MEASURING QUALITY OF LIFE: ECONOMIC,SOCIAL, AND SUBJECTIVE INDICATORS

Thinkers have discussed the “good life” and the desirable society for millennia. In the last decades, scientists offered several alternative approaches to defining and measuring quality of life: social indicators such as health and levels of crime, subjective well-being measures (assessing people's evaluative reactions to their lives and societies), and economic indices. These alternative indicators assess three philosophical approaches to well-being that are based, respectively, on normative ideals, subjective experiences, and the ability to select goods and services that one desires. The strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches are reviewed. It is argued that social indicators and subjective well-being measures are necessary to evaluate a society, and add substantially to the regnant economic indicators that are now favored by policy makers. Each approach to measuring the quality of life contains information that is not contained in the other measures.     

The Concept,Dimensions and Methods of Assessment of Human Well-Being within a Socioecological Context: A Literature Review

The concept of well-being has evolved over the past several decades as research has continued to reveal its multidimensional, dynamic, person-specific and culture-specific nature. Most recently, the ecological embeddedness of well-being has also gained recognition, and this development of the concept demands that we explore and identify new conceptual frameworks and appropriate methodological approaches towards the assessment of quality of life within a socioecological context. This paper offers a review of seminal and current research in the fields of social indicators, human development, ecological economics, and natural resources management, with the aim of examining the concept and the various methodologies designed to assess both the objective and subjective components and the multiple dimensions that comprise well-being. We also present some methodological approaches that have the capacity to account for the role of ecosystem services, considering several studies of rural populations whose well-being depends on the flow of ecosystem services, highlighting the participatory methods these studies employed to identify and assess locally relevant well-being indicators, and addressing some of the challenges inherent in such methods. We conclude with an appraisal of what we regard as the most appropriate methodological approach for measuring human well-being in the socioecological context.     

Basic Minimum Needs,Quality of Life and Selected Correlates: Explorations in Villages in Northern India

For those involved in international development, one of the major goals is an improvement in the quality of life of the poor. Bhargava and Chakrabati (1992: 133) see the “primary objective of development at any given time is to improve the quality of life”. Indeed, the mission statement for an international development organization explicitly commits itself to the improvement of the quality of life for the “poorest of the poor” (DID, 1994). Social indicators, as “transeconomic” measures of quality of life, have “become an integral part of 'development indicators”' (Kao and Liu, 1984: 400; see, also Kahn, 1991). The connection between quality of life and development extends beyond the Third World. For example, in the U.S. Myers (1987) found quality of life influenced inmigration to Austin, Texas, thus affecting its economic development. Undoubtedly the majority of the connections between social indicators and development has been examined at the macro, or national levels using economic, health, education and other objective, comparative indices. Recognizing that such measures as GNP are oftentimes inadequate, assorted indices have been derived to gauge the changes in social development over time, e.g., the well-known Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) constructed by the Overseas Development Council (Morris, 1976). Many of these tend to focus on objective, material indicators (commodity possessions) as opposed to the more subjective ones (Anand and Ravallion, 1993). It is not the purpose of this paper to examine the various critics' arguments about the strengths and weaknesses of extant macro versus micro indices, but rather to lend support for the general need to assess development and social change through social indicators, whether macro or micro, objective or subjective. Ultimately, the purpose of the assessment should guide which social indicators are selected. The purpose of this paper is to examine several issues arising from the linkages between development efforts and quality of life (QOL). Using empirical data which were gathered to evaluate a community development project in the Garhwal region of Northern India, several issues, germane to both social indicators and development, will be investigated. These include: (1) the relationship between “Basic Minimum Needs” (BMNs) and QOL, (2) some methodological innovations for measuring both BMNs and QOL, and (3) selected correlates of BMNs and social indicators of QOL for Garhwali villagers. Before describing the project and its findings, we will first place it in the overall development context.     

