A test of the utility of social indicators for behavioral health service planning

Given current imperatives for more effective, responsive, and economical government, policy planners and administrators are seeking increasing assistance from social scientists. Here the usefulness of social indicators to the processes of policy planning and implementation in the delivery of mental health, alcohol and drug abuse services is investigated to determine whether social indicator data can contribute to more effective policy planning. In a two part study, the relationship between social indicators and Specific sources of these data were: population total, subdivided by geographic area and race (Caucasian, Black, and Other, which in Arizona is virtually all Native Americans) from the 1975 special census; population by age and ratio of dissolutions to marriages from the Arizona Statistical Review for 1977; crime rates from the Arizona State Justice Planning Agency for 1975; and cause of death rates from the Bureau of Vital Statistics, Arizona Department of Health Services for 1975. Subjective measures of psychological well-being were not available for the internal validational component of the study. state wide service utilization rates and The Negative Affect Scale measures the individual's level of anxiety, worry, loneliness, and sadness, and is associated with other measures that have been used in epidemiological studies to identify persons with psychological difficulties. The Psychiatric Screening Inventory assesses an individual's level of psychiatric impairment as evidenced by the frequency with which he or she reports having experienced each of the 22 psychological and psychosomatic symptoms on the scale. It has also been used in numerous epidemiological studies to investigated levels of impairment among various populations. The Positive Affect Scale reflects the degree to which the person is involved with, interested in, and experiences control over his or her physical and social environment. Active involvement with the world and frequent social participation are considered to be conducive to the experience of positive affect. The Perceived Quality of Life Scale measures the degree to which the persons is satisfied with the quality of his or her life. The score on this scale is a composite of the respondent's level of satisfaction in different areas of life such as standard of living, health, personal functioning, and family life. The greater the satisfaction in these separate areas, the higher will be the individual's overall evaluation of the quality of his or her life. psychological well-being in the community is examined. Both objective and subjective social indicators were studied. Both types of indicators were found to be useful and complementary in identifying service needs and states of well-being in the community.     

Quality of Life Predictors and Normative Data

This study identifies predictors and normative data for quality of life (QOL) in a sample of Portuguese adults from general population. A cross-sectional correlational study was undertaken with two hundred and fifty-five (N = 255) individuals from Portuguese general population (mean age 43 years, range 25–84 years; 148 females, 107 males). Participants completed the European Portuguese version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life short-form instrument and the European Portuguese version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Demographic information was also collected. Portuguese adults reported their QOL as good. The physical, psychological and environmental domains predicted 44 % of the variance of QOL. The strongest predictor was the physical domain and the weakest was social relationships. Age, educational level, socioeconomic status and emotional status were significantly correlated with QOL and explained 25 % of the variance of QOL. The strongest predictor of QOL was emotional status followed by education and age. QOL was significantly different according to: marital status; living place (mainland or islands); type of cohabitants; occupation; health. The sample of adults from general Portuguese population reported high levels of QOL. The life domain that better explained QOL was the physical domain. Among other variables, emotional status best predicted QOL. Further variables influenced overall QOL. These findings inform our understanding on adults from Portuguese general population QOL and can be helpful for researchers and practitioners using this assessment tool to compare their results with normative data.     

Analysis of Maslow's Need Hierarchy with three social class groups

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is often cited as a possible basis for a fuller understanding of the individual's needs, particularly with regard to Quality of Life. The reluctance to use these concepts is based primarily on lack of empirical evidence in this field. To rectify this situation, a new methodology based on Q sorting was developed to measure the individual's need importance for each of the five needs Maslow proposes. After an estimation of reliability, the test was administered to 240 adults, made up of three social groups, lower class, working class and middle class, balanced for age and sex. The results provided evidence that individuals of a similar social class share similar notions of which needs are most important to them, and these notions differ across social class. It appeared the majority of the middle class sample were esteem, self-actualization orientated, while the majority of the working class were esteem, belonging orientated. Conversely, the majority of the lower class sample were physiology and belonging orientated. However, a cluster analysis of the need items revealed that the items representative of a need were not necessarily assigned similar importance by any one group. It would appear that each need can not be viewed as a unitary whole of equal importance, but rather must be seen as a conglomerate. Methodologically, the article illustrates the feasibility of directly measuring need importance and the use of cluster analysis to group both need items and individuals. Further, the assessment of group differences allows a fuller understanding of needs and the importance the individual assigns to their satisfaction.     

Rethinking national social reports

Social reporting and social indicators are examined from the point of view of two specific cases, Social Indicators 1976 and Perspective Canada II.     

Psychometric Evaluation of a Serbian Version of the Subjective Happiness Scale

The main aim of this research was to examine the psychometric properties of the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS; Lyubomirsky and Lepper in Soc Indic Res 46:137–155, 1999) in a sample of young adults in Serbia (N = 605, mean age = 21.99). The SHS demonstrated adequate internal consistency reliability and homogeneity. Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analyses supported the unidimensional structure of the SHS. The results provided support for the convergent validity of the SHS, by significant correlations with measures of subjective well-being (life satisfaction, positive and negative affect, emotional distress), positive expectations (optimism and self-efficacy), meaning in life and personality traits (extraversion and neuroticism). As compared to the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the SHS showed significantly higher correlations with measures of emotional states and personality traits. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that the SHS had incremental validity over and above subjective well-being and personality traits in predicting emotional distress and meaning in life.     

