Sex-role attitudes and employment status as predictors of perceived life satisfaction among married women in Korea

The focus of this exploratory study is on reexamining the relationship between sex role attitudes and the employment status of married women in Korea, and exploring the nature and extent of women's sex role attitudes and employment status on their life satisfaction (marriage, family, work). Multicluster sampling was used to select 418 women from the city of Seoul. The Attitudes toward Women Scale (AWS) (Spence and Helmreich) was used to measure the concept of sex role attitudes. Life satisfaction was measured by 3 questions: ALLSAT, a general feeling; IGA for the general effect based on Osgood's semantic differential scales; and work status and voluntariness. Background characteristics are given. The results revealed that there was an independent relationship between sex role attitudes and employment status. Based on willingness to work groups (4), those who worked involuntarily had the most conservative sex role attitudes, and those involuntarily nonworking had the most liberal attitudes. When education background was controlled for, there were no significant differences between working and nonworking women and sex role attitudes. There was little relationship observed between sex role attitudes and overall satisfaction. When controlling for employment status, however, sex role attitudes and the relationship to work satisfaction was statistically significant among fulltime housewives, who had conservative attitudes. In fact, fulltime housewives reported greater satisfaction with their role as homemaker than those with liberal sex role attitudes. Women's attitudes and their actual roles has a greater influence on women's life satisfaction than sex role attitudes. Overall, working women are more satisfied with work and overall life than are nonworking women, when the mean satisfaction scored all 6 indicators are used in a 1 way analysis of variance. There were no significant differences in satisfaction with marriage or family life between working and nonworking women. When the intervening variable willingness to work is introduced, this plus employment status affects life satisfaction. The discrepancy between women's sex role attitudes and their work status produces the greatest dissatisfaction. The multiple regression of background variables affecting sex role attitudes shows that parent's encouragement for a woman to work has the strongest effect. Educational attainment has a positive effect on sex role attitudes, and among less well education has a negative effect and positive effect among those well educated, Husband's income is significantly higher than that for working women. Another model expressing reciprocal relations between marriage, family and work satisfaction was generated. Improvements are suggested for future research.     

Level of choice in older women’s decisions to retire or continue working and associated well-being

Retirement is a complex life transition. Women’s retirement, like their work lives, may be further complicated, for example, by family or financial obligations; they may feel forced to retire or to continue working or feel they have the choice to do so. This study examines the role of voluntary versus involuntary retirement or continued work participation among retirement-age women; specifically, the relationships between choice, work status, and well-being. Compared to women forced to retire, women who chose retirement or continuing to work had higher levels of life satisfaction. Findings highlight the importance of examining retirement within the life course context.     

Assessing the “Good Life” in a Military Context: How Does Life and Work-Satisfaction Relate to Orientations to Happiness and Career-Success Among Swiss Professional Officers?

The study examines work- and life satisfaction along with orientation to happiness, and their relation to subjective but also objective career success, among Swiss military professional officers. They frequently report worsening of their working conditions due to two reforms that have recently been conducted. A total of N = 221 Swiss career officers (mainly Land Forces; from Colonel to First Lieutenant) completed several questionnaires in an online survey. As expected, pleasure, engagement and meaning were positively related to satisfaction with life and the meaningful life also correlated with the (overall) work satisfaction. Higher subjective career success was related to higher satisfaction with life, content-related aspects of work satisfaction, and higher endorsements to the engaged and the meaningful life. Belonging to the general staff was considered as an objective criterion of career success and those who were in the general staff, were higher in their overall work satisfaction, content-related aspects of their work and, again, higher inclination to the life of engagement and the life of meaning. The study suggests that variables of positive psychological functioning are useful additions in the field of military psychology and that they might hold a key for the development of strategies for improving both, work- and life satisfaction among military personnel.     

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.     

中国国有林场职工的生活满意度及影响因素分析

以河北、浙江、山东等14个省（市、自治区）490个林场10000位职工的问卷调查为依据，采用Multinomial Logistic Regression方法深入分析职工生活满意度的影响因素。结果表明：53.6%的国有林场职工对生活感到不满意，68.2%的职工感觉生活压力很大。同时，职工年龄、工作年限、配偶工作、收入、住房面积、工作时间、工作环境、社会保障、林场与职工之间的关系以及职工对未来的信心程度等因素都对生活满意度具有显著的影响。     

Family size in successive generations: The effects of birth order,intergenerational change in lifestyle,and familial satisfaction

Studies of family size in successive generations have found a small but persistently positive effect of size of family of orientation. Recent work has suggested that this relationship may be influenced by birth order, intergenerational change in lifestyle, and familial satisfaction. Data from a 24-year longitudinal study of women in Pennsylvania indicate that number of siblings does influence size of family of procreation. More important, this relationship is stronger among women who were first-born that later-born, stronger for those not experiencing intergenerational change than for those who changed, and stronger among those who at age 16 were satisfied with their parental family than for those who were dissatisfied.     

