Measures of the perceived overall quality of life

Respondents participating in a national quality of life study were asked to assess their levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with each of a set of fifteen domains of their lives. They were also asked to describe their lives as a whole, using both satis-faction and semantic-differential types of scales. Canonical correlation analysis was used to find the combinations of domain-specific and global items with the highest correlation. The two indices derived from this analysis, the Index of Well-being and the Index of Domain Satisfactions, have been examined in relation to a variety of demographic and situational variables, including age, indicators of socioeconomic status, employment status, and size of community. The relationships discovered provide some preliminary evidence for the validity of these indices. The reliability of the measures (as measured cross-sectionally) and their stability over a period of some eight months are both acceptably high. We conclude that both of these measures form acceptable indicators of the perceived overall quality of life.     

Cultural bias in ratings of perceived life quality

The results of comparative surveys have demonstrated great differences of perceived life quality. Yet there is doubt whether these differences mean that people are really more satisfied in one country than in another. It is generally believed that the responses are distorted by factors such as language, familiarity with concepts like satisfaction, and social desirability pressures. Though often alleged, the truth of these charges has not yet been demonstrated empirically. Ostroot & Snijder (1985) now claim to have demonstrated that about 40% of the difference in satisfaction between the French and Americans is due to ‘cultural bias’: in particular to a rosier outlook of the latter. Yet their arguments labor under two defects: Firstly, their use of the word ‘bias’ is misleading. They do not demonstrate any discrepancy between avowed satisfaction and ‘true’ satisfaction. Speaking of a ‘cultural effect’ would be more appropriate. Secondly, Ostroot & Snyder do not demonstrate that the greater satisfaction of Americans is due to a rosier outlook on their part. The data do not allow the conclusion that Americans hold a rosier view than the French, nor that such a view is responsible for their greater satisfaction.     

Political beliefs and subjective indicators of quality of life

A recent article by Buttel et al. argued that the subjective satisfaction of individual respondents with their personal lives may be related to their political ideological beliefs. Employing survey data collected in Wisconsin in 1974 they demonstrated a significant linkage between total life satisfaction and political cynicism. This paper proceeds to reanalyze their results, employing 1972 election data collected by the Survey Research Center. The paper argues that one must differentiate a standard measure of political cynicism from the type of measure employed in the Buttel et al. work. For the standard measure of political cynicism no linkage was found with total life satisfaction, but for a personal measure that was similar to the one employed in the Buttel et al. article there was a relationship. The previous results suggest that the findings of the Buttel et al. article were brought about by the unique manner in which they defined political cynicism.     

Ideology and social indicators of the quality of life

This paper explores the possibility that social-psychological, evaluative measures of social well-being/quality of life (QOL) perceptions may embody unintended ideological elements. We argue that individual QOL satisfactions are likely caused, in part, by ‘satisfactions’, or conservative orientations, vis-à-vis societal institutions. Four dependent measures of QOL attitudes-overall life satisfaction, service satisfaction, community satisfaction, and powerlessness-are derived from factor analyses and established measurement procedures. Each of these QOL indicators is found to exhibit significant bivariate associations with measures of political-economic ideology. These relationships are somewhat reduced, but persist at statistically significant levels, when socio-demographic background variables are held constant. We then discuss the implications of our results for theory and method in the social indicators field.     

Modelling change in perceived quality of life (PQOL)

Almost all previous research on PQOL has examined static relationships. This paper, based on two waves of an Australian panel study (N=677), investigates change. We estimate a model in which changes in PQOL are seen as depending directly on changes in satisfaction with particular domains of life (marriage, job, etc.), which in turn are affected by life events occurring within these domains. This model accords with a “bottom-up” rather than a “top-down” theory of PQOL or well-being (Diener, 1984). Chief interest lies in the strong relationships between domain specific events and changes in domain satisfactions. In previous research life events have been directly linked to PQOL, or to physical or mental illness. The different result here arises from estimating a more appropriate model with an additional link (changes in domain satisfactions) in the chain. From a methodological standpoint, the paper suggests that life events inventories can be valuable research instruments and that recent validity criticisms (e.g. Schroeder and Costa, 1984) have been overstated. The second part of the paper deals with relationships between personality traits, social support and life events. We test hypotheses about links between (1) personality and subsequent life events (2) the “buffering” effects of personality and social support on the impact of adverse events (3) the effects of events on personality. Personality traits apparently do affect the subsequent incidence of life events. Extraversion is associated with favourable subsequent events, and neuroticism with adverse events. Internal locus of control apparently wards off adversity. An alternative hypothesis that these relationships are due to biassed reporting (i.e. personality traits are associated with degrees of bias) appears to be false. Contrary to findings from cross-sectional data, our panel results indicate that neither personality traits nor social support “buffer” the impact of adverse events on PQOL. Finally, life events appears to have small but statistically significant effects in modifying adult personality.     