Quality of life

What is sought is a definition of Quality of Life (QOL). Other authors have defined QOL in terms of actual happiness or perceived satisfaction/dissatisfaction. The present paper defines it not as a summation of the individual happiness-states of all members of a society, but as the obtaining of the necessary conditions for happiness throughout a society. These conditions being necessary not sufficient, high QOL is compatible with actual unhappiness. The necessary conditions in question are identified with the availability of means for the satisfaction of human needs rather than human desires, and a Maslowian analysis of the former is proposed in default of ay more satisfactory analysis. The paper concludes with a discussion of how maximizing needsatisfaction (as opposed to want-satisfaction) automatically guarantees fair distribution of needed goods. This ensures that in at least some respects high-QOL societies are societies characterized by justice.     

Perspective Canada as a social report

This paper reviews the first attempt at social reporting in Canada, Perspective Canada, contrasting it with social reports from other nations, in particular the United States' publication, Social Indicators, 1973. Some future directions and structure for Perspective Canada are suggested, and the paper concludes with a discussion of the importance of the bold use of model building in the analysis of social indicators data, and the innovative use of graphical methods for social reporting.     

Plans for the 1971 census of Canada

This article describes the plans which have been developed for the Census of Canada to be taken June 1, 1971. One of the most important features of this census will be the use of the Self-enumeration technique for the great majority of respondents. Other topics touched upon include the User Liaison Programme which established requirements, the Testing Programme which determined the methodology and some highlights of the Data Collection and Processing Phases of the operation. There is a brief discussion of the use of sampling in 1971 with particular emphasis on the benefits to be derived in increased quality and reliability of data, increased timeliness and reduction in respondent burden. The Quality Control procedures are described. The Post-censal Evaluation and Data Dissemination programmes are also dealt with.     

Mediating Effects of Affect and Loneliness on the Relationship Between Core Self-evaluation and Life Satisfaction Among Two Groups of Chinese Adolescents

This study examined the mediating effects of affect (positive and negative affect) and loneliness on the relationship between core self-evaluations (CSE) and life satisfaction among two groups of Chinese adolescents. Three hundred adolescents (169 males and 131 females) from Shenzhen and Xi’an in China completed the Core Self-evaluations Scale, Positive and Negative Affect Scale, UCLA Loneliness and Satisfaction with Life Scale. Research revealed that positive and negative affect, and loneliness fully mediated the relationship between CSE and life satisfaction. The relationship between CSE and loneliness was partially mediated by positive and negative affect. Loneliness partially mediated the relation between positive and negative affect and life satisfaction. The final model also indicated two significant paths from CSE through positive and negative affect and loneliness to life satisfaction. Furthermore, a multi-group analysis found that the paths did not differ across gender. Limitations of the study are considered and implications of the results for enhancing adolescents’ life satisfaction are discussed.     

Social indicators, 1976: A critique

Social Indicators 1976 is reviewed from the point of view of its conceptual framework, data presentation, analysis and interpretation, data quality, variable disaggregation and quality of life measures.     

Nowcasting Indicators of Poverty Risk in the European Union: A Microsimulation Approach

The at-risk-of-poverty rate is one of the three indicators used for monitoring progress towards the Europe 2020 poverty and social exclusion reduction target. Timeliness of this indicator is critical for monitoring the effectiveness of policies. However, due to complicated nature of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) poverty risk estimates are published with a 2–3 years delay. This paper presents a method that can be used to estimate (“nowcast”) the current at-risk-of-poverty rate for the European Union (EU) countries based on EU-SILC microdata from a previous period. The EU tax-benefit microsimulation model EUROMOD is used for this purpose in combination with up to date macro-level statistics. The method is validated by using EU-SILC data for 2007 incomes to estimate at-risk-of-poverty rates for 2008–2012 and to compare the predictions with actual EU-SILC and other external statistics. The method is tested on eight EU countries which are among those experiencing the most volatile economic conditions within the period: Estonia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and Romania.     

The Subjective Happiness Scale: Translation and Preliminary Psychometric Evaluation of a Spanish Version

The aim of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky and Lepper in Soc Indic Res 46:137–155, 1999) in a wide sample of 1,155 participants (448 men, 707 women) from three different groups (high school students, college students, and community adult participants). The participants completed the following measures: the Spanish version of SHS, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory and the Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory. The results revealed preliminary evidence of adequate internal consistency, appropriate test–retest reliability and convergent validity for research purposes. Also, results from confirmatory factor analyses showed a clear one-factor structure, identical with the English version. No significant sex effects were evidenced, although differences between the high school student group and the undergraduate university group were found. In general, our findings add empirical evidence of the usefulness of such a brief measure for the assessment of subjective happiness in large-scale national and international studies with native Spanish-speaking populations. Finally, practical recommendations and future lines of research are suggested.     