Good Job,Good Life? Working Conditions and Quality of Life in Europe

Cross-national comparisons generally show large differences in life satisfaction of individuals within and between European countries. This paper addresses the question of whether and how job quality and working conditions contribute to the quality of life of employed populations in nine strategically selected EU countries: Finland, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Using data from the European Quality of Life Survey 2003, we examine relationships between working conditions and satisfaction with life, as well as whether spillover or segmentation mechanisms better explain the link between work domain and overall life satisfaction. Results show that the level of life satisfaction varies significantly across countries, with higher quality of life in more affluent societies. However, the impact of working conditions on life satisfaction is stronger in Southern and Eastern European countries. Our study suggests that the issue of security, such as security of employment and pay which provides economic security, is the key element that in a straightforward manner affects people’s quality of life. Other working conditions, such as autonomy at work, good career prospects and an interesting job seem to translate into high job satisfaction, which in turn increases life satisfaction indirectly. In general, bad-quality jobs tend to be more ‘effective’ in worsening workers’ perception of their life conditions than good jobs are in improving their quality of life. We discuss the differences in job-related determinants of life satisfaction between the countries and consider theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

Life Satisfaction Among University Students in a Canadian Prairie City: a Multivariate Analysis

This article reports the findings from a questionnaire survey of university students’ life satisfaction in Regina. The results demonstrated that a significant proportion of the 315 respondents were satisfied with their lives (N = 240, 76.2%). With regard to degree of satisfaction with different aspects of life, respondents expressed that they were most satisfied with relationship with mother, living environment, relationships with close friends, relationships with siblings, and living arrangement. Multiple ordinary least-squares regression analyses revealed that respondents who indicated a higher socio-economic status, achieveda higher grade point average, and were more satisfied with their academic experience, self-esteem, relationship with significant other, and living conditions, expressed a markedly higher level of satisfaction with life.     

Life Satisfaction and Education in South Africa: Investigating the Role of Attainment and the Likelihood of Education as a Positional Good

This paper explores various dynamics in the relationship between life satisfaction and education in South Africa using the 2008 National Income Dynamics Survey. The results indicate a strong positive association between educational attainment and individual satisfaction with life, which is true in the overall sample and for men and women. This positive relationship also holds for Black and Coloured individuals, but is insignificant in the Asian and White samples. Evidence indicates that education is a positional good, in that people who have attained more than the mean level of education in their relevant cluster are significantly more satisfied with life compared to those possessing less than the mean education.

     

Development of the Contentment with Life Assessment Scale (CLAS): Using Daily Life Experiences to Verify Levels of Self-Reported Life Satisfaction

On average, Anglo-Americans report that they are satisfied with their lives, but their global evaluations tend to deviate from their daily experiences (e.g., Oishi [2002, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28(10), 1398–1406]). We explored the hypothesis that the average life satisfaction of Anglo-Americans is better characterized as neutral than satisfied. In Study 1 we developed the five-item Contentment with Life Assessment Scale (CLAS), which focuses on contentment, fulfillment and self-discrepancies. Normative data based on three general population samples demonstrated that the CLAS produces a close to normal distribution of scores, has excellent reliability, and is sensitive to differences in life conditions (e.g., income, marital status). In two daily diary studies we tested whether global life satisfaction measures corresponded to people’s daily subjective well-being. The CLAS was the best predictor among three self-report life satisfaction measures of daily escapist behaviors including television watching and alcohol consumption, and daily stress-related physical symptoms (Study 2). In Study 3, participants recorded their level of life satisfaction daily for two weeks. Average daily life satisfaction scores clustered close to the neutral rather than satisfied point of the measurement scale.     

Working off the farm: Impacts on quality of life

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of off-farm employment on perceptions of quality of life. Data collected on 311 Western Ontario male and female farmers revealed that although most indicated satisfaction with their lives, some differences are apparent. Women employed off the farm report more areas of lower satisfaction than their male counterparts and men and women working solely on the farm. Low levels of satisfaction with time issues, leisure and exercise were most evident for employed women. Men employed off the farm report the most effects from time issues, satisfaction with the farm business, income and the environment. People working off the farm feel their farms are less successful and are more concerned with their environment. Whereas the farm family's pluriactivity enables many to hold on to herished aspects of the farming lifestyle for a while, its burdens are perceived to fall neaviest on female farmers especially if they have young children. The magnitude of their concerns about the quality of their environment and not being able to farm successfully suggests that many of these farmers would improve their quality of life by peeding up the transition out of farming before all their farm's equity is lost.     

