Search

This paper examines the association of opportunity and choice enhancing societal conditions and perceived autonomy with life satisfaction in Europe. Building on the capability approach, I investigate whether the positive effects of six basic functionings—safety, friendship, health, financial security, leisure, and respect—on people's life satisfaction are weaker when people have more opportunity and choice. This paper addresses two main questions: (1) Are people more satisfied with their life when they have more opportunity and choice? (2) Do basic functionings play a smaller role for life satisfaction in societies that enable more opportunity and choice and for individuals with more perceived autonomy? The analyses are based on the European Quality of Life Survey (2016), covering 36,460 individuals in 33 European countries and using multilevel linear regressions. My study finds that both choice and opportunity enhancing societal conditions and individual's perceived autonomy are positively associated with on life satisfaction. Further, all six basic functionings are conducive to individual life satisfaction. The positive effects of health, financial security, respect, and friendship are reduced when people experience a great deal of autonomy over their lives. Societal conditions that provide people with more opportunity and choice further lower the positive effects of financial security, leisure, respect, and safety on individual life satisfaction. This corroborates the importance the capability approach attributes to individual opportunities and freedom of choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research on family and well-being has generally focused on the traditional family, and has largely ignored the increasing diversity in family forms and relations. Our aim in this paper is to help fill this gap by investigating the extent of the relationship between living arrangements and life satisfaction (LS) in Europe. We examined variations in life satisfaction by applying a multilevel approach (i.e., individuals nested in countries) to data from the 2007 European Quality of Life Survey. First, we found that levels of life satisfaction among families consisting of couples with children were significantly higher than among people in other (less typical) family arrangements. Second, our results illustrate that after the socioeconomic situation of the family was taken into account, the influence of family status on LS disappeared almost completely. Overall, our findings suggest that the lower levels of life satisfaction experienced by people living in atypical families can be largely attributed to their weaker socioeconomic position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on immigrants’ assimilation is widespread both in the U.S. and Europe. While it has been extensively studied how immigrants fare compared to natives on socio-economic indicators, few studies have focussed on immigrants’ perception of their position. In this paper we focus on comparing life satisfaction of immigrants and natives across Europe and on the role of social embeddedness. Using data from the first six rounds (2002-2012) of the European Social Survey, a repeated cross-sectional survey, we find that life satisfaction among immigrants is lower than among natives even though differences diminish over generations. For first generation immigrants part of the life satisfaction gap is explained by the lower level of social embeddedness they have compared to natives. We also find that social embeddedness is a key explanatory factor for life satisfaction for both immigrants and natives. For two out of the three indicators of social embeddedness that we consider we however find different patterns of association with life satisfaction for immigrants compared to natives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has suggested that there is a 'gender paradox' associated with life satisfaction and depression: women are said to have higher levels of life satisfaction on average but also a higher likelihood of experiencing depression. That finding comes from quantitative analyses that include socio-demographic control variables. In this article I show that the inclusion of these control variables leads to biased results. In general, controls are to be selected on the basis that they are antecedents of the focal independent variable (as well as the dependent variable). When the focal independent variable is gender (or, more precisely, sex), no controls are required: there are no determinants of life satisfaction that also determine someone's sex. If we include socio-demographic controls, we get biased results – because the controls themselves are affected by sex. More precisely: if we include controls (e.g. for income) to discern the difference between women's and men's life satisfaction, we get a result that fails to reflect the way women experience specific disadvantages (e.g. lower income) that contribute to lower life satisfaction. The same points apply to an analysis of depression. In a properly specified model (using data from the European Social Survey), there is no difference between women's and men's life satisfaction – so, there is no paradox with respect to depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on the direction of the relationship between civic participation and well-being has evidenced that civic participation is a promoter of well-being among older adults in Europe. Accordingly, the objective of the present study is to identify and analyze the differences between European welfare systems regarding both civic participation and well-being. For this purpose, a logistic multilevel regression analysis was performed as an empirical strategy, using the cross-sectional data from the 9 waves of the European Social Survey (2002–2018). Significant differences in well-being were observed, with Anglo-Saxon elders being the healthiest, and the Nordic the happiest and most satisfied with their lives. In contrast, Eastern European seniors reported the lowest levels of well-being. Also, Nordic countries are the most civically engaged, followed by the Continental and Anglo-Saxon, while Mediterranean and Eastern countries engage the least. However, the impact of civic participation on well-being is strongest for the Mediterranean countries, while its impact on satisfaction and happiness is weakest for the Nordic countries. The 3 models of the multilevel analysis indicate that civic participation has a positive impact on health, happiness and life satisfaction, and that this effect is quite robust. Also, by adding country-level macro variables to the model, it is possible to reduce the random effects and hence to better explain these international differences. Concisely, the impact of civic participation on the well-being of the elderly differs across nations and should therefore be considered by policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-national survey data shows that for a significant share of European citizens, corruption is acceptable. Notwithstanding the importance of prior knowledge on corruption extension and experience, research has made little progress in exploring why people condone it, especially in unsuspicious countries, with effective institutions and stable democratic rules and processes. The present study examines this gap in the literature by assessing the European Values Study (EVS) and the Special Eurobarometer (EB) attempts at measuring 'Tolerance towards Corruption' (TtC) in OECD countries in Europe during the same period (2017–2019). In the end, measurements proved to be constrained by the limited number of questions/items that try to capture TtC, which gave room to conclude that: (a) EVS and EB approaches do not measure the same TtC. The first measures it through social transgressions not exclusively related to corruption, while the second measures the willingness to accept a public-office corruption when dealing with the public sphere. (b) Lower ages combined with individual preferences/perceptions of less satisfaction with life, widespread corruption, and prior experiences with corruption proved to be more relevant to explain TtC, regardless of the country in which individuals were surveyed. (c) The type of TtC citizens display in advanced democracies proved to be mainly contingent on their age and on the way they interpret the extension of corruption and the prior contact they had with a public-office corruption in a given society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]