Assessing Spirituality Through Personal Goals: Implications for Research on Religion and Subjective Well-Being

This article is concerned with the conceptual and methodological issues in the measurement of personal goals, with special emphasis on assessing spiritual and religious content in goals. The research literature on personal goals and subjective well-being is reviewed and synthesized. A comparison of several popular goal units in the research literature is included. Goal content and goal conflict have been reliably associated with well-being in past research. Spiritual or religious content in personal goals emerges as having an especially strong influence on well-being, and recent research on spiritual personal strivings and well-being is summarized. One of the primary purposes of the article is to consider conceptual and methodological challenges in the measurement of spirituality through personal goals. The advantages of a combined idiographic-nomothetic approach to measuring spirituality through purposive behavior are enumerated. A personal goals approach to studying spiritual motivation can make an important contribution to understanding how religiosity affects well-being, thus expanding religion's role in quality of life research.     

Beyond GDP: Classifying Alternative Measures for Progress

Both the potential pitfalls of macro-economic policies focused on stimulating economic growth and the problems involved in using GDP as a measure of well-being or economic welfare have long been recognized by economists and researchers from other social sciences. Therefore, it is no surprise that alternative measures for policy-making have been developed and promoted since the early 1970s. Over the past 5?years, the development of these measures has gained momentum both politically and academically. However, most research efforts concentrate on the development and promotion of individual indicators, while paying less attention to the wide range of indicators already available and to theoretical insights. As a result, few classification schemes of alternative measures exist today to help policy-makers in selecting a proper set of indicators. This paper first looks into the different classification schemes available in the literature and outlines the weaknesses in each of these. Afterwards, an alternative classification scheme is introduced that draws on the notions of well-being, economic welfare and sustainability. A further sub-categorization is built on the different approaches that are used to quantitatively capture the notions. By focusing on the underlying concepts that the different measures aim to quantify, the alternative classification scheme overcomes the drawbacks of the existing schemes. Finally, 23 alternative measures for policy-making are reviewed and organized into the newly developed classification scheme.     

Measures of self-reported well-being: their affective,cognitive, and other components

This investigation begins from the hypothesis that social indicators of perceived well-being — e.g., people's assessment of their own life quality — will, like other attudes, reflect two basic types of influences: affect and cognition. In addition, the indicators were expected to include two other components: unique variance (mainly random measurement error) and correlated measurement error. These ideas are investigated using a structural modeling approach applied to 23 assessments of life-as-a-whole from a national survey of Americans (N=1072) and/or a survey of urban residents in England (N=932). In both sets of data, models that included affective and cognitive factors fit significantly better than more restricted models. Furthermore, as expected, measures of (a) ‘happiness’, ‘fun’, and ‘enjoyment’ tended to be relatively more loaded with affect than were measures of (b) ‘satisfaction’, ‘success’, and ‘meeting needs’; and (c) measures designed to tap both affect and cognition tended to fall between the first two groups. In addition, the results suggest that measures employing relatively many scale points and direct assessments yield more valid indicators of people's evaluations of life-as-a-whole than do measures based on three-point scales or on explicit comparisons with other times or groups. These results contribute to basic knowledge about the nature of life quality assessments, help to explain some previously puzzling relationships with demographic factors such as age and education, and may be useful to designers of future studies of perceived well-being.     

The Metrics of Societal Happiness

Growing interest in the measurement of subjective well-being (SWB) has also been accompanied by scientific debate on the optimal method for measuring SWB. The momentary perspective, which is represented by the ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and day reconstruction method (DRM), emphasizes the momentary experiences and aims to measure SWB in an objective manner via the aggregation of happiness levels over time and activities. The global reporting perspective emphasizes the subjective evaluation of life experiences and aims to capture the overall evaluation using retrospection or global evaluations. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these different perspectives and methods by examining conceptual, methodological, and practical issues. We propose adopting a multi-method assessment approach to SWB that uses both perspectives and the corresponding methods in a theory-driven and complementary manner. For the purposes of measuring and tracking SWB of societies, we also call for more research on the reliability and validity of EMA and DRM.     

