Effects of Internet Connectedness and Information Literacy on Quality of Life

The goal of this exploratory research is to examine the inter-linkage among Internet connectedness, information literacy, and quality of life. Results from a telephone survey, based on a probability sample of 756 Internet users, found that Internet connectedness is not related to quality of life. However, there is a significant relationship between Internet connectedness and information literacy, and a strong link between information literacy and life quality. These findings encourage further exploration of life quality that underlies the concepts of Internet connectedness and information literacy. The hope is that additional discoveries will aid curriculum design, both at the K-12 and university levels, and the future development of Internet applications and services so as to enhance overall life quality. In particular, the intent of the study was to determine what factors might have the most positive effect on quality of life.     

论中国人口逆淘汰：驳斥一个伪命题

本文对中国人口（素质）逆淘汰问题进行定性和定量的分析,认为不能简单的以城乡生育率的差异去考量人口的整体素质变化。人口的整体素质变动是一个动态的过程,以静态的、封闭的人口观点去看待人口素质问题必然得出与事实不相符合的结论。把城镇、农村人口当作两个封闭的群体。同时忽视农村人口素质快速提升的的现实,得出的中国人口逆淘汰的结论必然是一个伪命题。     

我国人口素质与经济协调发展关系的实证研究

本文利用因子综合得分对人口素质和经济系统进行协调分析,得出结论2000年与1990年相比,经济系统对人口素质的协调程度下降,人口素质对经济系统的协调程度稍有改善,人口素质开始在经济发展中发挥出重要的作用,但是人口素质提高的速度慢于经济发展的速度,人口素质有落后于经济发展的要求的趋势。     

The quality–quantity trade-off: evidence from the relaxation of China’s one-child policy

This paper uses the exogenous variation in fertility introduced by China’s family planning policies to identify the impact of child quantity on child quality. We find that the number of children has a significant negative effect on child height, which supports the quality–quantity trade-off theory. Our instrumental quantile regression approach shows that the impact varies considerably across the height distribution, particularly for boys. However, the trade-off is much weaker if quality is measured by educational attainments, suggesting that the measurement of child quality is also crucial in testing the quality–quantity trade-off theory.     

The influence of parents’ marital quality on adult children’s attitudes toward marriage and its alternatives: Main and moderating effects

Drawing on a panel study of parents and children, we investigate linkages between parents' marital quality and adult children's attitudes toward a range of family issues, including premarital sex, cohabitation, lifelong singlehood, and divorce. We hypothesize that parents' marital quality will be negatively related to children's support for these behaviors in adulthood and that parents' marital quality will condition the intergenerational transmission of attitudes toward these issues. We find some evidence that parents' marital quality influences children's support for divorce and premarital sex. More important, our analyses show that parents' marital quality facilitates the intergenerational transmission of attitudes. Parents' attitudes toward premarital sex, cohabitation, and being single are more strongly linked to those same attitudes among their young adult children when parents' marital quality is high than when it is low.     

Political Democracy and the Physical Quality of Life: The Cross-National Evidence

Why do some countries have a high quality of life? One important explanation is that political democracy fosters life quality. Proponents of this perspective argue that political democracy acts to center the public agenda on state actions that enhance life quality. The cross-national effects of democracy (and several alternative variables) on the physical quality of life were examined for 87 countries at three points in time: 1970, 1980, and 1990. Results indicate the existence of a strong positive relationship between democracy and life quality for all three time periods.

     

Examining the Effects of Perceptions of Community and Recreation Participation on Quality of Life

The study of quality of life remains a key area of interest for not only researchers but to society. Through research being completed in multiple disclines and from a multitude of perspectives, the need to understand the full breadth of quality of life is required in order for the further development of this research area. Through building on previous research completed on quality of life from multiple disclines, this study utilizes numerous objective and subjective indicators to model quality of life in a community in the southwest United States. Through the analysis of 352 completed surveys, it was found that the two strongest predictors of quality of life were community pride and community elements. Of interest is that a number of other indicators including recreation participation and length of residency in a community were found to have a negative relationship with quality of life.     

Measurement of the quality of family planning services

The quality of health services is a subject of increasing interest to health care providers and organizations responsible for financing and promoting health services. The importance of the client's perspective (and by inference, the perspective of potential clients, as well) is now well established, but efforts to define and measure quality have thus far been limited to the perspective of experts even when the experts claim to speak for the clients. In this paper we utilize family planning programs to explore issues of the quality of health services. We propose that a better understanding of the view of quality actually held by family planning program clients will clarify the influence of quality on the use of services, a clarity that has not been possible by looking at quality only as defined by providers, managers or experts. We review the literature on quality of services and identify the gaps in research that must be filled if a better understanding of what quality is and how it relates to service outcomes is to be obtained. A first step must be the research required to develop a set of measures of quality that reflects the multi-dimensional nature of quality, includes the clients' view of services in the definition of quality, and incorporates methodologies required to ascertain the true view of clients. Finally, we suggest that dimensions of quality identified as important for clients as a group will be more predictive of use of services than dimensions identified as important to providers.     

