Search results for: subjective happiness

Authors: Hakan Aydogan, Fatih Bozkurt, Huseyin Coskun

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In this study, the signal of brain electrical activities of the sixteen students selected from the Department of Electrical and Energy at Usak University have been recorded during a lecturer performed happiness emotions for the first group and anger emotions for the second group in different time while the groups were in the classroom separately. The attention and meditation data extracted from the recorded signals have been analyzed and evaluated toward the teacher’s specific emotion states simultaneously. Attention levels of students who are under influence of happiness emotions of the lecturer have a positive trend and attention levels of students who are under influence of anger emotions of the lecturer have a negative trend. The meditation or mental relaxation levels of students who are under influence of happiness emotions of the lecturer are 34.3% higher comparing with the mental relaxation levels of students who are under influence of anger emotions of the lecturer.

Keywords: brainwave, attention, meditation, education

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Authors: Erhong Sun, Xuchun Ye

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Technophobia, namely the fear or dislike of modern advanced technologies, plays a central role in age-related digital divides and is considered a new risk factor for older adults, which can affect the daily lives of people through low adherence to digital living. Indeed, there is considerable heterogeneity in the group of older adults who feel technophobia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify different technophobia typologies of older people and to examine their associations with the subjective age factor. A sample of 704 retired elderly over the age of 55 was recruited in China. Technophobia and subjective age were assessed with a questionnaire, respectively. Latent profile analysis was used to identify technophobia subgroups, using three dimensions including techno-anxiety, techno-paranoia, and privacy concerns as indicators. The association between the identified technophobia subgroups and subjective age was explored. In summary, four different technophobia typologies were identified among older adults in China. Combined with an investigation of personal background characteristics and subjective age, it draws a more nuanced image of the technophobia phenome among older adults in China. First, not all older adults suffer from technophobia, with about half of the elderly subjects belonging to the profiles of “Low-technophobia” and “Medium-technophobia.” Second, privacy concern plays an important role in the classification of technophobia among older adults. Third, subjective age might be a protective factor for technophobia in older adults. Although the causal direction between identified technophobia typologies and subjective age remains uncertain, our suggests that future interventions should better focus on subjective age by breaking the age stereotype of technology to reduce the negative effect of technophobia on older. Future development of this research will involve extensive investigation of the detailed impact of technophobia in senior populations, measurement of the negative outcomes, as well as formulation of innovative educational and clinical pathways.

Keywords: technophobia, older adults, latent profile analysis, subjective age

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Authors: Theresa Zagers, Rita Guerra

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Most research investigating how receiving communities perceive, and experience migration has overlooked the potential role of subjective social class and social class identity in positive intergroup relations and social cohesion of migrants and host societies. The present study aimed to provide insights to understand this relationship and focused on three important features: prosocial behaviour, attitudes and emotions towards Muslim immigrants in Flanders, Belgium. Building on relative deprivation-gratification theory we examined the indirect relationships of subjective social class on prosocial behaviour/intentions, attitudes and emotions via relative deprivation (RD), as well as the moderator role of the importance of social class identity. 431 Belgian participants participated in an online survey study. Overall, our results supported the predicted indirect effect of subjective social class: the lower the subjective social class, the higher the perceptions of relative deprivation, which in turn is related to less prosocial behaviour intentions, and more negative attitudes and emotions towards immigrants. This indirect effect was, however, not moderated by the importance of social class identity. Interestingly, the direct effects of subjective social class showed a different pattern: when bypassing deprivation our results showed higher subjective social class was detrimental for intergroup relations (more negative attitudes and emotions), and that lower subjective social class was positively related to prosocial intentions for those identifying highly with their class identity. Overall, we gained valuable insights in the relationship of subjective social class and the three features of intergroup relations.

