An Indigenous Model of Career Satisfaction: Exploring the Role of Workplace Cultural Wellbeing

Despite career satisfaction models being well established, little is understood about the career satisfaction of indigenous employees. Using a sample of 172 Maori employees, the indigenous people of New Zealand, we tested a career satisfaction model with a cultural wellbeing factor over and above established factors of human capital, sociodemographic, individual differences and organizational sponsorship. This new measure workplace cultural wellbeing was found to significantly relate to career satisfaction, accounting for twenty-three percent of the variance over and above the established factors which highlights its importance for indigenous workers. Furthermore, due to collectivistic orientations amongst Maori, collectivism was tested as a potential moderator and found to significantly interact with workplace cultural wellbeing, showing that Maori respondents reported the greatest career satisfaction when workplace cultural wellbeing was high, irrespective of collectivism orientation. This paper offers an extended model for exploring career satisfaction of indigenous workers.     

How Disadvantages Shape Life Satisfaction: An Alternative Methodological Approach

Social Indicators Research - Life satisfaction is one of the key indicators of subjective well-being. This paper aims to give a methodological contribution to the study of the factors influencing...     

家庭压力与婚姻满意度对农民工实施婚姻暴力的影响

在城乡流动的社会背景下,受到现实家庭压力增加和情感互动变化的影响,农民工的婚姻关系面临较大冲击和挑战。传统的社会文化规范使婚姻暴力行为在家庭范围内合理化。婚姻暴力是家庭暴力的主要方面,是夫妻双方在婚姻互动中面临冲突和矛盾时出现的一种"婚姻危机"。本研究通过2013年12月在深圳市P区进行农村流动人口抽样调查发现农民工实施精神暴力的比例为33.14%,而实施肢体暴力的比例为12.23%,精神暴力在农民工家庭中更为常见。运用Mlogit回归分析发现工作压力会增加农民工实施精神暴力的风险,家庭照料压力会同时增加农民工实施精神暴力和肢体暴力的风险,经济压力对农民工实施婚姻暴力没有显著影响。婚姻不满意会显著增加农民工实施婚姻暴力的风险且对肢体暴力的影响更加显著。因此,精神暴力和肢体暴力既是压力型也是情感型暴力,但对比可知精神暴力更多是压力型暴力,而肢体暴力更多是情感型暴力。进一步分析发现即使在婚姻满意度较高的情况下,随着某些家庭压力的增加,农民工也可能实施精神暴力。精神暴力具有隐密性,不易察觉,但通常对人的身心造成深层次的伤害。在家庭压力较大且婚姻不满意的情况下,肢体暴力的发生可能性显著提高,这将严重损害婚姻福利和家庭完整性。     

Modelling Marital Fertility by Age and Duration: An Empirical Appraisal of the Page Model

Page's model of marital fertility by age and duration is fitted by maximum likelihood techniques to data from 38 of the 41 developing countries that participated in the World Fertility Survey. The results indicate that the model does an excellent job of capturing variations in fertility patterns, with only two parameters. Moreover, national-level estimates of the parameter representing the degree of control of marital fertility correlate reasonably well with the proportion using contraception. On the other hand, estimates of the parameter representing the level of natural fertility correlate well with the duration of breastfeeding and with a measure of contraceptive use for spacing, but also show substantial regional variation. The paper closes with comments on several extensions and applications of the model.     

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...     

Explaining Accessibility and Satisfaction Related to Healthcare: A Mixed-Methods Approach

Accessibility and satisfaction related to healthcare services are conceived as multidimensional concepts. These concepts can be studied using objective and subjective measures. In this study, we created two indices: a composite healthcare accessibility index (CHCA) and a composite healthcare satisfaction index (CHCS). To calculate the CHCA index we used three indicators based on three components of multidimensional healthcare accessibility: availability, acceptability and accessibility. In the indicator based on the component of accessibility, we included an innovative perceived time-decay parameter. The three indicators of the CHCA index were weighted through the application of a principal components analysis. To calculate the CHCS index, we used three indicators: the waiting time after the patient arrives at the healthcare service, the quality of the healthcare, and the healthcare service supply. These three indicators making up the CHCA index were weighted by applying an analytical hierarchy process. Three kinds of regressions were subsequently applied in order to explain the CHCA and CHCS indices: namely the Linear Least Squares, Ordinal Logistic, and Random Forests regressions. In these regressions, we used different independent social and health-related variables. These variables represented the predisposing, enabling, and need factors of people´s behaviors related to healthcare. All the calculations were applied to a study area: the city of Quito, Ecuador. Results showed that there are health-related inequalities in regard to healthcare accessibility and healthcare satisfaction in our study area. We also identified specific social factors that explained the indices developed. The present work is a mixed-methods approach to evaluate multidimensional healthcare accessibility and healthcare satisfaction, incorporating a pluralistic perspective, as well as a multidisciplinary framework. The results obtained can also be considered as tools for healthcare and urban planners, for more integrative social analyses that can improve the quality of life in urban residents.     

Valuing Ecosystem Diversity in South East Queensland: A Life Satisfaction Approach

The valuation of complex environmental goods represents a considerable challenge for conventional non-market valuation techniques. The use of life satisfaction (or happiness) data has recently emerged as a new means of placing monetary values on non-market goods and services. This approach offers several advantages over more conventional techniques. This paper uses data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey along with Geographic Information Systems data to value ecosystem diversity in South East Queensland, Australia. It is found that, on average, a respondent has an implicit willingness-to-pay of approximately AUD$14 000 in household income per annum to obtain a one unit improvement in ecosystem diversity. This result confirms that the preservation, or improvement, of existing levels of ecosystem diversity is welfare enhancing. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to value ecosystem diversity using the life satisfaction approach.     

The Role of Domain Satisfaction in Explaining the Paradoxical Association Between Life Satisfaction and Age

Although aging is associated with declines in many life domains, overall life satisfaction does not appear to decline sharply with age. One explanation for this paradoxical finding is that several life domains improve with age such that increases in certain domains balance the decreases in others. Because different issues are problematic at different life stages, it is likely that specific domains display different life trajectories compared to overall life satisfaction. The observed pattern for overall life satisfaction is likely due to a bottom-up approach. Life and domain satisfaction data from 8?years of the British Household Panel Study were analyzed to evaluate this hypothesis. Results indicated that satisfaction with some life domains increased after middle age (e.g. social life), whereas satisfaction with other life domains decreased (e.g. health). Additionally, results illustrated that although domain satisfaction scores demonstrate distinct trajectories, the aggregate of these distinct domains resembled the overall life satisfaction trajectory. These findings have implications for top-down and bottom-up models of life satisfaction.     

老年人生活满意度差异的来源与解析:一个基于结构方程模型的实证研究

本文根据CHARLS 2011年全国基线数据并运用结构方程模型,通过社会地位、家庭经济、身体健康、心理健康与老年人生活满意度的复杂交互影响关系,解读老年人生活满意度差异的来源.结果表明,社会地位对老年人生活满意度的影响表现出双面性和复杂性;家庭经济是心理健康的首要因素,与老年人生活满意度呈正相关;家庭经济对身体健康影响不显著,老年人心理健康是身体健康的主要影响因素;老年人生活满意度还表现出性别差异,男性表现更低.     

Income Satisfaction and Relative Deprivation: An Empirical Link

This paper explores the relationship between two well-established concepts of measuring individual well-being: the concept of happiness, i.e. self-reported level of satisfaction with income, and relative deprivation, i.e. the gaps between the individual’s income and the incomes of all individuals richer than him. Operationalizing both concepts using micro panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we provide empirical evidence for subjective well-being depending more on relative deprivation than on absolute levels of income. This finding holds after controlling for other influential factors in a multivariate setting.      

Fragile Families in Quebec and the Rest of Canada: A Comparison of Parental Work-Life Balance Satisfaction

Population Research and Policy Review - We address how social policies and cultural context impact the association of marital status with parental work-life balance satisfaction. To accomplish this...     

Career Decision Self-Efficacy and Life Satisfaction in China: An Empirical Analysis

Focusing on the Chinese context, the present study took a pioneering step to examine the relationship between career decision self-efficacy (CDSE) and life satisfaction. Employing a three-dimensional CDSE model, which includes goal planning self-efficacy (GPSE), information gathering self-efficacy (IGSE) and problem solving self-efficacy (PSSE), we also explored the mediation mechanism underlying this relationship from the internal functioning process of CDSE (i.e., the GPSE–PSSE–life satisfaction and IGSE–PSSE–life satisfaction relationships). We then investigated the moderating role of person–environment (P–E) fit in the mediated CDSE–life satisfaction relationship. Data were collected from 786 university students. Results showed that all three dimensions of CDSE were positively related to life satisfaction. The internal process view was supported, for PSSE was found to mediate the relationships of life satisfaction with GPSE and IGSE, respectively. Additionally, P–E fit moderated the relationship between PSSE and life satisfaction. Further examinations also found a significant moderating role of P–E fit in the indirect relationships of life satisfaction with GPSE and IGSE via PSSE.     