Whatever Happened to Social Indicators in Africa? Whatever Happened Indeed! A Developing World Perspective on the Kenneth C. Land and Alex C. Michalos Report on ‘Fifty Years After the Social Indicators Movement’

Africa is a latecomer to the Social Indicators Movement. The first social indicators for Third World countries were developed by outsiders and covered almost exclusively topics related to basic needs and development. In response to Kenneth Land’s and Alex Michalos’ historical assessment and their agenda for future ‘social indicators/quality of life/well-being’ research, the commentary traces how South Africa and sub-Saharan countries—with a little help from many friends who are pioneers in the movement—have succeeded in developing their own home-grown social indicators movement. Addressing some of the themes outlined in the agenda that Land and Michalos set for future research, the commentary discusses the importance of monitoring social change occurring in African society in a ‘post-industrialized and much more globalized, and digitized-computerized-roboticized’ era: How will new values and norms impact on the quality of life of future generations of African people?     

Personal Versus Collective Quality of Life And South Africans' Evaluations of Democratic Government

In this paper, we examine the political consequences of quality of life, focusing on the link between perceived well-being and people's support for democratic government. We make two key distinctions. First of all, with regard to quality of life, we distinguish between assessments of personal, or household, quality of life, and assessments of collective (national, community) quality of life. Secondly, we follow David Easton in distinguishing between specific support (attitudes about specific leaders, parties and policies) and diffuse support (attitudes toward the political system in general). We find that personal quality of life is only weakly and inconsistently connected to specific or diffuse support. Perceptions of collective quality of life, however, are strongly related to both specific and diffuse support. Thus, South Africans are holding their government accountable to their perceptions of national well-being. Of greater concern, however, is that they also appear to be holding the democratic system accountable to such developments. Teaching people to distinguish between their evaluations of a specific government and their evaluations of the larger system of democratic government appears to be a key challenge confronting the development of a democratic political culture in South Africa.     

The relationship between measures of subjective and economic well-being: A new look

The objective of this research is to examine the importance of variable specification in using economic variable to explain the variance in individual's perceived (1) overall psychological, (2) economic, and (3) non-economic well-being. Results indicate that careful specification of economic variables improves the explained variance of perceived subjective well-being. Specification of dependent variable, life satisfaction, based on a domain-specific scale, proves superior to using the response to the global satisfaction question, “How do you feel about life as a whole?’ Economic variables prove significant in explaining both perceived economic and non-economic domains of life satisfaction. Although its overall effect on life satisfaction is negative, increased family size is found to enhance non-economic life satisfaction, while detracting from economic aspects of life satisfaction.     

A Measure of Well-Being Across the Italian Urban Areas: An Integrated DEA-Entropy Approach

In recent years, there has been an increasing proliferation of initiatives focusing on the concept of quality of life and well-being. At the centre of these studies there is the recognizing that the GDP offers only a partial perspective of factors affecting people’s lives. Following this line of the research, this paper is aimed at computing the well-being efficiencies of a sample of Italian Province capital cities, using a methodological approach that combines data envelopment analysis (DEA) with Shannon’s entropy formula. To avoid subjectivity in choosing a representative set of variables that proxy the phenomenon under study, we rely on the theoretical framework adopted by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) within the equitable and sustainable well-being (BES) project. The dashboard of indicators included in the analysis are related to the Ur-BES initiative, promoted by ISTAT to implement the BES framework at cities level. In a first step of the analysis, an immediate focus on separate dimensions of urban well-being is obtained by summarizing the plurality of available indicators through the building of composite indices. Next, the adopted integrated DEA–Shannon entropy approach has permitted to increase the discriminatory power of DEA procedure and attain a more reliable profiling of Italian Province capital cities well-being efficiencies. The results show a marked duality between the Northern and Southern cities, highlighting important differences in many aspects of human and ecosystem well-being.     