Keywords: social class, relative deprivation-gratification, prosocial behavior, attitudes, emotions, Muslim immigrants

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Authors: Jo-Han Chang, Chung-Jung Wu

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This study involves a design proposal. The objective of is to create a seat arrangement model for public reading spaces that enable free arrangement without disturbing the users. Through a subjective perception scale, this study explored whether distance between seats and direction of seats influence individual subjective perceptions in a public reading space. This study also involves analysis of user subjective perceptions when reading in the settings on 3 seats at different directions and with 5 distances between seats. The results may be applied to public chair design. This study investigated that (a) whether different directions of seats and distances between seats influence individual subjective perceptions and (b) the acceptable personal space between 2 strangers in a public reading space. The results are shown as follows: (a) the directions of seats and distances between seats influenced individual subjective perceptions. (b) subjective evaluation scores were higher for back-to-back seat directions with Distances A (10 cm) and B (62 cm) compared with face-to-face and side-by-side seat directions; however, when the seat distance exceeded 114 cm (Distance C), no difference existed among the directions of seats. (c) regarding reading in public spaces, when the distance between seats is 10 cm only, we recommend arranging the seats in a back-to-back fashion to increase user comfort and arrangement of face-to-face and side- by-side seat directions should be avoided. When the seat arrangement is limited to face-to-face design, the distance between seats should be increased to at least 62 cm. Moreover, the distance between seats should be increased to at least 114 cm for side- by-side seats to elevate user comfort.

Keywords: individual subjective perceptions, personal space, seat arrangement, direction, distances

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Authors: Suzy Pereira, Alberto Rocha, Ana Almeida, Catarina Figueiredo, Helena Fonseca, Leonor Moreira, Carla Blum Vestena, Cristina Costa-Lobo

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The socio-educational support to parents, through parental education intervention programs, is part of European social policies, aiming to respond to the needs of education, promotion of well-being and development of children and young people. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the impact of the Positive Parenting Program on the subjective well-being of the parents of gifted children. The Positive Parenting Program is authored and is conducted by the National Association of Study and Intervention in Giftedness, Portuguese Association. The central question to be explored in this research is: Does the promotion of positive parenting in parents of gifted children have a positive impact on the subjective well-being? The sample consisted of 30 parents, non-probabilistic sampling of convenience, of which 15 parents belong to the intervention group and the rest to the control group. One dimension will be evaluated - subjective well-being, through the PANAS questionnaire - before and after the sessions of this program. The aim is to contribute to the understanding of the process and results of the positive parenting program in parents of gifted children.

Keywords: positive parenting, subjective well-being, giftedness, parental education intervention programs

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Authors: Irene Doosuur Mngutyo

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The preliminary stages in the development of human communities are the formation of a correct understanding of people’s needs. However, perception of human needs is highly subjective and difficult to aggregate. Quality of life measurements are an appropriate means for achieving an understanding of Human needs. Hence this study endeavors to measure quality of life in Makurdi using subjective indices to measure three aspects of subjective wellbeing. A sample of 400 respondents achieved by applying the Taro Yamane formula to Makurdi’s projected population. Questionnaires were randomly distributed to residents of nine wards in Makurdi. Findings from a pilot study( N=100) demonstrated that among the 2 aspects of overall quality of life investigated,22% had a mean low overall assessment of quality of life now being3on the scale and an even poorer assessment for projected quality in the next five years by 17%(3)although an equal percentage are hopeful for a better life(10)in the next five years.60% of the respondents record very rare positive feelings while only 10% have positive feelings always on the eudaimonic scale69%strongly agree that they have a purposeful and meaningful life. Findings indicate good social ties as a strong indicator for perceived good feelings and even though quality of life is perceived as low there is optimism for the future.

Keywords: quality of life, subjective indicators, development, urban planning

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Authors: Chang Li-Yu

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Purposes: The present research focuses on exploring the latent growth model of psychological capital in disadvantaged adolescents and assessing its relationship with subjective well-being. Methods: Longitudinal study design was utilized and the data was from Taiwan Database of Children and Youth in Poverty (TDCYP), using the student questionnaires from 2009, 2011, and 2013. Data analysis was conducted using both univariate and multivariate latent growth curve models. Results: This study finds that: (1) The initial state and growth rate of individual factors such as parent-child relationships, psychological capital, and subjective wellbeing in economically disadvantaged adolescents have a predictive impact; (2) There are positive interactive effects in the development among factors like parentchild relationships, psychological capital, and subjective well-being in economically disadvantaged adolescents; and (3) The initial state and growth rate of parent-child relationships and psychological capital in economically disadvantaged adolescents positively affect the initial state and growth rate of their subjective well-being. Recommendations: Based on these findings, this study concretely discusses the significance of psychological capital and family cohesion for the mental health of economically disadvantaged youth and offers suggestions for counseling, psychological therapy, and future research.