Quality of Life of Institutionalized Elderly in Brazil

When considering the increasing proportion of institutionalized elderly and the aim of better quality of life for this growing population, it is necessary to know the quality of life for residents in nursing homes in Brazil, which is the purpose of this review. This is a simple review whose research was performed in electronic databases Journal Portal CAPES, Scopus and Bireme. The latter covers information about the subject registered in the SciELO, LILACS, MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library. Identified studies were assessed according to the following inclusion criteria: (1) population (institutionalized elderly in Brazil), (2) theme (quality of life) and (3) quantitative approach. According to this review, most studies that compared the quality of life of residents and nonresidents in nursing homes revealed that the institutionalized elderly have a worse perception of quality of life, possibly due to factors that cause the institutionalization and influence this self-perception, such as age, sex, education, lifestyle, autonomy and social participation. Among the domains evaluated in the questionnaire for quality of life the perception of autonomy and environmental aspects were the least satisfied by the institutionalized elderly. To improve the quality of life it is essential that the community living in the institutional space promote the autonomy of the elderly. Public policies that make a difference to the well being of older people need to be maintained, expanded and strengthened continuously to new strategies that respond to demands arising from rapid population aging and promote quality of life improvement.     

厦门市城区空巢老年人生活质量综合评析

空巢家庭的大量出现,是工业化、现代化进程中,经济发展、人口流动及人们价值观念转变等多种因素共同作用的结果。对空巢老年人生活质量的研究,应当区分不同居住类型进行全面的分析、比较,从而提出更有针对性的对策和建议。研究发现,厦门市空巢老年人的生活质量整体上低于非空巢老人,而夫妇二人家庭的空巢老年人生活质量与非空巢老年人群体并无显著差异：另外单身户老年人生活质量较低;住在养老机构老年人的生活质量远低于其他类型。     

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.     

城市社区养老服务质量评价--基于粗糙集方法的数据挖掘

客观公正的养老服务质量评价对完善社区养老体系建设有重要意义。本文基于粗糙集的研究方法,分别从生活照料、医疗护理、安全保障、精神慰藉以及社会参与五个维度对显著影响社区养老服务质量评价的指标进行了约简,进而确定质量评价体系的指标和权重,并对吉林市22个社区养老服务的质量进行了评价。结果显示,质量评价平均水平介于“一般”和“比较满意”之间;年龄越高的老年人对社区养老服务质量评价越低;社区养老建设试点小区的评分显著高于非试点小区。由此可见,我国社区养老试点建设已经取得明显成效,但亟须进一步推行和完善。     

Does ranking stimulate government performance? Evidence from China’s key environmental protection cities

With the air quality ranking of China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment as a case, this paper examines whether the public ranking could stimulate the ranked cities to improve performance. The results show that the horizontal ranking, i.e., the relative position among the cities, significantly stimulates the cities to improve air quality. The stimulating effect is significant for all the three type of cities, i.e., cities with good, medium and poor air quality, and is the strongest for the cities with good air quality. However, the stimulating effect for air quality improvement is not enough to alter the air quality comparison among the cities. Compared to other cities, if a city is ranked relatively low in the last year, the air quality in the current year is still relatively poor. The inertia is particularly significant for the cities with poor air quality. The vertical ranking, i.e., if the rank of a city progresses or retrogresses, does not affect the air quality and air quality change of the city. Overall, public ranking is argued to stimulate performance improvement by seducing the competition among local governments, although the actual effect is still subject to the perception of local governments and their capacity to respond to the ranking.

     

Core Indicators to Assess Quality of Life in Population with Brain Injury

Assessing quality of life of people with brain injury has a relevant role for developing strategies focused on personal outcomes that allow us to guide good practices and rehabilitation. So far, assessment of quality of life for this population has been restricted to an evaluation of personal outcomes from a health-related quality of life perspective. This approach it is mostly centered on physical health, however, quality of life needs to be addressed from a holistic and multidimensional perspective. The goal of this study is to identify core indicators of quality of life in brain injury based on a comprehensive theoretical model focused on the most relevant aspects of this population functioning. A Delphi study was carried out to obtain the specific core indicators of quality of life for this population. The methodology used to reach a consensus about the best indicators and items to measure quality of life involved four rounds and 14 experts on rehabilitation of people with brain injury. The Delphi study provided evidence of content validity for the field-test version of a new scale that will be applied to a wide sample in order to empirically check its suitability for this population.     