Subjective and objective indicators of regional quality of life in Switzerland

Mainly because of data limitations, direct comparisons between subjective and objective indicators of local or regional quality of life have been inconclusive until now. The 1978 opinion survey among more than 33 000 Swiss recruits representing about 80% of their age cohort allows one for the first time to disaggregate survey data regionally for all parts of a whole country. The portrait of 97 regions and 25 cantons of Switzerland, based on the recruits' assessments of their native commune, seem adequately to reflect the rich variety of quality of life experiences in this extremely decentralized and culturally heterogenous country. Evidence from several procedures for validating the opinion survey data is presented, among which comparisons between the subjective and selected objective indicators of regional quality of life prove to be most conclusive. In general, the intercorrelations between these two types of social indicators are astonishingly high. Some consequences of this result for the subjective vs. objective social indicator controversy are elaborated. Methodological considerations on the peculiar elusiveness of the quality of life category follow, indicating the outline of a workable methodology of usable social indicators knowledge.     

Developing measures of perceived life quality: Results from several national surveys

This report presents the current status of a series of studies oriented toward the assessment of perceived life quality. The conceptual model proposes that a person's overall sense of life quality is understandable as a combination of affective responses to life ‘domains’, which are of two types-role situations and values. Over 100 items used to measure a wide variety of domains and 28 items assessing perceived overall life quality are presented. Various subsets of these items were used in interviews with several representative samples of American adults. Based on these data the domain items were grouped into a smaller number of semi-independent clusters which were internally stable across 10 different subgroups of the respondents and whose interrelationships were highly replicable in independent national samples. A series of analyses, some replicated in more than one survey showed: (1) an additive combination of 12 selected domains explained 50–60% of the variance in an index of overall life quality, (2) neither other domains nor several social characteristic variables contributed additional explanatory power, (3) this level of explanation was achieved in each of 22 subgroups of the population, and (4) additive combinations of domains worked as well as more complicated combinations.     

Unequal perceived quality of life among elderly Italians: different satisfaction levels in selected spheres life

Social Indicators Research -     

The perceived quality of life in Norway: Regional variations and contextual effects

This article deals with perceived quality of life and its relationship to sociodemographic background variables in Norway. We try to answer two questions, viz (1) to what extent does the absolute level of quality of life as well as the relationships between quality of life and individual-level sociodemographic variables vary between Norwegian counties? and (2) are such variations related to specific characteristics of the various counties? Some between-county variation is found, but in most cases the pattern of variation is not replicated across surveys. For variation in the absolute level of QOL as well as in the relationship between an individual's education and QOL, however, there is a moderate degree of stability. Contextual analyses show that the relationship between education and QOL is positive and moderately strong in affluent counties, near zero or negative in economically more backward areas. The results are interpreted within the framework of a person-environment fit model.     

Objective quality of life indicators and the external validity of community research findings

We assessed how representative the objective quality of life in our research community was in order to provide a basis for judging the external validity of environmental-behavioral research findings that will emerge from future investigations. We also provided a methodology of evaluation that could be duplicated by other community study groups. The central city and county units of a U.S. Midwestern metropolitan area were categorized into four geographic reference zones with structural attributes that differentiated them along a city-suburban-rural continuum. Within this geographic frame-work, we were able to evaluate how eleven major categories of our community's quality of life compared, and to unambiguously assign the community's quality of life a position along the city-suburban-rural continuum.     

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.     

Value dimensions,cultural differences,and the prediction of perceived quality of life

This research sought to identify the dimensional structure of values, their relationship to perceived QOL, and to examine cultural differences in value systems. A sample of 200 respondents was asked to provide direct, indirect, and importance ratings of a range of values. It was found that these could be adequately represented by seven dimensions, and that comparable dimensions were obtained from all three sets of value measures. This finding was replicated by alternative analyses, and also replicates previous research, providing strong evidence for the generality of the structure. Some inconsistent differences in values were found between the three ethnic groups (European, Maori, and Polynesian) that comprised the sample, but it was concluded that there were no clear cultural differences in values. No cultural differences were found in QOL measures also. Some possible explanations of these results are discussed. Value dimensions for direct and indirect value measures were found to be useful predictors of QOL, with close, personal dimensions generally being the best predictors. Value importance dimensions were not found to be useful QOL predictors, and it is proposed that future research should focus on aspiration measures.     

Social support and the quality of life following myocardial infarction

A serious illness is a severe threat to the assumptive world, sense of mastery and self-concept of the individual. The quality of life of the person with a chronic disease depends upon the degree to which the patient is able to cope with these and other major adaptive tasks confronting him. The influence of the social environment on successful adaptation and well-being has been investigated in a longitudinal study with a representative sample of male German cardiac patients (N=980). The quality of interpersonal relationships and experienced socio-emotional support were found to affect both the positive and negative dimensions of psychological well-being as defined by Bradburn (1969). Perceived health status, a pivotal variable in the adaptation process, and physical disability mainly influenced the negative dimension.     

The quality of life in large American cities: Objective and subjective social indicators

The concept of ‘quality of life’ as a tool of comparative social indicators research is analyzed. Inter-city comparisons of objective and subjective measures of well being are presented and the distinctiveness of these two dimensions of the quality of life is documented. The paper concludes with some observations on the implications that this distinctiveness has for the use of the concept ‘quality of life’ in future social indicators research.     

Social indicators of racial parity

Using the U.S. Census' Social Indicators III (73 indicators) and the OECD List of Social Indicators (33 indicators), a modified Delphi panel was surveyed in two rounds to rank 106 items and 19 “areas of major social concerns” as to how “essential” or “unnecessary” each indicator was in measuring racial parity in the U.S. A hypothesis about how much consensus was reached overall between the first- and second-round responses and hypotheses about comparative views among Academics, minority Advocates and Government researchers-administrators were tested (See Table I). From the second-round returns, the top 15 indicators (selected by the panel) and the 19 major areas of social concerns were analyzed. Secondary data were gathered and built into a Dissimilarity Index. Comparisons were analyzed statistically in increments of 5 indicators (quintiles), and overall to determine how much parity, or equality, between Afro-Americans and Whites had been obtained between the “early 1980s” and the “early 1990s”.     

Social indicators and social management

The social indicators movement, which has attained world-wide significance, is based on awareness of the increasing necessity for a conscious regulation of social processes, as well as on the successful utilization of the social sciences. Both of these processes depend on: the character of the social order in the different countries, conceptions of the nature and functions of science, and the nature and functions of social indicators. Irrespective of international differences, however, many common problems exist; this makes their discussion possible despite different philosophical and sociological paradigms. Two main problems are addressed: (1) the definition of the concept of “system of social indicators” and especially “unity of objective and subjective indicators”, and (2) the definition of the conditions for their most effective involvement in the purposeful regulation of the social processes.     

Objective and subjective social indicators of the quality of life in American SMSA'S: A reanalysis

The paper examines and critiques Schneider's work that related the subjective and objective indicators of quality of life in American cities. The work then employs data collected by Liu in 1973, and the Institute for Survey Research in 1972 as part of their national election study for 41 large and medium-sized Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA's) to re-examine the question of the relationship between the objective and subjective factors. Although the results of this paper are in general comparable with those obtained by Schneider, there are individual cases where they differ. The paper then concludes with a discussion of the reasons why objective and subjective indicators may coincide.     

Causes and indicators of housing quality

This paper examines the feasibility and validity of one method for combining measures of different dimensions of the quality of a household's housing situation into a summary index value. Housing quality is treated as an unobservable variable for which there are multiple observable causes and indicators. Alternative mathematical models are specified, and their parameters are estimated using data from a sample of low-income renter households in a major U.S. metropolitan area.