Keywords: economically disadvantaged adolescents, psychological capital, parent-child relationships, subjective well-beings

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Authors: Muhammad Rehan Usman, Muhammad Arslan Usman, Soo Young Shin

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The new era of digital communication has brought up many challenges that network operators need to overcome. The high demand of mobile data rates require improved networks, which is a challenge for the operators in terms of maintaining the quality of experience (QoE) for their consumers. In live video transmission, there is a sheer need for live surveillance of the videos in order to maintain the quality of the network. For this purpose objective algorithms are employed to monitor the quality of the videos that are transmitted over a network. In order to test these objective algorithms, subjective quality assessment of the streamed videos is required, as the human eye is the best source of perceptual assessment. In this paper we have conducted subjective evaluation of videos with varying spatial and temporal impairments. These videos were impaired with frame freezing distortions so that the impact of frame freezing on the quality of experience could be studied. We present subjective Mean Opinion Score (MOS) for these videos that can be used for fine tuning the objective algorithms for video quality assessment.

Keywords: frame freezing, mean opinion score, objective assessment, subjective evaluation

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Authors: Ahmet Karakuş, Akif Can Kilic, Emre Alptekin

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A growing number of studies have been conducted to determine how well-being may be predicted using well-designed models. It is necessary to investigate the backgrounds of features in order to construct a viable Subjective Well-Being (SWB) model. We have picked the suitable variables from the literature on SWB that are acceptable for real-world data instructions. The goal of this work is to evaluate the model by feeding it with SWB characteristics and then categorizing the stress levels using machine learning methods to see how well it performs on a real dataset. Despite the fact that it is a multiclass classification issue, we have achieved significant metric scores, which may be taken into account for a specific task.

Keywords: machine learning, multiclassification problem, subjective well-being, perceived stress scale

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Authors: Rosemary Hiscock, Clive Sabel, David Manley, Sam Wren-Lewis

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As part of the Happy City Index Project, Happy City have developed a survey instrument to measure experienced wellbeing: how people are feeling and functioning in their everyday lives. The survey instrument, called the Happiness Pulse, was developed in partnership with the New Economics Foundation (NEF) with the dual aim of collecting citywide wellbeing data and engaging individuals and communities in the measurement and promotion of their own wellbeing. The survey domains and items were selected through a review of the academic literature and a stakeholder engagement process, including local policymakers, community organisations and individuals. The Happiness Pulse was included in the Bristol pilot of the Happy City Index (n=722). The experienced wellbeing items were subjected to factor analysis. A reduced number of items to be included in a revised scale for future data collection were again entered into a factor analysis. These revised factors were tested for reliability and validity. Among items to be included in a revised scale for future data collection three factors emerged: Be, Do and Connect. The Be factor had good reliability, convergent and criterion validity. The Do factor had good discriminant validity. The Connect factor had adequate reliability and good discriminant and criterion validity. Some age, gender and socioeconomic differentiation was found. The properties of a new scale to measure experienced wellbeing, intended for use by municipal authorities, are described. Happiness Pulse data can be combined with local data on wellbeing conditions to determine what matters for peoples wellbeing across a city and why.

Keywords: city wellbeing , community wellbeing, engaging individuals and communities, measuring wellbeing and happiness

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Authors: Esther Yin-Nei Cho

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There is inconsistency among studies about whether there is an association between poverty and the subjective wellbeing of children. Some have found a positive association, though its magnitude could be limited, others have shown no association. One possible explanation for this inconsistency is that household income, an often-adopted measure of child poverty, may not accurately and stably reflect the actual life experience of children. Some studies have suggested, however, that material deprivation covering various dimensions of children’s lives could be a better measure of child poverty. Another possible explanation for the inconsistency is that the link between poverty and subjective wellbeing of children may not be that straightforward, as there could be underlying mechanisms, such as mediation and moderation, influencing its direction or strength. While a mediator refers to the mechanism through which an independent variable affects a dependent variable, a moderator changes the direction or strength of the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable. As suggested by empirical evidence, family relationships and friendships could be potential mediators or moderators of the link between poverty and subjective well-being: poverty affects relationships; relationships are an important element in children’s subjective well-being; and economic status affects child outcomes, though not necessarily subjective wellbeing, through relationships. Since the potential links have not been adequately understood, this study fills this gap by examining the possible role of family relationships and friendships as mediators or moderators between poverty (using child-derived material deprivation as measure) and the subjective wellbeing of children. Improving subjective wellbeing is increasingly considered as a policy goal. The finding of no or a limited association between poverty and subjective wellbeing of children could be a justification for less effort to improve poverty in this regard. But if the observed magnitude of that association is due to some underlying mechanisms at work, the effect of poverty may be underestimated and the potentially useful strategies that take into account both poverty and other mediators or moderators for improving children’s subjective well-being may be overlooked. Multiple mediation, and multiple moderation models, based on regression analyses, are performed to a sample of approximately 1,600 children, who are aged 10 to 15, from the wellbeing survey conducted by The Children’s Society in England from 2010 to 2011. Results show that the effect of children’s material deprivation on their subjective well-being is mediated by their family relationships and friendships. Moreover, family relationships are a significant moderator. It is found that the negative impact of child deprivation on subjective wellbeing could be exacerbated if family relationships are not going well, while good family relationships may prevent the further decline in subjective well-being. Policy implications of the findings are discussed. In particular, policy measures that focus on strengthening the family relationships or nurturing home environment through supporting household’s economic security and parental time with children could promote the subjective wellbeing of children.