Media Use and Satisfaction with Democracy: Testing the Role of Political Interest

An interesting measure for equitable and sustainable well-being has been proposed recently by the National Institute of Statistics in Italy and the National Council for Economy and Labour. It is called BES (from the Italian Benessere Equo e Sostenibile). A set of indicators, partitioned into several domains and themes, is used for measuring the BES. Taking into account prior knowledge of both the structure of this set of indicators and the relationships among them, the paper proposes a hierarchical composite model for measuring and modeling the BES of the Italian provinces. This hierarchical model allows us to synthesize individual indicators into single indexes in order to construct composite indicators at a global and a partial level. Moreover, we analyze the relationships among the different domains and themes as well as the effects of these on equitable and sustainable well-being, in order to search for strongly influential factors. In order to estimate the parameters of the model, we use both Partial Least Squares path modeling and a new method, called Quantile Composite-based path modeling. In particular, Partial Least Squares path modeling is used to estimate average effects in the network of relationships between variables, while with Quantile Composite-based path modeling we investigate whether the magnitude of these effects changes across different parts of the variable distributions, providing a more complete picture and uncovering specific local leveraging factors for improvement. A final ranking of the Italian provinces, according to the BES composite indicator, is also provided at the national level and for different geographic areas of Italy.     

Life Satisfaction and Happiness Among Older Europeans: The Role of Active Ageing

Social Indicators Research - The older population is growing globally, and more so in some European countries. Aimed at enhancing the quality of life of older people, active ageing has been on the...     

Life Satisfaction Among Ethnic Minorities: The Role of Discrimination and Group Identification

For most immigrants and ethnic minority groups, everyday life in the country of settlement raises question of adaptation and belonging. Aside from factors such as lower income, lower education and poorer health, being an ethnic minority member carries additional factors that can lower general life satisfaction. Using data from two studies the present paper shows that ethnic minority group members (Turkish-Dutch) have lower general life satisfaction than a comparable majority group (Dutch) because they are less satisfied with their life in the country of settlement. In addition, Study 2 showed that higher perceived structural discrimination was associated with lower life satisfaction in the country of settlement, but also with higher ethnic group identification that, in turn, made a positive contribution to general life satisfaction.     

A Model for Subjective Well-Being in Adolescence: Need Satisfaction and Reasons for Living

Subjective well-being is as important for adolescents as it is in other stages of life. This study thus aims to develop a model for subjective well-being, which is limited to need satisfaction in adolescence and reasons for living, and to test the validity of the model. Participants were a total of 227 individuals, 120 females and 107 males. Data for the study were collected by using the Scale for Basic Need Satisfaction in General, Reasons for Living Inventory, Life Satisfaction Scale and Positive?CNegative Affect Scale. The data were analyzed by using the structural equation model. The results showed that, in the model developed, the effects of need satisfaction and reasons for living on subjective well-being were significant and direct; those of reasons for living were significant and indirect; and the total effects of variables were significant. It was thus concluded that the model presented here can be used to increase adolescents?? subjective well-being. The results are discussed in light of the literature on subjective well-being and within the context of adolescence as a life stage.     

Socioeconomic Inequality and Life Satisfaction in Late Childhood and Adolescence: A Moderated Mediation Model

An increasing number of studies have established an association between socioeconomic inequality and life satisfaction, but the underlying mediating and moderating mechanisms of this association have not been fully identified. The present study investigated the effect of family socioeconomic status (SES) on life satisfaction in late childhood and adolescence; examined the mediating effect of optimism in the association between family SES and life satisfaction; and tested whether this mediating process varied across late childhood and adolescence. A sample of 552 Chinese children in late childhood (M _age = 10.73 years, SD = 0.96) and 637 Chinese adolescents (M _age = 14.71 years, SD = 1.60) was recruited to complete questionnaires regarding family SES, optimism, and life satisfaction. Results indicated that socioeconomic inequality was associated with life satisfaction in Chinese children and adolescents. Moreover, optimism partially mediated the relation between family SES and life satisfaction, and developmental period moderated this mediation effect. Specifically, the mediation effect was found in adolescence, but not in late childhood, indicating an adolescent-emergent model (Chen et al. in Psychol Bull 128(2):295–329, 2002; in Soc Sci Med 62(9):2161–2170, 2006). The meaning and implications of socioeconomic inequality in different development periods and applied considerations to improve life satisfaction in late childhood and adolescence are discussed.     

Wealth Of Nations,Individual Income andLife Satisfaction in 42 Countries:A Multilevel Approach

In this study, individual and contextualdeterminants of life satisfaction in 42countries were examined. The question wasaddressed whether income at the individuallevel and wealth at the national level affectlife satisfaction of individuals. In addition,the hypothesis was tested whether therelationship between income and lifesatisfaction is stronger in poor countries thanin more prosperous ones. Multilevel modelingallows differentiating between main andinteraction effects of group and individuallevel variables on the dependent variable. Itwas used to explore a possible multilevelstructure in the data, in which individuals areviewed as micro observations and countries asmacro observations. The results showed that, inaddition to and independent of individualincome, the economic prosperity of a nationcontributed to a person's life satisfactionlevel. Also, the hypothesized cross-levelinteraction between wealth and income wastested and found significant: poor peopleliving in poor countries were less satisfiedwith their lives than poor people living inaffluent countries. Moreover, complex variationin life satisfaction was found at thewithin-nation level: poor individuals variedmore in their life satisfaction than richindividuals.