The household composition coefficient: A method for measuring inequality in the distribution of childrearing demands among households

A method for measuring distributional inequality was applied to household composition data to document and analyze the trend in the distribution of children and adult among households. Lorenz Curve methodology was used to depict the departure of child-adult living arrangements from absolute equality. Households and children were ranked by a child-adult ratio to capture the trend toward smaller families, single-parent families, and childless households. A Gini Coefficient was calculated to mathematically represent the relative degree of inequality in the distribution of childrearing demands from 1940 to 1980. The results evidence a trend of growing inequality, particularly since 1960, in the distribution of childrearing demands. The measure has application as a social indicator to document the extent to which responsibilities for daily care of children are distributed through the population.     

The effect of the Great Blackout of 1965 on births in New York City

A comparison of the number of births in New York City nine months after the Great Blackout of 1965 with comparable periods for the previous five years shows no increase in births associated with the blackout.     

Long-term dynamics of household size and their environmental implications

Little is known about the environmental implications of long-term historical trends in household size. This paper presents the first historical assessment of global shifts in average household size based on a variety of datasets covering the period 1600–2000. Findings reveal that developed nations reached a threshold in 1893 when average household size began to drop rapidly from approximately 5.0 to 2.5. A similar threshold was reached in developing nations in 1987. With the notable exceptions of Ireland, and England and Wales in the early 1800s, and India and the Seychelles in the late 1900s, the number of households grew faster than population size in every country and every time period. These findings suggest accommodating housing may continue to pose one of the greatest environmental challenges of the twenty-first century because the impacts of increased housing present a threat to sustainability even when population growth slows. Future research addressing environmental impacts of declining household size could use an adapted IPAT model, I = PHoG: where environmental impact (I) = population × personal goods (P) + households × household goods (HoG).     

Evaluation of family planning program performance: A critical review

Family Planning Program Evaluation is not a well-developed art, much less an exact science. The evaluation of the performance of such programs has received a good deal of attention but the methodologies are still controversial and the results inconclusive. This is due to a wide variety of constraints, not all of which are technical, and most of which are not unique to family planning. The prospects for improvement of FPPE depend, to a great extent, on overcoming these constraints.     

Urbanization and de-urbanization of the black population before the civil war

Pre-Civil War black urbanization is examined using data from federal census records, 1790 to 1860. The black population is found to be as urban as the white population initially, but its urbanization underwent relative decline in the last two decades before the Civil War. Foreshadowing current patterns, the northern black population was heavily concentrated in the largest cities, and the free black population was the most urban of all groups. The timing of black urban decline in the North, as well as regional and size of place differences in that decline, suggest that both competition with immigrants in major eastern seaboard cities and the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 contributed to black de-urbanization. For the South, the explanations of black urban decline proposed by Wade, Conrad and Meyer, Goldin, and Bonacich are evaluated, and Bonacich’s split labor market theory is judged to be most consistent with the demographic trends.     

Well-being and ill-being: Different dimensions?

This paper presents evidence for regarding well-being and ill-being as distinct, although not orthogonal dimensions. It is suggested that well-being and ill-being may be like measures of quantitative and verbal ability in intelligence tests. For some purposes (e.g. for admitting students to particular courses of study) it may be sensible to use only one of the measures. For other purposes a combined measure-I.Q.-is appropriate. In this study we employ Indices of Well-Being and Ill-Being and a combined measure, Balance of Well-Being and Ill-Being. Using data from the first wave (1981) of an Australian panel study (N=942), four measures of well-being and three measures of ill-being were factor analysed, confirming the existence of distinct dimensions. The value of the distinctions was underlined by findings indicating that well-being and ill-being have different correlates and causes. Wellbeing depends more than ill-being on the personality traits of extraversion and optimism, and also on the existence of supportive social networks. Ill-being is more strongly related to SES, poor health and low scoring on the trait “personal competence”,. Overall, however, it was found that more variance can be accounted for in the Balance of Well-Being and Ill-Being Index than in the separate indices of Well-Being and Ill-Being.     

New money,and old man/lady and ‘Two's company’: Subjective Welfare in the NORC General Social Surveys, 1972–1982

The nine surveys, dozens of variables, and more than ten thousand cases in the NORC General Social Surveys, 1972–1982, allow one to test a variety of cross-sectional and over-time hypotheses about Subjective Welfare (Happiness). I used discrete multivariate analyses to test five hypotheses: (1) the Economist's prediction that Happiness is a function of income; the Sociologist's hypotheses that Happiness is a function of (2) rank on various evaluated dimensions and (3) number of social ties; and the Psychologist's hypotheses that Happiness is affected by (4) social comparisons and (5) adaptation. None of the five is supported impressively, but three variables emerge as good cross-sectional predictors — Race (Blacks are less Happy, but not necessarily because of discrimination), Marital Status (all categories of nonmarried are less happy) and Financial Change (those whose finances are improving are happier, those who finances have turned for the worse are less happy). When Marital Status and Recent Financial Change are used in a year-to-year social indicator model, fluctuations in the predictors produce significant but small changes in Happiness.