Level and correlates of perceived quality of life for Lao Hmong refugees in Nebraska

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived global quality of life and the sense of well-being for thirteen specific domains of life experience for 145 Lao Hmong refugees in Nebraska. In addition, the study examined the relationship between the thirteen domains of life experience, four demographic variables, and perceived global quality of life. Because the refugee population studied was largely illiterate in English as well as their native language, a special questionnaire format was developed to allow them confidentiality in responding. An analysis of the data indicated that the Lao Hmong living in Nebraska were generally satisfied with their global life quality and its various domains. The statistical tests used showed the importance of one's view of Self in determining life quality. The study provided data on a unique minority group that has not previously been studied in terms of perceived quality of life.     

Quality of life in retirement: A case study of Zulu return migrants

The quality of late life in technologically advanced societies has been well-researched. In contrast, very little systematic research has been conducted among the aged in less developed societies. An interesting case of retirement in a society in transition is that of returning Zulu contract workers. The apartheid laws of South Africa constrain migrant movements: contract workers typically spend their working lives in the urban-industrial milieu of the core economy and later return to a rural lifestyle in their areas of origin in the peripheral “homelands”. The retirement circumstances of 253 male return migrants in five rural areas of KwaZulu were assessed in an in-depth study. The subjective well-being of the Zulu retirees was found to be influenced mainly by such factors as health, perceived financial security, social activity and participation, and positive sentiment towards retirement life. The conclusion is drawn that migrant workers’ needs in retirement have a universal quality. This finding has social welfare policy implications in a society which is characterised by unequal distribution of privilege.     

Does National Income Inequality Affect Individuals’ Quality of Life in Europe? Inequality,Happiness, Finances,and Health

This paper analyses the effect of income inequality on Europeans’ quality of life, specifically on their overall well-being (happiness, life satisfaction), on their financial quality of life (satisfaction with standard of living, affordability of goods and services, subjective poverty), and on their health (self-rated health, satisfaction with health). The simple bivariate correlations of inequality with overall well-being, financial quality of life, and health are negative. But this is misleading because of the confounding effect of a key omitted variable, national economic development (GDP per capita): Unequal societies are on average much poorer (r = 0.46) and so disadvantaged because of that. We analyse the multi-level European Quality of Life survey conducted in 2003 including national-level data on inequality (Gini coefficient) and economic development (GDP) and individual-level data on overall well-being, financial quality of life, and health. The individual cases are from representative samples of 28 European countries. Our variance-components multi-level models controlling for known individual-level predictors show that national per capita GDP increases subjective well-being, financial quality of life, and health. Net of that, the national level of inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, has no statistically significant effect, suggesting that income inequality does not reduce well-being, financial quality of life, or health in advanced societies. These result all imply that directing policies and resources towards inequality reduction is unlikely to benefit the general public in advanced societies.     

Children's Rights and Children's Quality of Life: Conceptual and Practical Issues

Social representations of childhood are presented briefly, and the Convention of the Rights of the Child of the United Nations is analysed as an opportunity to change some representations that make adults think of children as a different, less important category of people. If the Convention becomes a reality, it is considered that children's well-being and children's quality of life should improve. The need of social indicators and of data from children's own perspective is discussed -- as for example research data on children's perceptions and evaluations of their own rights --. Implementation and monitoring the Convention is analysed as an important challenge for the academic community. Some important aspects to be considered from the international perspective are presented, selected among the preliminary conclusions of some country case studies of an international project actually trying to develop children's rights indicators.     

Social Monitoring and Reporting: A Success Story in Applied Research on Social Indicators and Quality of Life

From its beginnings research on social indicators was not primarily considered as pure, but rather applied research in terms of the regular monitoring of and reporting on quality of life. Thus, the successes—but eventually also failures—of social indicators research may first of all be visible in its most important field of application. Social monitoring and reporting activities, which can be traced back to the early 1970s provide quantitative information and empirically based analytical knowledge on well-being and progress in a single society or groups of societies to be used for different purposes, including policy making. Providing an overview over the variety of social monitoring and reporting projects emerging from social indicators research is supposed to be important with a view to form a more solid fundament for present and future discourses and initiatives in the field of measuring and monitoring well-being and progress. The article looks back to this field of applied social indicators research and—with a focus on Europe—identifies patterns and recent trends in this sort of activities. By looking forward, it finally discusses selected issues that are considered to be crucial for further improvements in this field.     

Perceptual indicators of family well-being

A resource exchange theory for the development of perceptual indicators of quality of family life is presented with empirical evidence to test the theory. The theory specifies six classes of resources: love, status, services, information, goods and money, as necessary to maintain some level of life quality. The first three are the most dependent on the particular people involved in the exchange relationship and the interpersonal exchanges of these resources offer opportunities for highest levels of satisfaction. It was hypothesized (1) that feelings about the particularistic resources received from family would significantly contribute to family life satisfaction for men and women; (2) that the order of resource classes on the particularism dimension would correspond to the order of their effectiveness in contributing to family life satisfaction. Results of the study support the theoretical model and hypotheses and suggest that further research with respondents of differing life circumstances is needed. The need for indicators of quality of family life in quality of life research is emphasized.     

The quality of life in Australia

This paper outlines a long term project on the quality of life in Australia and presents some initial survey data. The long term project is intended (1) to find which domains of life most affect the perceived well-being of Australians and the values/satisfactions people wish to achieve in these domains (2) to propose policy programs designed to enhance satisfaction with particular domains and (3) to assess the political feasibility of proposed programs. Policy programs intended to enhance satisfaction are termed positive welfare programs to distinguish them from conventional compensatory welfare programs. The survey data analysed here (national sample, N=679) deal with the satisfactions and dissatisfactions of Australians, the correlates of perceived well-being and the links between domains and values. Perceived well-being is measured by Andrews and Withey's Life-as-a-whole index and Bradburn's Affect Balance scale. Satisfactions are measured on a 9 point modified version of Andrews and Withey's delighted-terrible scale. Readers familiar with American, British and Canadian findings will find the results reported here broadly similar. However, the linkage between people's sociological characteristics and their satisfaction levels appears to be exceptionally weak in Australia, which tends to confirm the view that Australia is a comparatively unstratified society.     

The structure of subjective well-being in nine western societies

The structure of subjective well-being is analyzed by multidimensional mapping of evaluations of life concerns. For example, one finds that evaluations of Income are close to (i.e., relatively strongly related to) evaluations of Standard of living, but remote from (weakly related to) evaluations of Health. These structures show how evaluations of life components fit together and hence illuminate the psychological meaning of life quality. They can be useful for determining the breadth of coverage and degree of redundancy of social indicators of perceived well-being. Analyzed here are data from representative sample surveys in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, and the United States (each N≈1000). Eleven life concerns are considered, including Income, Housing, Job, Health, Leisure, Neighborhood, Transportation, and Relations with other people. It is found that structures in all of these countries have a basic similarity and that the European countries tend to be more similar to one another than they are to USA. These results suggest that comparative research on subjective well-being is feasible within this group of nations.     

Identifying Critical Factors of Sustainable Healthcare Institutions’ Indicators Under Taiwan’s National Health Insurance System

Taiwan’s healthcare institutions are increasingly being challenged under the various reforms undertaken by the National Health Insurance System in recent years. Aims to sustainable development is already considered as a major task for sustainable healthcare institutions, hence, identifying the indicators used in evaluation of the improvements towards sustainable healthcare is crucial in ensuring a better quality of life and well-being for Taiwan people. This research data were collected using the causal relationships among nineteen criteria and examined by decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method. The method with an expert’s interview provides a clear and transparent approach to analyze the cause and effect findings within criteria. Findings show that the critical factor; corporate governance is a very important part of the business strategy and factor of clinical performance is in particular one of the key criteria for sustainable healthcare institutions. Results also indicated that employ a suitable co-payment system should comply with the medical triage system for therapy, which may increase the effective utilization of medical resources. These results identified specific social factors related to the developed indicators that managers should consider the diversification of sustainable management. The identification of these factors can contribute to more integrative social analyses to improve a better quality of life.