Cross cultural comparisons of quality of life of Thais and Americans

Comparisons of quality of life (QOL) measures across cultures of countries in different stages of economic development have been very scarce. This study attempts to fill the void in the literature by investigating the level of overall life satisfaction and satisfaction with various domains of lives of Thais and Americans. Additionally, the relationships between satisfaction with domains of life and overall life satisfaction in each culture have been explored. The results of this study indicate that Thais are less satisfied with their lives in general and most of the domains of their lives than Americans. However, both Thais and Americans tend to be more satisfied with their personal domains of lives than environmental domains of lives. In addition, satisfaction with material possessions is found to contribute significantly to overall life satisfaction of Thais but not Americans. This suggests that material wealth or economic development is still a vital mechanism for enhancing QOL of people in Thailand, but is not important for enhancing QOL of people in the U.S.     

Assessing quality of life in Singapore: An exploratory study

This article attempts an exploratory study of the quality of life in Singapore. The first objective of this study was to gauge how Singaporeans view the quality of their lives and the extent to which demographic characteristics affect life satisfaction. Secondly, the importance of the different pre-selected domains of life was also individually investigated. Finally, the levels of satisfaction with each of these domains were also assessed. It was found that there were no significant relationships found between life satisfaction and demographic characteristics. In addition, people in Singapore attached great importance to being healthy and having a happy family life. Finally, it was also determined that they were in general very satisfied with the various domains of life, particulary with family life and life in Singapore as a whole.     

Making the Best of a Bad Situation: Satisfaction in the Slums of Calcutta

Eighty three people in the slums of Calcutta,India were interviewed, and responded toseveral measures of subjective well-being. Therespondents came from one of three groups:Those living in slum housing, sex workers(prostitutes) residing in brothels, andhomeless individuals living on the streets.They responded to questions about lifesatisfaction and satisfaction with various lifedomains, as well as to a memory recall measureof good and bad events in their lives. Whilethe mean rating of general life satisfactionwas slightly negative, the mean ratings ofsatisfaction with specific domains werepositive. The conclusion is that the slumdwellers of Calcutta generally experience alower sense of life satisfaction than moreaffluent comparison groups, but are moresatisfied than one might expect. This could bedue, in part, to the strong emphasis on socialrelationships and the satisfaction derived fromthem.     

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.     

Social Relations and School Life Satisfaction in South Korea

This study pays special attention to adolescents who are at the critical stage of social, cognitive and emotional development and their satisfaction with school life which is important for their educational experience and adult life. The purpose of this study is to examine how students’ relationships with friends, teachers and parents are associated with their school life satisfaction. We conducted hierarchical linear modeling with nationally representative data on 3,790 high school seniors in the consideration of different school types (general and vocational high schools) reflecting the contextual characteristics of South Korean education system. Our findings show that all those relations are associated with school life satisfaction and that some distinctive dimensions of each relation matter for students’ school life satisfaction. In particular, teacher-student relationship was found to shape students’ satisfaction with school life both at individual and school level. In spite of several limitations, the broad investigation of students’ social relations provided a policy implication for improving adolescents’ satisfaction with their school lives.     

Perceptions of Life Quality among the Korean Mass Public: Unraveling their Dynamics and Standards

South Korea is widely known as an Asian model of economic development and democratization. Yet until now, research has not shown whether the country’s successful transition to democracy and market capitalism has enabled ordinary citizens to experience a life of happiness and satisfaction in their private and public lives. To address this question, this study analyzes a 2002 Euromodule survey of the Korean electorate designed to appraise the quality of life as a whole and in its various important domains. Results of the analysis reveal that a substantial minority of South Koreans still leads undesirable lives full of unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Furthermore, among the socioeconomically deprived, more people report deteriorations rather than improvements in their living conditions over the past five years. On the basis of these findings, we conclude that the surging forces of democratization and marketization can hinder ordinary people from experiencing a better quality of life by motivating them to compare themselves with other people in better situations to a greater extent than they did under past circumstances.     

Work status and the quality of life

The general thesis from which this paper derived is that objective conditions are related to perceptions and evaluations of those conditions, but that such relationships are mediated by personal characteristics such as expectation and aspiration levels, and other motivational factors. The specific relationship examined is that between work status and overall life satisfaction among women. Although there is little difference in average levels of life satisfaction expressed by housewives and by women working outside the home, substantial differences emerge when women are distinguished by their motivation with respect to paid work: among women who want jobs, working women are more satisfied with their lives than are housewives; while among those who would prefer not to work, housewives are more satisfied. Evidence is also found in support of a hypothesis that work tends to be less central to the overall quality of women's lives than is true for men.     

Tests of the causal directions of global — Life facet satisfaction relationships

Previous research generally has supported multiple discrepancies theory (MDT) of the processes by which individuals arrive at judgments of satisfaction with various aspects of their lives as well as with life overall. However, the nature of possible causal relationships between overall and life facet satisfaction has been ignored. The purpose of this study was to extend MDT by testing alternative theoretical models which specified Bottom-up, Top-Down, and Bidirectional relationships between overall life satisfaction and satisfaction with 11 life facets in a sample of 1354 U.S. college students. Results most strongly favored the Bidirectional model in which the overall — life facet satisfaction relationship varied across life domains. The need to identify boundary conditions which determine the direction of the overall — life facet satisfaction relationship is discussed.     

Is the Easy Life Always the Happiest? Examining the Association of Convenience and Well-Being in Taiwan

Social scientists have under-examined neighborhood stores and other “resources” and their relationships to community welfare and personal happiness. Because the presence of neighborhood conveniences may signify that a neighborhood caters to residents’ needs and smoothes out the hassles of their daily lives, it could be hypothesized that commercial amenities and services enhance individuals’ satisfaction with their neighborhoods, with their health, and even with their lives as a whole. This study used a national probability sample from Taiwan, a densely populated society in East Asia, to test if service-oriented commercial and religious enterprises in neighborhoods are associated with positive estimations of well-being by those who occupy these spaces. We empirically examine whether proximity to main roads, night markets and temples or proximity to smoky food stands and other shops that produce pungent products affects well-being. Our findings from multivariate analyses suggest that if nearby conveniences are conceived as annoyances, they tend to lower satisfaction with neighborhood, but they do not lower life satisfaction in general. In contrast, air quality, along with “peace and quietness” is reported by respondents to be key in enhancing general well-being. We discuss the policy implications in the concluding session.     

Comparing Self-Rated Health, Satisfaction and Quality of Life Scores Between Diabetics and Others Living in The Bella Coola Valley

Objective: To investigate the relative effect that diabetes has on self-rated health, satisfaction with various specific domains of life, and satisfaction with quality of life operationalized as happiness, satisfaction with life as a whole, and satisfaction with overall quality of life. Design: Mixed methods – mailed survey and chart review. Study Population: All people aged 17 years or older, residing in the Bella Coola Valley in September 2001 and having a chart at the Bella Coola Medical Clinic. Main outcome measures: Self-rated health, self-rated stress, rating of self-care received, global life satisfaction (Life as whole; Overall standard of living; Overall quality of life; and Overall happiness); and satisfaction with various domains of life. Results: A total of 968 useable surveys were returned for a response rate of 56 (968/1734). Age was negatively related to General Health, but positively related to Life Satisfaction. Not being of Aboriginal descent was positively related to all of the four global health indicators and to Subjective Well-Being. After accounting for age, race, and weight, we found that diabetics report significantly poorer self-rated health, and lower satisfaction with health scores compared to people without diabetes. Participants with diabetes who were the least compliant with their treatment regimens rated their current health significantly lower than those who were the most compliant. People with diabetes were, however, no more likely to be unhappy or dissatisfied with their lives as a whole or with the overall quality of their lives compared to people without diabetes. Among people with diabetes, however, those who used insulin did report significantly less satisfaction with the overall quality of their lives than those who didn’t use insulin. Conclusion: Diabetics understand they have poorer health than others, but they do not have poorer global life satisfaction scores. This may explain why it is difficult to get diabetics to adopt behaviours which may lower their quality of life – e.g., diet plans, lose weight, engage in exercise programs, or take medications.     

A first glance into the black box of life satisfaction surrounding childbearing

The vast majority of studies looking into the relationship between childbearing and subjective well-being use overall measures where respondents either report their general level of happiness or their life satisfaction, leaving substantial doubt about the underlying mechanisms. However, life satisfaction and happiness are intuitively multidimensional concepts, simply because there cannot be only one aspect that affects individuals' well-being. In this study, by considering seventeen specific life satisfaction domains, these features come out very clearly. Whereas all the domains considered matter for the overall life satisfaction, only three of them, namely satisfaction with leisure, health and satisfaction with the partnership, change dramatically surrounding childbearing events. Even though we cannot generalise (since these results stem from one particular panel survey, i.e., Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia data), it appears that the typical anticipation and post-child decrease of life satisfaction, so often found in existing studies, stems from changes in these three domains.

     

A study of the married bisexual male: paradox and resolution

Men who live in conventional marriages and at the same time have significant love-sex relationships with members of their own sex are largely an invisible group in our society. However, there is evidence to suggest that they are not rare, only rarely identified. How these men perceive themselves, reconcile the ordinary aspects of their lives with their atypical sexuality, and conduct themselves in marriage and family life are the focus of this study. Particular attention is paid to two major paradoxes in their lives: the contradiction between their heterosexual public identity which places them comfortably in the mainstream of society and their stigmatized and forbidden homosexual desires and behavior; and the ethical issue of deceiving their wives as well as others to whom they are intimately related. Sixty men drawn from a non-clinical population presented their life stories in extended tape-recorded interviews. These men show great variations in their patterns of psychosexual development as well as in their accoMmodations to marriage and do not fit readily into simple categories. Most of them have found fulfillment and have no wish to change the pattern of their lives. In part, the study contrasts the more successful with the less successful marriages. A major conclusion is that some men are able to express with minimal conflict their homosexual and heterosexual impulses within the framework of a conventional marriage.     

Walking a well-being tightrope: young people in Australia

The economic and social contribution young people make to society is increasingly important as the population ages. Yet a substantial number of young people face economic and social challenges that have an impact on their current and future well-being. Independent indicators are often used to describe what we know about how young people are faring, but these fail to show how young people are doing holistically, across their whole life. If we are to better understand and improve young people??s well-being and their lives more generally, it is critical that research establishes the connections and interactions between life domains. This paper uses a well-being framework and secondary analysis of national statistics to begin to understand how young people are faring when we cross economic outcomes with other social indicators. It argues that some Australian young people fare poorly across a large number of other social indicators and thus may be walking a tightrope in regard to their well-being and well-becoming. This paper also aims to generate a dialogue about using a well-being framework for future research with and about young people.     

“L'Homme Moyen”: Estimating the quality of life for British adults, 1815–1914, an index

The potential value of a numerical, summating index to estimate the quality of Victorian people's lives is described. Variables in three domains, Health, Economic and Social, are drawn on to describe the circumstances of life for Britons in the era 1815–1914. A range of variables is indexed to their 1914 value for each of the years between 1815 and 1914. The potential value of the index for the assessment of events, trends and policy initiatives is described.     

Personal Wellbeing Index in a National Cohort of 87,134 Thai Adults

Satisfaction with life correlates with other measures of subjective wellbeing and correlates predictably with individual characteristics and overall health. Social indicators and subjective wellbeing measures are necessary to evaluate a society and can be used to produce national indicators of happiness. This study therefore aims to help close the gap in wellbeing data for Thailand. The specific aims are to: (1) calculate the Thai PWI and domain scores using a large scale sample; (2) examine the level of life satisfaction of Thais when compared to international standards; (3) examine the Thai PWI and domains in relation to demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic characteristics. Our report derives from the findings on the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) in a large national cohort of Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University adult students living all over Thailand (n = 87,134). This Thai cohort had an overall PWI of 70.0 on a scale from 0 to 100 which is consistent with Western populations. The ‘spirituality and religion’ domain had the highest average score. ‘Standard of living’, ‘future security’ and ‘achievement in life’ made the largest contribution to overall ‘satisfaction in life as a whole’. These domains also show a positive trend with increasing age, being married, higher income, more education, more household assets, and rural residence. The PWI will be an important tool for policymakers to understand the subjective wellbeing of population groups especially as Thailand is undergoing a political and economic transition.     

Change,Resources and Self-Esteem in a Community of Women Religious

The effect of change and resources to cope with that change on self-esteem is explored in a study of a community of Catholic women religious. These middle-aged and elderly women are highly educated with life long attachment to the workforce. In addition, they have all experienced a high degree of change in their lives. The amount of change was found to be related to self-esteem as were specific social and psychological coping resources. A sense of being in control of one's life was an important predictor of selfesteem, and was itself affected by the amount of change experienced. The number of close friends that could be identified was related to self-esteem. Age and physical disability were not directly related to self-esteem when other variables were controlled, but rather affected self-esteem indirectly throu h feelings of control over one's life. Similarities between these f indings and studies of elderly women in the general population are emphasized and implications for the future are presented.     

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.     

Happiness and self-deception: An old question examined by a new measure of subjective well-being

The development and application of a new measure of subjective well-being, the Life Satisfaction Research Questionnaire, is discussed. The major new contribution that this instrument makes to the study of happiness is allowing subjects to distinguish between their satisfaction with the circumstances of their lives and with what they have made of those circumstances. Two separate studies involving repeated administrations (over a period of three months) to under-graduates investigated the relationship between life satisfaction and a tendency to engage in self-deception. Results found that subjects high in self-deception tended to give greater weight to what they felt they had made of their lives than to their life circumstances. Following discussion of the results, recommendations are made for further study.The author greatly appreciates the help given by three Psychology department colleagues at Plymouth State College: Dr. Robert S. Miller for his contribution to the research and writing, and Drs. John W. Kulig and David S. McDougal for their extensive statistical analyses.     

Measuring Wellbeing in Developing Countries: The Case of Algeria

The International Wellbeing Index (IWI) has been developed as a complementary measure to already well-known economic measures, and as a tool for cross-cultural comparisons. It comprises two subscales: the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and the National Wellbeing Index (NWI). The aims of this paper are two-fold. Firstly, to test the psychometric characteristics of the IWI. Secondly, to study how people of Algeria, a third world country that is yet suffering from a harsch economical and social situation, respond to questions dealing with their own lives and life in their country in general, compared to samples from more developed countries where wellbeing was previously measured. The IWI items were presented to individuals either in a questionnaire form to be self-rated or in interview sessions. The total of 1417 answers were analysed. As was expected, a very low satisfaction on both scales was found, compared to the results that were reported in countries, such as Australia or Hong Kong. Comparisons on the demographic characteristics basis show that women are significantly more satisfied than men with their personal lives, though no differences were found with regard to NWI. Eldest and youngest age groups rated the PWI significantly higher than other age groups. Education groups comparisons showed higher ratings on both subscales in favour of groups with no education and those with university levels. Marginal statistically significant differences were found with regard to the PWI in favour of the higher earning group, but no differences in the NWI. No statistically significant results were found as far as marital status, number of children, and income are concerned. The results add to the evidence of the usefulness of the scale to predict satisfaction of people with their own lives and life in their country. Its psychometric performance was proved to be very high in terms of validity, reliability and sensitivity. The results were interpreted on the light of the Homeostasis Theory and the particular situation of the Algerian society.