engleski

Life satisfaction of Croatian immigrants in Australia

The paper reports on preliminary results on research being undertaken among Croatian immigrants in Australia. This research aimed to examine the differences in, and relationships between perceived social support, self perceived health and subjective quality of life among Croatian immigrants in comparison with the general Australian and general Croatian population. Furthermore, to determine their major sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and to discover links between such factors and health. A range of variables was examined in a sample of 297 participants who comprised three groups: Croatian immigrants in Australia (N=110), Australian general population (N= 107), and Croatian general population (N= 80). Here will be presented only results on subjective quality of life and social support. Results showed that Croatian immigrants and Croatians report similar overall life satisfaction as Australian population. Further analysis at the domain level revealed statistically significant difference in satisfaction on Material well being and Emotional well being domain. Croatians are least satisfied with their Material well being and Australians reported highest satisfaction. On Emotional well being Australians reported the highest scores but here Croatian immigrants reported the lowest scores. There was no significant difference in satisfaction between those three groups on Health, Productivity, Relationship, Safety or Community domain. Furthermore, importance of each domain was examined. Interestingly, Croatian people (either immigrants or people in Croatia) report the same level of importance and it was significantly higher than results from Australian general population sample. It seems everything examined is so important for them. At the domain level, Achievement domain was significantly more important for Croatian people than for Australian. In a term of social support immigrants expressed high level of perceived social support what could be discussed in terms of their high cohesion in local community. Findings from this research may further our understanding about the factors which impact upon subjective quality of life, particularly for those who experience significant changes in life circumstances as, through immigration.

quality of life; social support; health

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