Gender Differences in Subjective Well-Being In and Out of Management Positions

This study used data from the German Socio-economic Panel to examine gender differences in the extent to which self-reported subjective well-being was associated with occupying a high-level managerial position in the labour market, compared with employment in non-leadership, non-high-level managerial positions, unemployment, and non-labour market participation. Our results indicated that a clear hierarchy exists for men in term of how status within the labour market was associated with subjective life satisfaction. Unemployed men were the least satisfied, followed by men who were not in the labour market, while men in leadership positions reported the highest level of subjective life satisfaction. For women, no statistically significant differences were observed among women in high-level managerial positions, women who worked in non-high-level positions, and women who specialized in household production, with no market work. Only women who were unemployed reported lower levels of life satisfaction, compared with women in other labour-market statuses. Our results lend evidence to the contention that men can ??have it all??, but women must still choose between career and family in Germany. We argue that interventions need to address how the non-pecuniary rewards associated with high-level managerial and leadership positions can be increased for women. Such policies would also likely serve to mitigate the ??pipeline?? problem concerning the number of women who are available to move into high positions in the private sector.     

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.     

Rethinking of Economic Growth and Life Satisfaction in Post-Wwii Japan – A Fresh Approach

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been utilized by academics and policy makers to indicate the economic well-being of the people. However, economic growth measures cannot capture fully the overall well-being of the people. This paper has tested quality of economic growth in Japan after World War II as to whether it has brought about positive outcome in the well-being of its citizens. Comparison between GDP and GPI (Genuine Progress Index) has revealed that GDP does not fit as well with people’s life satisfaction trend as GPI. Prefecture-based rankings on GDP, Human Development Index (HDI) and Life Satisfaction have shown that there are clear gaps between objective measures and subjective measures to indicate the overall well-being of the people. Also, analysis on major determinants for people’s life satisfaction reveals that older people, women, non-employed people, and those who live in subsidized housings felt satisfied with their life.     

Generational Differences in Work Values,Perceived Job Rewards,and Job Satisfaction of Chinese Female Migrant Workers: Implications for Social Policy and Social Services

This cross-sectional survey study is a pioneering attempt to investigate the generational differences in the work values, perceived job rewards, and job satisfaction of Chinese female migrant workers. The study targeted two toy factories in the Guangdong Province of China and recruited a total of 1,307 female workers as participants. Among them were 577 female migrant workers who comprised the target group for this research. The authors hypothesized that the younger generation of female migrant workers would have higher levels of cognitive work values (such as self-enhancement and career development) but lower levels of perceived job rewards and job satisfaction than those of the older generation. The results indicate that there are no generational differences in work values among the three birth cohorts of Chinese female migrant workers. The older generation felt more satisfied with the job rewards that they received, and their sense of job satisfaction was higher than that of the younger generation. Furthermore, the findings showed a substantial positive influence of perceived social job rewards (such as support from co-workers and supervisors) on job satisfaction among the younger generation. The current findings suggest that in China, generational differences in work are affected by both the generation factor and the rural–urban stratification factor. The authors hope that the study will provide a knowledge base for understanding the perceptions of Chinese female migrant workers toward work and for exploring the ways in which new policies and social services can be developed in order to address their needs.     

An Analysis of the Levels of Job Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction of the Academic Staff

Job satisfaction is generally related with life satisfaction and can directly affect social, physical and mental health of individuals. This study was investigated to determine whether the levels of job satisfaction and life satisfaction of academicians have significantly differentiated under demographic variables and to enlighten the correlation among them. The samples of the study involve 186 academic personnel who work in the Faculty of Science and Art (122) and in the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture (64) in Eskisehir Osmangazi University. While analysing the data, t test, analysis of variance and regression analysis were used for SPSS 10.0. There was significant difference between job and life satisfaction levels of the academicians depending on the variables like the faculties that academic personnel working at, their titles, educational backgrounds, marital statuses, periods of duty, ages and genders. The results and their implications have been discussed.     

Internal Migration and Life Satisfaction: Well-Being Paths of Young Adult Migrants

Internal migration is typically associated with higher income, but its relation with life satisfaction remains unclear. Is internal migration accompanied by an increase in life satisfaction and does this increase depend on the reason for moving? What are the aspects of life underlying overall life satisfaction that change following migration? These questions are addressed using longitudinal data from the Swedish Young Adult Panel Study. Migration is defined as a change in municipality of residence. Comparing migrants to non-migrants, it is found that internal migration is accompanied by a short to medium term increase in life satisfaction for those who move due to work (work migrants), as well as those who move for other reasons (non-work migrants). However, only work migrants display an improvement in life satisfaction that remains significant 6 or more years following the move. Work and non-work migrants also differ in the aspects of life that change following migration. For work migrants the move is accompanied by an improvement in occupational status positively associated with well-being 6–10 years after the move. For non-work migrants, a persisting increase in housing satisfaction follows migration, but this housing improvement is accompanied by only a short to medium term increase in overall well-being.     

Quality of life in Thailand

Quality of life is an increasingly important issue in developing countries in general and in Thailand in particular. This study investigates mainly the level of satisfaction of Thais with their lives in general and with various aspects/domains of their lives. Based on the sample of Thais living in Bangkok Metropolitan area, the results of this study reveal that Thais are somewhat pleased with their lives in general and tend to be more satisfied with personal domains of life rather than environmental domains of life. It is also found that two significant contributors to Thais' quality of life are economic well-being and better education.     

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.