Keywords: child poverty, mediation, moderation, subjective well-being of children

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Authors: Muhammad Arslan Usman, Muhammad Rehan Usman, Soo Young Shin

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Live video streaming is one of the most widely used service among end users, yet it is a big challenge for the network operators in terms of quality. The only way to provide excellent Quality of Experience (QoE) to the end users is continuous monitoring of live video streaming. For this purpose, there are several objective algorithms available that monitor the quality of the video in a live stream. Subjective tests play a very important role in fine tuning the results of objective algorithms. As human perception is considered to be the most reliable source for assessing the quality of a video stream, subjective tests are conducted in order to develop more reliable objective algorithms. Temporal impairments in a live video stream can have a negative impact on the end users. In this paper we have conducted subjective evaluation tests on a set of video sequences containing temporal impairment known as frame freezing. Frame Freezing is considered as a transmission error as well as a hardware error which can result in loss of video frames on the reception side of a transmission system. In our subjective tests, we have performed tests on videos that contain a single freezing event and also for videos that contain multiple freezing events. We have recorded our subjective test results for all the videos in order to give a comparison on the available No Reference (NR) objective algorithms. Finally, we have shown the performance of no reference algorithms used for objective evaluation of videos and suggested the algorithm that works better. The outcome of this study shows the importance of QoE and its effect on human perception. The results for the subjective evaluation can serve the purpose for validating objective algorithms.

Keywords: objective evaluation, subjective evaluation, quality of experience (QoE), video quality assessment (VQA)

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Authors: Danielle Klassen, Reiko Yeap, Margo Schmitt-Boshnick, Scott Oddie

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The development of the 7-week Alberta Happiness Basics program was initiated in 2010 in response to the need for community mental health programming. This provincial wide program aims to increase overall happiness and reduce negative thoughts and feelings through a positive psychology intervention. While the 7-week program has proven effective, a shortened 4-week program has additionally been developed to address client needs. In this study, participants were interviewed to determine if the 4- and 7-week programs had similar success of producing lasting behavior change at 3, 6, and 9 months post-program. A health quality of life (HQOL) measure was also used to compare the two programs and examine patient outcomes. Quantitative and qualitative analysis showed significant improvements in HQOL and sustainable behavior change for both programs. Findings indicate that the shorter, patient-centered program was effective in increasing happiness and reducing negative thoughts and feelings.

Keywords: primary care, mental health, depression, short duration

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Authors: Agata M. Kołodziejczyk, Mateusz Harasymczuk, Pierre-Yves Girardin, Lucie Davidová

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Subjective time perception implies connection to cognitive functions, attention, memory and awareness, but a little is known about connections with homeostatic states of the body coordinated by circadian clock. In this paper, we present results from experimental study of subjective time perception in volunteers performing physical activity on treadmill in various phases of their circadian rhythms. Subjects were exposed to several time illusions simulated by programmed timing systems. This study brings better understanding for further improvement of of work quality in isolated areas. 

Keywords: biological clock, light, time illusions, treadmill

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Authors: Rachelle Angeli Maranon

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This research explored the relationships of a child’s family condition, sex and subjective well-being (SWB) to gain some understanding of the experiences of both transnational and non-transnational families. A descriptive-correlational design was used to study the variables. Participants included 52 male and female children from Iloilo and Kabankalan cities, representing the family conditions in this study. