Different Predictors of Quality of Life in Urban Environment

The present study aimed at comparing the effects of different sets of predictors on quality of life in an urban environment. We used secondary data collected by means of a self-report questionnaire on a sample of 343 residents of a big Italian city. The questionnaire included a multidimensional scale elaborated by the World Health Organization (WHOQoL brief scale) assessing quality of life in terms of four different evaluations concerning distinct aspects of life: physical health; psychological status; social relationships; environment. Four different types of predictors were considered: (1) socio-demographic characteristics; (2) quality of social relations (perceived social support); (3) place attachment; (4) healthy lifestyle. To test the influence of different groups of predictors on the dimensions of WHOQoL we performed four hierarchical regression analyses. Several significant influences were found. In particular the results pointed out the great role of perceived social support and place attachment in promoting quality of life. That result suggests the importance of community interventions in urban environment.     

Predictors of Quality of Life in Economically Disadvantaged Populations in Montreal

Most epidemiological studies agree that economically disadvantaged populations are the groups most vulnerable to mental health problems and report lower quality of life among these populations. However, it appears that access to social support plays a role in protecting against the chronic stress resulting from conditions such as poverty. This study is an attempt to clarify the relative contribution of social support to the quality of life of economically disadvantaged populations in two low-income neighbourhoods of Montreal. A random sample of 417 social assistance recipients were interviewed in the respondents?? homes. The Quality of Life scale used was the Satisfaction with Life Domains Scale. The availability of social support components was assessed using the Social Provisions Scale. Social support measures were entered into a multidimensional model that included a number of variables identified as having a relationship to mental health. Among the 17 variables included in a multiple regression analysis, emotional support and support providing reassurance of worth accounted for most of the variance in the QOL predicted by the model. Psychological distress also accounted for a fair amount of variance in QOL and younger people and people experiencing food insecurity showed a lower QOL.     

Normative Life Satisfaction in Chinese Societies

Research over several decades about subjective life satisfaction has led to the conclusion that the majority of people seem to be satisfied with their lives when their social and physical needs are met. In empirical studies which have used self-report instruments, this trend is reflected in respondents’ consistent preference for the positive end of scales. This led to the suggestion that there is a normative range for life satisfaction, which should hold true for general population data and, therefore, serve as a reference point, or a gold standard, for comparison (Cummins Social Indicators Research, 35, 179–200, 1995, Social Indicators Research, 43, 307–334, 1998). Subsequent research has shown that Western and non-Western samples generally conform to the normative range, but more data are needed from Chinese societies. In an attempt to remedy this situation, this paper investigates normative life satisfaction there. This paper reanalyses published and unpublished data from various Chinese societies (People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and Taiwan) in order to confirm whether or not they lie within the normative range for non-Western countries. The results provide support for the relevance of Cummins’s normative range in Chinese societies. That the normative range generalised to the present study is a very useful finding, as it supports its utility for Chinese samples, and adds support to a theoretical explanation – i.e. the Wellbeing Homeostatisis theory—in Chinese groups.     

Demographic Characteristics as Predictors of Quality of Life in a Population of Psychiatric Outpatients

Studies examining relationships between demographic variables in a general population of psychiatric outpatients and quality of life (QOL), in which QOL was assessed according to current recommendations, have not been performed yet. The aim of this study was to examine one particular aspect of this relationship: the question to what extent QOL scores can be predicted by demographic variables. In a sample of adult Dutch psychiatric outpatients (n=495), demographics were recorded and the participants completed a questionnaire for measuring QOL (WHOQOL-100). The relationships of the demographic variables with the WHOQOL-100 domains Social Relationships and Environment, were stronger than those with the domains Physical Health and Psychological Health. The latter had only significant relationships with educational level and sick leave, which explain little of the variance of the concerning QOL domain. In general, the demographic characteristics used, explained only a relatively small part of the variance in QOL scores. An exception was sick leave, which, in participants with a job, explained an extensive part (27.4%) of the variance of scores on the domain Physical Health.     

Materialism and Quality of Life

An attempt is made in this paper to establish a foundation for a theory of materialism and quality of life. The theory posits that overall life satisfaction (quality of life) is partly determined by satisfaction with standard of living. Satisfaction with standard of living, in turn, is determined by evaluations of one's actual standard of living compared to a set goal. Materialists experience greater dissatisfaction with their standard of living than nonmaterialists, which in turn spills over to overall life causing dissatisfaction with life in general. Materialists experience dissatisfaction with their standard of living because they set standard of living goals that are inflated and unrealistically high. These goals set by materialists are more influenced by affective-based expectations (such as ideal, deserved, and need-based expectations) than cognitive-based ones (such as predictive, past, and ability based expectations). Materialists' ideal standard-of-living expectations are influenced by social comparisons involving remote referents, more so than comparisons involving standards that are situationally imposed. Examples of situationally-imposed standards are perceptions of wealth, income, and material possessions of family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and so on. In contrast, examples of standards based on remote sources are perceptions of standard of living of others in one's community, town, state, country, other countries; perceptions of standard of living of others based on gender, age, education, ethnicity, occupation, and social class. This tendency to use remote referents in social comparisons may account for materialists' inflated and value-laden expectations of their standard of living. Materialists' deserved standard-of-living expectations are influenced by the tendency to engage in equity comparisons involving income and work. Thus, materialists compare themselves with others that seem to have more income and worked no harder. These equity comparisons generate feelings of inequity, injustice, anger, or envy. These emotions may also account for materialists' inflated and value-laden expectations of their standard of living. Materialists' standard-of-living expectations based on minimum needs are influenced by the tendency to spend more than generate income. This proclivity to overconsume and underproduce may be partly responsible for materialists' inflated and value-laden expectations of their standard of living.     

Affective and Daily Event Predictors of Life Satisfaction in College Students

The current study examined how well affect and daily events predict life satisfaction in 72 college students. Surveys assessing mood, affect balance, health, and sleep quality provided estimates of affect and daily events. The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) was used as a measure of general life satisfaction. The current results indicated that the SWLS was significantly correlated with feelings of depression, anger, vigor, and confusion, with physical health and frequency of physical illness, with positive and negative affect, and with sleep quality. The predictor variables used in the current study accounted for 54.1% of the total variance of the SWLS. However, only depression, vigor, confusion, frequency of illness and negative affect were significant predictors of life satisfaction in both a standard regression model and in a hierarchical forward regression model. More practically, an increase in subjective life satisfaction was predicted by decreases in depression, decreases in negative affect, decreases in the frequency of illness, and increases in vigor. These results indicate that judgements of life satisfaction, as measured by the SWLS, were significantly predicted by affect and daily events.     

Measuring Quality of Life

This paper considers quality of life (QOL) to be a global, yet unidimensional, subjective assessment of one's satisfaction with life. This conceptualization is consistent with viewing QOL assessments as resulting from the interaction of multiple causal dimensions, but it is inconsistent with proposals to limit QOL to health-related quality of life (HRQOL). We test the unidimensional yet global conceptualization of QOL using data from coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients. The Self-Anchoring Striving Scale (SASS) and four other indicators derived from the literature, all seemed to function as indicators of a single concept (QOL) that was repeatedly drawn upon as the patients determined their responses to these indicators. However, only about half the variance in each indicator was attributable to that common QOL source. Several structural equation models are used to assess whether the superior performance of the Life 3 indicator is an artifact of the repetition of an item within this indicator. The data convincingly indicate that the superior performance is not a memory artifact, and that even the repetition of an identically worded item prodded the patients into drawing yet again upon the same QOL factor that grounded all the other measures.     

Italian Quality of Life

The paper begins with a presentation of the quality of life in Italy as compared to other countries in the European Union. Several of the major socio-demographic and economic and life satisfaction (as revealed by the Eurobarometer survey) indicators are considered. Then, the Italian situation is discussed at greater length in the light of the transformations it has undergone in the past ten years. Thus it is possible to evaluate the following demographic themes: the profound process of aging; transformations in the family; and transformations in urban areas. The following economic themes are considered: the principal characteristics of the marketplace, in particular, the problem of unemployment; and household income and consumption. Finally, the time series of certain objective indicators are placed alongside those of life satisfaction.     

Personality and Life Events as Predictors of Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction: Do Life Events Mediate the Link Between Personality and Life Satisfaction?

This study examined the association among personality traits, life events and life satisfaction, and the underlying pathways from personality traits to life satisfaction. A total of 1,961 adolescents were recruited from 21 secondary schools in Hong Kong. The adolescent version of the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI-A), the Chinese Adolescent Life Events Checklist (CALEC) and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) were employed to assess their personality, life events and life satisfaction, respectively. Multiple regression analysis showed there was an additional value of the indigenously derived scales of CPAI-A, including the Family Orientation, Harmony and Ren-Qing scales, in predicting life satisfaction beyond the universal personality traits. Results also indicated that there was a partial mediation effect of negative life events on personality traits in the prediction of life satisfaction.     

Health and the Quality of Life

The aim of this investigation was to explain theimpact of peoples self-reported health on theirlevels of satisfaction with their health, and theimpact of these things plus satisfaction with otherspecific domains of their lives on the perceivedquality of their lives. The latter was operationalized as general happiness, satisfactionwith life as a whole and overall satisfaction with thequality of life. Seven hundred and twenty-three (723)usable questionnaires returned from a mailout randomsample of 2500 households of Prince George, BritishColumbia in November 1998 formed the working data-setfor our analyses. Among other things, mean respondentscores on the SF-36 health profile were found to belower than published norms from the UK, USA,Netherlands and Sweden, but higher than scores fromAberdeen, Scotland. Mean scores on the CES-Ddepression scale also indicated that our respondentstended to have more depressive symptoms thancomparison groups in Winnipeg and the USA. A review oftrends in mean scores on 17 quality of life items(e.g., satisfaction with family life, financialsecurity, recreation, etc.) from 1994, 1997 and 1998revealed that there were only 7 statisticallysignificant changes across the four year period andthey were all negative. Multivariate regressionanalysis showed that health status measured with avariety of indicators could explain 56% of thevariation in respondents reported satisfaction withtheir health. A combination of health status plusdomain satisfaction indicators could explain 53% ofthe variation in respondents reported happiness, 68%of reported life satisfaction and 63% of reportedsatisfaction with the overall quality of life. Sixtypercent of the explained variation in happiness scoreswas attributable to self-reported health scores, whileonly 18% of the explained variation in satisfactionwith life and with the overall quality of life scoreswas attributable self-reported health scores.     

Family Life Quality and Emotional Quality of Life in Chinese Adolescents with and Without Economic Disadvantage

Chinese secondary school students (N = 2758) responded to measures of perceived family life quality (parenting quality and parent–child relational quality) and emotional quality of life (hopelessness, mastery, life satisfaction and self-esteem). Parenting quality included different aspects of parental behavioral control (parental knowledge, expectation, monitoring, discipline and demandingness as well as parental control defined in terms of indigenous Chinese concepts), parental psychological control, and parental responsiveness whereas parent–child relational quality included satisfaction with parental control, child’s readiness to communicate with the parents, parental trust of the child, and child’s trust of the parent. Results showed that parenting quality and parent–child relational quality in poor families were generally poorer than those of non-poor families and the differences were more pronounced in paternal parenting quality and father–child relational quality than in maternal parenting quality and mother–child relational quality. Emotional quality of life of adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage was also found to be poorer than that of adolescents not experiencing economic disadvantage. The present findings replicate the previous research findings in the literature and generate a pioneering dataset based on Chinese adolescents at Secondary 2 level in Hong Kong.     

Life Domain Satisfactions as Predictors of Overall Life Satisfaction Among Workers: Evidence from Chile

This article examines the subjective antecedents of life satisfaction of workers. Adopting a ‘bottom-up’ perspective, we assessed the unique influence that satisfaction with multiple life domains have on evaluative judgments of overall life satisfaction. Based on a nationwide sample of 530 Chilean workers, we simultaneously tested the effects of seven life domain satisfactions that have been consistently included in extant models of life satisfaction and subjective well-being. These were satisfaction with health, financial situation, social relationships, one’s self-worth, leisure-time, family, and work. Having controlled for age and gender, results showed that satisfaction with one’s financial situation was the dominant predictor of overall life satisfaction of workers, with a weight of .36. Satisfaction with family, work, and health had effects of .25, .14, and .14, respectively. Interestingly, satisfaction with one’s self-worth, leisure-time, and social relationships did not have statistically significant effects on life satisfaction, although the first two showed t values near the critical value.     

Multidimensional Quality of Life: A New Measure of Quality of Life in Adults

This paper presents a new measure for assessing quality of life (QOL) –the Multidimensional Quality of Life (MQOL)– and describes its derivation, characteristics, structure and several applications. Reasons for developing the MQOL include the restricted range of assessed domains and the heavy emphasis on health in many standard assessment tools. The MQOL was derived by meaning probes into QOL in different samples. It is a 60-item self-report tool of high reliability and validity covering various themes and forming, in line with factor and cluster analyses, 17 scales that constitute five factors according to confirmatory factor analysis. It has been applied with thousands of individuals, in English, Hebrew, Russian and Arabic, and is adequate for healthy and physically or mentally sick individuals, under regular or challenging circumstances. Described studies present findings in samples of sick or healthy individuals (e.g., unemployed, members of a collapsing Kibbutz); relations between the MQOL and coping strategies in partners of sick individuals; and interrelations of overall and scale scores in new and old immigrants. Conclusions focus on the structure of the MQOL, the specificity of coping effects, and the stabilizing mechanisms of QOL.     

Quality of Life Across Life Domains: Family Structure and Relations

Social Indicators Research - This paper aims to evaluate how the Korean family fares in terms of itsquality of life. Specifically, it examines the perceived quality of relationships among family...     

Life Quality measures of smoking

The cost of smoking has three principal dimensions: money, reduced life expectancy, and diminished health. Each component can be quantified; all have an influence on the quality and duration of life. The combined influence can be evaluated using an aggregated social indicator, such as the Life Quality Index. It can be expressed in various ways, e.g. as an equivalent move to a nation or to a time with a lower level of the LQI, as an equivalent economic loss, or as an equivalent loss of life expectancy. To illustrate, the analysis is applied to Danish data on smoking; the cost for a typical pack-a-day habit is equivalent to a 57% reduction in personal income, 8.6 years loss of life expectancy, or a 4% drop in the Life Quality Index. These measures underscore the seriousness of smoking as a health hazard.     

Criminal Victimization and the Quality of Life

The aim of this investigation was to explain theimpact of crime-related issues on satisfaction withthe quality of life, satisfaction with life as a wholeand happiness in the city of Prince George, BritishColumbia. As explanatory variables, we had measures ofrespondent fears of and actual cases of victimization, Indexes of Neighbourhood Problems, PolicePerformance, Neighbourhood Worries, DefensiveBehaviour, beliefs about increases in local crime,satisfaction with personal and family safety, andsatisfaction with a variety of domains of life (e.g.,friendships, financial security, health). Collectivelysuch variables could explain only 5% of the variationin happiness scores, 7% of the variation in lifesatisfaction scores and 9% of the variation insatisfaction with the quality of life scores. However,they could explain 38% of the variation in overallneighbourhood satisfaction scores. When measures ofsatisfaction with family life, health, self-esteem,etc. were added, we found that crime related issueswere simply displaced by the other measures and thatwe could explain 31% of the variation in overallhappiness scores, 58% of the variation in lifesatisfaction scores and 59% of the variation insatisfaction with the overall quality of life scores. We conclude, therefore, that crime-related issues haverelatively little impact on peoples satisfaction withthe quality of their lives, with life satisfaction orhappiness here.     

Public Services and the Quality of Life

This is a report of the results of a survey of citizen beliefs and attitudes about public services and the quality of life in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada in the summer of 1997. Information is provided about the perceived frequency with which various services were used, the perceived satisfaction and value for tax dollars spent on the services as well as on levels of government officials generally, preferences for the provision of more or fewer services and for spending relatively more or less revenue on different services, views about user-fees, and views about smoke-free public places and the likely impact of bylaw changes on people's behaviour. Using such information, we examined correlations among perceived satisfaction, perceived value for money, use, spending preferences and demand, and, using multiple regression analysis, explained 66% of the variance in life satisfaction scores, 57% of the variance in satisfaction with the quality of life scores and 37% of the variance in happiness scores. Applying LISREL 8.14, it was shown that a model in which our three global indicators were explained by 13 domain indicators was superior to a model in which the latter indicators were explained by the former, i.e., a Bottom-Up model was superior to a Top-Down model. A simple linear model was also used to explain 32%, 20% and 19%, respectively, of the variance in satisfaction with municipal, provincial and federal government officials.     

Policing Services and the Quality of Life

In this paper results are reported of a randomsample survey of 698 residents of PrinceGeorge, British Columbia taken in May 2001.The main aim of the survey was to measurerespondents' assessments of local policeservices in Prince George, and their relativeimpact on the quality of respondents' lives.Generally speaking, the evaluations were quitefavourable. For example, in response to thequestion `what kind of a job do you think theRCMP are doing', 30% said a `very good job'and 38% said a `fairly good job', compared to2% who said they were doing a `very poor job'and 4% more a `fairly poor job'. Compared toa 1997 survey, fewer people thought that crimehad increased in the past few years, which isactually consistent with official crimestatistics. The biggest perceived problem waswith speeding and careless driving, althoughrespondents rated traffic and highwayenforcement as the least important of a dozenkinds of police activities. People mostappreciated police work aimed at preventingcrimes. Of the things people did to protectthemselves from becoming a victim, keepingitems in their cars out of sight headed thelist. As in previous surveys in thiscommunity, highest levels of satisfaction wereexpressed for living partners and familyrelations generally. Estimating the relativeimpact of three police/crime related variables(satisfaction with feelings of personal safetyaround one's home and in one's community, andwith local policing services) on the qualityof life measured in five different ways in thecontext of 12 other variables, it was foundthat only the last variable (satisfaction withpolicing services) had a statisticallysignificant association to the quality of lifemeasured in three of the five ways. Fortypercent of the variation in happiness scoresand 63% of the variation in life satisfactionscores could be explained by five and sixpredictors, respectively, without anysignificant association with satisfaction withpolicing services. Sixty-two percent of thevariation in satisfaction with respondents'overall quality of life scores could beexplained by eight predictors, withsatisfaction with policing services as thethird most influential predictor behindsatisfaction with respondents' self-esteem andfriendships. Sixty-one percent of thevariation in satisfaction with respondents'standard of living scores was explained byseven predictors, with satisfaction withpolicing services being least influential.Finally, 76% of the variation in an index ofsubjective well-being (summing the scores ofthe other four global indicators) wasexplained by nine predictors, withsatisfaction with policing services beingsecond least influential.     

Quality of Life in Hong Kong: the Cuhk Hong Kong Quality of Life Index

The CUHK Hong Kong Quality of Life Index, which aims to assess and monitor the quality of life in Hong Kong, is a composite index incorporating both objective and subjective measures. This index, developed by the Faculty of Social Science of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, employs data collected in representative sample surveys and official statistics. A wide range of life domains is covered and the year 2002 is taken as the base year of the study. Index scores demonstrate that in general the quality of life in Hong Kong has improved slightly in 2003; scores of the composite index and the three sub-indices on sectorial performance are somewhat higher than those of the previous year. It is noteworthy that Hong Kong has made noticeable progress and performs as well as many economically advanced societies in certain life domains; yet, the well-being of the people relies on further improvement in others.