Population quality must be improved to carry out the strategic goal of economic construction]

The poor population quality (quality of life of the population as a whole) of Zhejiang Province in southeast China and the imperative need for its improvement are the subject of this report. Its 40 million inhabitants have a life expectancy of 69 years. For every 1000 people there is only 1 doctor and 1.7 hospital beds. These figures are lower for all the other southeastern provinces. According to the 1982 census, there are 47 college graduates, 517 high school graduates, and 1779 middle school graduates for every 10,000 people. The quality of life of the population can be improved through increased productivity because there is a direct relationship between the 2. Although China already enjoys a high level of productivity, it is up to the government to concentrate its efforts on the quality of productivity through reform. China's political structure, its rules, regulations and conventions have contributed to making the economy backward. A substantial change within the social system is imperative to put China's economy on a more progressive footing. Moreover, efforts in family planning must continue. The current population growth rate is not commensurate with the economic growth rate. As population control and population quality are interrelated, a smaller population would mean a higher standard of living. The report concludes that in order to fulfill the strategic goal of economic construction quality is a task that cannot be postponed, since it concerns Zhejiang Province's economic projections, as well as the quality of the new labor force that will be in place by then.     

长春市老年人口生活质量评价

针对我国老年人口生活质量的具体情况,利用国家人口和计划生育委员会与吉林大学"我国老年人生活状况及养老公共服务需求研究"长春市部分的调研数据,采用中华医学会老年医学流行病学学组会议提出的分等加权综合评分法,对长春市老年人口生活质量进行综合评价。将老年人口划分成不同年龄组及不同性别组,分别从经济生活、医疗健康生活、家庭与社会生活、精神生活方面进行老年人口生活质量评价。研究结果显示,长春市老年人口整体生活质量处于中等偏上的水平;女性老年人生活质量略低于男性老年人生活质量;老年人口的生活质量水平随年龄增大而降低。通过实证分析,综合把握长春市老年人口的生活质量现状,明确影响长春市老年人生活质量的相关因素,发现阻碍老年人口生活质量提高的不利因素,就改善长春市老年人生活质量提出对策建议。     

Possibilities and Limitations for the Measurement of the Quality of Life in Urban Areas

Recently, quality of life has become a commonly used concept and is showing growing significance in economic and political terms. Additionally, quality of life issues have been recognized within the migration processes. In one view, quality of life relates to the degree to which the necessary conditions for satisfaction exists in a given society or region.It is argued that quality, as a measurable variable would refer to both the subject and the object of inquiry. In this sense, quality of life has two aspects, psychological and environmental ones. Nevertheless, this limitation constitutes a major problem since some researchers have totally neglected the perception of the people who live there, while another limitation is about the components, indices and indicators chosen in a certain analysis.In this paper, the aim is to test some measurement methods of the quality of life and to show the possibilities and limitations of a developing area in comparison to developed ones. In this way, some comparative analysis can be performed on the measurement methods of the quality of life levels with respect to regional variations.     

Schulqualität, Schulerfolg und Gesundheit. Ergebnisse aus der österreichischen „Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children“-Studie

Based on the question, how school quality, academic achievement and health are linked to each other, the paper presents a research model that regards students’ health as a central educational resource that mediates between school quality and students’ academic achievement. The empirical test is based on the most recent data of the “Health Behaviour in School-aged Children” (HBSC) survey by using a structural equation model. The results indicate, that school quality influences students’ academic achievement as well as their health. According to our model, students’ health acts as a mediator between the quality of schools and students’ academic achievement.     

Family size and the quality of children

If couples decide to have fewer children in order to achieve higher “quality” offspring, are they correct in assuming that the quality of children bears an important and inverse relation to family size? If they are correct, how does number of children operate to affect individual quality? This research (using U.S. whites primarily) takes educational attainment (among adults) and college plans (among youngsters) as the principal indicators of quality, but also directs some attention to measures of intelligence. The analysis supports the “dilution model” (on average, the more children the lower the quality of each child) and indicates that only children do not suffer from lack of siblings, and that other last-borns are not handicapped by a “teaching deficit.” Number of siblings (relative to other background variables) is found to have an important detrimental impact on child quality—an impact compounded by the fact that, when couples are at a stage in life to make family-size decisions, most background factors (however important to the quality of their children) are no longer readily manipulable. A special path analysis of college plans among boys uses a modification of Sewell’s Wisconsin Model as its base. The results show that number of siblings is a negative influence on intervening variables affecting college plans. In general, the research documents the unfavorable consequences for individual siblings of high fertility, even in a country that is (at least for whites) as socially, economically, and politically advantaged as the United States.     

中国就业质量及地区差异研究

党的十八大报告明确提出,“要推动实现更高质量的就业”。在合理界定就业质量概念基础上,笔者构建了我国就业质量综合评价指标体系,并对2005--2011年我国30个省（市、自治区）的就业质量及其地区差异进行评估,结果发现：我国就业质量总体偏低;各地区就业质量差异较大;经济发展水平不是决定就业质量高低的唯一因素。因此,各地区应该在十八大报告指导下,在积极增加就业岗位的基础上,更加注重就业质量的提高。