Quality of Life in Italian Official Surveys

Quality-of-life studies have a 50-year history and inherited the tradition of the “social indicators” movement, born in the United States during the sixties and involving scholars and researchers, supported by the public administration and interested in gathering and analysing data aimed at studying non-economic components of societal wellbeing. The idea of quantifying “symptoms” (indicators) of living conditions has been launched by Italian statistician and criminologist, Alfredo Niceforo, who has been recognised as the pioneer of social-indicators concept. Moreover, with his book on Les indices numérique de la civilisation et du progrès, he may be considered the originator of an approach of comprehensive welfare and quality of life measurement as it is the concern of modern social indicators and quality of life.     

The Quality of Life in Some Local Metropolitan Labour Markets in Italy

This study forms part of a general programme of territorial research in Italy developed by the Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT). In particular we have studied the metropolitan communes, both with regard to movements within the city and to the attraction cities exert over the communes in the surrounding areas. Based on the daily work-related flows, we have identified the Local Labour Systems (LLSs). The LLSs having as their hub the twelve metropolitan communes constitute the Local Metropolitan Systems (LMSs). Among these we have chosen to analyse in detail the quality of life in the Systems of Milan, Genoa and Palermo, which have been singled out as exemplary cases of current socio-economic differentiations.     

Valuation of Air Quality in Chile: The Life Satisfaction Approach

Social Indicators Research - Chile is one of the worst countries in Latin America in terms of urban air pollution. This situation negatively affects the health and well-being of Chileans. This...     

Detecting Public Social Spending Patterns in Italy Using a Three-Way Relative Variation Approach

Studies on public social spending often fail to address the issues connected with budgetary constraints. Budget lines require public entities to partition resources among sectors of spending on the basis of preferred combinations and trade-offs. Standard exploratory tools do not allow to unveil this preference structure as they are hindered by the differences in budget scales and by the bounded nature of sector variability, i.e. an increase in one sector means a missed increase or a decrease in other sectors. In this work Italian public social spending is modeled with an alternative log-ratio methodology which allows to study relative variation patterns among sectors. It is also important to note that since the data is collected across time a three-way approach is recommended so that the variability of each mode is kept separate.

     

Quality of Life in College Students with and without Social Phobia

Prior studies demonstrating quality of life impairment in phobia and anxiety disorders have relied upon epidemiological samples or clinical data. Using the same quality of life scale, the Short Form 36-item Health Survey (SF-36), in Iranian college students allowed us to study the impact of social phobia (SP) on quality of life among the college students. This report summarizes findings from a cross sectional study on Iranian students with social phobia studying at Shahed University. Quality of life was measured using the Short Form 36-item Health Survey (SF-36) which is a widely used and valid questionnaire to measure quality of life in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Three standard instruments were used to measure social phobia severity, namely Social Phobia Inventory, Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, and Brief version of the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale. The sample consisted of 202 college students, 72 with SP and 130 without SP. The main finding of this study was that students with social phobia reported significantly lower quality of life, particularly in general health (P = 0.02), vitality (P < 0.0001), social functioning (P < 0.0001), role functioning—emotional (P < 0.0001), and Mental health (P = 0.001) dimensions. Standardized summed scores for mental health components of the SF-36 showed that 36.2% of all the s with SP were severely impaired while 16.0% of the students in control croup were severely impaired. Findings demonstrated that Iranian socially anxious college students reported extensive functional disability, and lower well-being compared to those without SP. These findings should encourage education officers to implement systematic efforts to prevent and treat social anxiety among students.     

Self-Sustained Quality of Life Monitoring: The Philippine Social Weather Reports

In the Philippines, measurement of social indicators covering Qualityof Life and other social concerns has been institutionalized by means ofa unique Social Weather Reporting system. The Social Weather Reports arebased on a series of national surveys operated on a self-sustaining,syndicate-cum-omnibus basis by a private research institute whichoperates as an “enterprising non-profit.” The surveys began on asemestral basis in 1986 and have been run quarterly since 1992. Amongtheir regular topics are self-rated poverty, QOL gaining/losing andoptimism/pessimism, victimization by common crimes, satisfactionwith the performance of government institutions and officials, publicopinion on contemporaneous critical issues, and electoral prospects.Since the topics all deal with public issues, subscribers to the SocialWeather Reports are mostly from the public sector, plus some corporateand diplomatic institutions. Access of non-subscribers to the surveyfindings is on a delayed basis; all surveys are archived for publicuse. The most important factors behind the success of the Social WeatherReports have been their consistent focus on indicators of democracy andgovernance and their record in predicting the outcomes of the 1992,1995, and 1998 national elections in the Philippines.     

Methodological Choices and Data Quality Issues for Official Poverty Measures: Evidences from Italy

Social Indicators Research - The application of new technologies and the implementation of e-government have profoundly modified management systems in public administrations. In this article we...     

Quality of Life as a Social Representation in China: A Qualitative Study

This study explores the meaning of quality of life (QOL) in China from the perspective of social representations. The data were collected by open-ended individual interviews with 16 ordinary Chinese people. The study shows that social thinking about QOL in Chinese society is activated in five critical domains of life: health, family, work, social relations and the natural environment. Meanwhile, “having” and “being”, the two antinomic, yet dialogical interdependent, interpretive repertoires, have an overarching generative and normative power over the discourse about QOL. They permeate and underpin the different domains of life. Dominated by an “economic logic”, the “having” repertoire constructs these life domains through a set of economic consequences and posits them as resources leading to material possessions. While dominated by an “existential logic”, the “being” repertoire confesses existential meanings to the same life domains, and emphasises the joy derived from them. Thereby, it infers that QOL as a social representation is generated from, and organised around, a central thema of “having” and “being”.     

An Outcomes-Based Assessment of Quality of Life in Social Services

The goal of this article consists of describing the calibration of an instrument to assess quality of life-related personal outcomes using Rasch analysis. The sample was composed of 3.029 recipients of social services from Catalonia (Spain) and was selected using a probabilistic polietapic sample design. Results related to unidimensionality, item and person separation reliability, calibration, items’ level of difficulty, response categories and differential item functioning by gender and type of collective are provided and point out the general fit of the data to the model. However, it is recommended to include more difficult items and eliminate one that seems not to be adequate.     

Social Indicators Research and Health-Related Quality of Life Research

The aim of this essay is to build a bridgebetween two intersecting areas of research,social indicators research on the one hand andhealth-related quality of life research on theother. The first substantive section of thepaper introduces key concepts and definitionsin the social indicators research tradition,e.g., social indicators, positive, negative,input and output indicators, social reports andquality of life. After that, there is asection reviewing some historical origins andmotives of social indicators researchers,beginning roughly with Jeremy Bentham's`felicific calculus' and ending with the searchfor a comprehensive accounting scheme capableof measuring the quality of human existencewith social, economic and environmentalindicators.Results of eleven surveys are reviewed whichwere undertaken to explain happiness on thebasis of levels of satisfaction thatrespondents got from a dozen specific domainsof their lives, e.g., satisfaction with theirjobs, family relations and health. On average,for the eleven samples, we were able to explain38% of the variance in reported happiness fromsome subset of the predictor variables. Satisfaction with one's own health was never the strongest predictor of happiness inany sample. In five of the eleven samples,satisfaction with one's own health failed toenter the final explanatory regression equationfor lack of statistical significance. Theresults in this section of the essay show thatdifferent groups of people with different lifecircumstances, resources and constraints usedifferent mixtures of ingredients to determinetheir happiness.After examining some research revealing therelative importance of people's satisfaction with their health to theiroverall happiness, I consider some studiesrevealing the importance of people's self-reported health to their overallhappiness. Self-reported health is measuredprimarily by the eight dimensions of SF-36.When a variety of additional potentialpredictors are entered into our regressionequation, 44% of the variance in happinessscores is explained, but only one of the eightdimensions of SF-36 remains, namely, MentalHealth. The latter accounts for a mere four%age points out of the total 44. Thus,self-reported health has relatively little tocontribute toward respondents' reportedhappiness, and its measured contribution issignificantly affected by the number and kindsof potential predictors employed.Two approaches to explaining people'ssatisfaction with their own health areconsidered. First, using the same set ofhealth-related potential predictors of overallhappiness, we are able to explain 56% of thevariance in respondents' satisfaction withtheir own health. Then, using MultipleDiscrepancies Theory, we are able to explainabout 51% of the variation in satisfactionwith one's own health scores for 8,076undergraduates, with highs of 76% for a sampleof Finnish females and 72% for Korean males.Accordingly, it is reasonable to conclude thatif one's aim is to explain people'ssatisfaction with their own health, thepotential predictors assembled in MDT canprovide quite a bit and sometimes even moreexplanatory power than a reasonably broad setof measures of self-reported health.In the penultimate section of the essay it isargued that there are good reasons forcarefully distinguishing ideas of health andquality of life, and for not interpreting SF-36and SIP scores as measures of the quality oflife. It is suggested that we might all bebetter off if the term `health-related qualityof life' is simply abandoned. However, sincethis is unlikely to happen, it is stronglyrecommended that researchers be much morecareful with their usage of the phrase andtheir interpretation of purported measures ofwhatever the phrase is supposed to designate.     

Ways that Social Change Predicts Personal Quality of Life

A notable way that social change affects personal quality of life would rely on the person’s experience with social change. This experience may influence societal quality of life and quality of work life, which may in turn affect personal quality of life. Additionally, the experience of social change is possibly less detrimental to personal quality of life later in the presence of higher existing personal quality of life. These influences over time become transparent through a three-wave panel study of 531 working people in Hong Kong, China. Findings show that although social change experienced did not generally impair subsequent quality of life, it tended to be more detrimental to the person with lower quality of life before. In addition, social change experienced tended to erode societal quality of life and quality of work life experienced, which appeared to be predictors of personal quality of life. Hence, there are possible ways for social change to predict personal quality of life.     

老年人口生活质量与社会支持的关系研究

国外不少研究表明社会支持(social support)与老年人的生活质量状态有着较强的相关性。本文基于2002年的中国健康长寿调查数据,在考虑人口社会特征和身体健康变量的情况下,应用Stereotype Ordinal Logit模型,从不同的维度分析考察了社会支持对中国老年人口生活质量的影响。结果表明,社会支持对老年人口生活质量的不同方面都有着积极的影响,而不同来源的社会支持对老年人生活质量产生不同程度的影响。     

Introduction: Quality of Life in Countries Undergoing Rapid Social Change

Social Indicators Research -     

Social Capital, Satisfaction and Quality of Life in the Workplace

This article is an empirical analysis of the relationship between social capital and satisfaction and quality of life in the workplace in Spain. Social capital has been defined as the set of cooperative relationships between social actors that facilitate collective action. This concept has been measured based on five dimensions: trust, social relations, commitment, communication and influence. An analysis has been carried out applying regression and causal models to determine the influence on satisfaction and quality of life at work of social capital dimensions and of characteristics of the worker, work environment and company or organization. The data is based on Spain's 2001 Quality of Life at Work Survey. The results of the analysis indicate that the models applied are significant, which confirms the examined propositions. Higher levels of social capital imply greater levels of satisfaction and quality of life at work. Social capital is a better predictor of quality of life at work and job satisfaction than the characteristics of the worker, the company or organization, and the work environment.     

A Mixed Method Approach to Quality of Life Research: A Case Study Approach

Increased use of qualitative and quantitative methods in quality of life projects necessitates an examination of how to effectively work within a mixed method framework. The research objectives of this paper are to (1) operationalize the two goals of mixed method research (confirmation and comprehension) and (2) develop a strategy for using mixed methods in quality of life research. Face-to-face interview (qualitative) and telephone survey (quantitative) data from the Community–University Institute for Social Research Quality of Life (CUISR QoL) project in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan were used for operationalization. Overall, confirmation and comprehension were challenging concepts to operationalize. Seven benefits and four guidelines were developed and are presented as dynamic, rather than definitive, structures.     

The Quality of Life in China

The Asia Barometer Survey of 2,000 respondents reveals that substantial majorities of the Chinese people experience feelings of happiness, enjoyment, and accomplishment. In fact, the proportion experiencing these indicators of a high quality of life are larger in China than in some more prosperous countries. Favorable historical comparison, sustained high economic growth, satisfaction with interpersonal life, and a high percentage of married people are among the explanations for China’s prevalence of subjective well-being. The Chinese people’s high levels of satisfaction with their interpersonal, material, and nonmaterial life domains, their positive assessments of their relative living standards, and their high rate of marriage are three direct positive influences on subjective well-being. Value priorities and other demographic characteristics also have indirect bearings on subjective well-being in China.     

The Quality of Life in Singapore

The Asia Barometer Survey of 1,038 respondents shows that most Singaporeans are happy and enjoy life, although they do not feel a correspondingly high level of accomplishment. Good health, a comfortable home, a job, time with family and having enough to eat emerged as key priorities in life. While Singaporeans are most satisfied with their marriages, family life, friendship, housing, and public safety, their perceptions of their overall quality of life are mostly influenced by their relationships with significant others and their satisfaction with their homes. Detailed demographic analyses are provided and policy implications are discussed in light of these findings.     

The Quality of Life in Taiwan

The AsiaBarometer survey of 1,006 respondents shows that in Taiwan, people have access to modern utilities and digital media, signs of materialistic achievement, and yet are more concerned with physical security and financial safety than with personal growth. Regardless of their demographic backgrounds and value priorities, the Taiwanese, like other Confucian publics, are most satisfied with the interpersonal life sphere and least satisfied with the public life sphere. Their satisfaction levels concerning various life domains affect their sense of well-being more than does their prioritization of values. Assessments of material and nonmaterial life domains contribute to their sense of well-being more than those of interpersonal and public domains do. Access to modern utilities and a high income, however, detract from their sense of well-being. As is the case elsewhere, a better set of objective life circumstance does not necessarily make for a greater quality of life in Taiwan. The government, therefore, should seek to provide more than economic goods and services.     

The Quality of Life in Japan

This study is part of a collaborative project examining the quality of life in Confucian societies in Asia. Our major findings suggest that, when our sixteen specific life domains are grouped into three life spheres, namely, material, post-material, and public, the Japanese people tend to be most satisfied with the post-material sphere of life and least satisfied with the public sphere of life such as the condition of environment and welfare system. In searching the direct, independent effects of demographics, lifestyles, value priorities, and domain assessments on the quality of life, none of the public life domain assessments shows a significant impact on the quality of life, while friendships and spiritual life in the post-material sphere of life are an important determinant. Equally notable is the finding that neither educational attainment nor household income contributes significantly to the experience of subjective well-being. Leading a global lifestyle also affects positively the quality of life. Finally, being married and satisfaction with marital life appear to be powerful and prevalent influence on the quality of life in Japan.