Ethics, Applied Economics, and Financial Management in Far Eastern University, Adamson University, ABE International Business College, and National University. As a CEO and Head of the Professional Training and CPD Programs of Orgdev Internationale, Dr. Jimenez has been providing training and consulting services to international companies, academic institutions, and NGOs such as Coca-Cola, Live Nation Philippines, Plan International, Volvo Philippines, IBM Shared Services, Department of Education, Department of Transportation, ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, and Pru Life UK. He is one of the content developers of AMA Online University, where he established the CPD Programs and online content for CPAs and LPTs. He is currently a reviewer with MET Review Center and earned his US Certified Management Accountant certification after receiving a scholarship from the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). At present, he is teaching in the University of the Philippines – School of Economics, Financial Decisions and Management Accounting at the graduate school of De La Salle – College of St. Benilde under the School of Management and Information Technology and is an Adjunct Professor at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).

  • Jay-R G. Vildac, University of Southern Mindanao

    Dr. Vildac holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Ateneo de Davao University. He is the Director of the Financial Management Services of the University of Southern Mindanao and concurrently serves as its Department Research Coordinator. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Association of Certified Public Accountants in Education (NACPAE).

  • Zosimo O. Membrebe Jr., University of Southern Mindanao

    Zosimo O. Membrebe Jr. is the Program Chair of the Graduate Programs at De La Salle - College of st. Benilde under the School of Management and Information Technology. He holds an MA and PhD in Economics and his research focuses on poverty, sustainability, and community resilience. He has published in refereed journals, received a Best Paper Award, and actively participates in conferences addressing disaster resilience, urban sustainability, and economic well-being.

References

Algan, Y., Murtin, F., Beasley, E., Higa, K., & Senik, C. (2019). Well-being through the lens of the internet. PLoS ONE, 14(1), e0209562. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209562

Bryson, A., Clark, A. E., Freeman, R. B., & Green, C. (2016). Share capitalism and worker well-being. Labour Economics, 42, 151–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2016.09.002

Chophel, S. (2010). Cultural diversity and resil-ience. The Centre for Bhutan Studies.

de Vries, S., Verheij, R. A., Groenewegen, P. P., & Spreeuwenberg, P. (2003). Natural en-vironments—healthy environments? An exploratory analysis of the relationship between greenspace and health. Envi-ronment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 35(10), 1717–1731. https://doi.org/10.1068/a35111

Diener, E., Tay, L., & Oishi, S. (2013). Rising income and the subjective well-being of nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(2), 267–276. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030487

Dutt, A., & Radcliff, B. (Ed.). (2009). Happiness, economics and politics: Towards a multi-disciplinary approach. Edward Elgar Pub-lishing.

Easterlin R. A. (2001). Explaining happiness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100(19), 11176–11183. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1633144100

Field, J. (2003). Social capital. Routledge.

Fleming, R., & Spellerberg, A. (1999). Using time use data. A history of time use sur-veys and uses of time use data. Statistics New Zealand.

Frey, B. S., & Stutzer, A. (2007). Should nation-al happiness be maximized? SSRN Elec-tronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.936289

Fujiwara, T., & Kawachi, I. (2008). A prospec-tive study of individual-level social capi-tal and major depression in the United States. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 62(7), 627–633. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2007.064261

Happiness Alliance. (2014). The domains of happiness for the Gross National Happi-ness Index. https://www.happycounts.org/for-researchers.html

Kahneman, D., Krueger, A. B., Schkade, D. A., Schwarz, N., & Stone, A. A. (2004). A Sur-vey Method for Characterizing Daily Life Experience: The Day Reconstruction Method. Science, 306(5702), 1776–1780. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1103572

Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A., & Mastruzzi, M. (2005). Governance matters IV. Govern-ance indicators for 1996–2004. World Bank.

Lane, R. E. (2001). The loss of happiness in market democracies. Yale University Press.

Layard, R. (2005). Happiness. Lessons from a new science. Penguin Press.

Leigh-Hunt, N., Bagguley, D., Bash, K., Turner, V., Turnbull, S., Valtorta, N., & Caan, W. (2017). An overview of systematic re-views on the public health consequences of social isolation and loneliness. Public Health, 152, 157–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2017.07.035

Liu, H., Zhang, X., Chang, R., & Wang, W. (2017). A research regarding the rela-tionship among intensive care nurses' self-esteem, job satisfaction and subjec-tive well-being. International journal of nursing sciences, 4(3), 291–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2017.06.008

Lu, H., Stratton, C. W., & Tang, Y. W. (2020). Outbreak of pneumonia of unknown eti-ology in Wuhan, China: The mystery and the miracle. Journal of Medical Virology, 92(4), 401–402. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.25678

Maas, J., Verheij, R. A., Groenewegen, P. P., de Vries, S., & Spreeuwenberg, P. (2006). Green space, urbanity, and health: how strong is the relation? Journal of Epidemi-ology and Community Health, 60(7), 587–592. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2005.043125

Maas, J., Verheij, R. A., Spreeuwenberg, P., & Groenewegen, P. P. (2008). Physical ac-tivity as a possible mechanism behind the relationship between green space and health: A multilevel analysis. BMC Public Health, 8, 206. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-8-206

Maas, J., Verheij, R. A., de Vries, S., Spreeu-wenberg, P., Schellevis, F. G., & Groe-newegen, P. P. (2009). Morbidity is relat-ed to a green living environment. Journal of Epidemiology and Community health, 63(12), 967–973. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2008.079038

Ovaska, T., & Takashima, R. (2006). Economic policy and the level of self-perceived well-being. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 35, 308–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2005.11.054

Piekałkiewicz, M. (2017). Why do economists study happiness? The Economic and La-bour Relations Review, 28(3), 361–377. doi:10.1177/1035304617717130

Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone. The col-lapse and revival of American community. Simon & Schuster.

Putnam, R. D. (2001). Social capital. Measure-ment and consequences. Canadian Jour-nal of Policy Research, 2(1), 41–51.

Richardson, E. A., Pearce, J., Mitchell, R., & Kingham, S. (2013). Role of physical ac-tivity in the relationship between urban green space and health. Public Health, 127(4), 318–324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2013.01.004

Sen, A. (2002). Rationality and freedom. Belk-nap Press

The CPA Journal. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on the profession. An NYSSCPA mem-ber survey.

Ura, K. (2009). A proposal for GNH value edu-cation. The Centre for Bhutan Studies.

Verne, P. (2009). Happiness, freedom and con-trol. Journal of Economic Behavior & Or-ganization, 71(2), 146–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2009.04.008

Weitz-Shapiro, R., & Winters, M. S. (2008). Po-litical participation and quality of life. https://doi.org/10.18235/0010892

Wolfe, N. (2011). The viral storm. The dawn of a new pandemic age. Macmillan.

World Health Organization. (2021). WHO coronavirus (COVID-19) dashboard. https://covid19.who.int

Zavaleta Reyles, D. (2007). The Ability to go about Without Shame: A Proposal for In-ternationally Comparable Indicators of Shame and Humiliation. Oxford Develop-ment Studies, 35(4), 405–430. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600810701701905

Zhang, S., Wang, Y., Rauch, A., & Wei, F. (2020). Unprecedented disruption of lives and work. Psychiatry Research, 288, 112958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112958

Downloads

Published

23-05-2026

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 5 (2026): International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research

Section

Articles

Categories

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Christian Eligius A. Jimenez, Jay-R G. Vildac, Zosimo O. Membrebe Jr.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See the Effect of Open Access).

How to Cite

Jimenez, C. E. A., Vildac, J.-R. G., & Membrebe Jr., Z. O. (2026). What Makes Them Happy?: Measuring the happiness of Certified Public Accountants through the COVID-19 Pandemic in Cotabato Province, Philippines. International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research, 7(5), 1900-1909. https://doi.org/10.11594/ijmaber.07.05.06