engleski

FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE SUBJECTIVE WELL BEING ACROSS AND WITHIN AGE COHORTS: CASE OF CROATIA

In order to establish indicators of progress related to the community well being one should first identify domains and factors contributing to the quality of life and well being. In this paper we examine the amount of variance of subjective well being explained by various external factors classified in several areas: Family relationships, Economic resources, Health, Employment, Education, Housing and life conditions and Social participation. The results are based on the extensive Quality of Life survey conducted in Croatia by United Nations Development Programme (N=8534 15+ ; May 2006). Since our assumption was that age moderates the relationship between the subjective well being and the external factors that affect it, we carried out regression analysis separately on seven age groups. With some reservations due to the shortcomings of regression analysis and quality of indicators within areas, we found out that the single most important domain in explaining subjective well being are economic resources of the household, followed by health and employment. With all predictors we could explain more than 50 percent of the subjective well being variable. Consistent with initial expectations, results showed that predictive power of indicators within particular domains vary with age.

well being; quality of life; age cohorts; Croatia

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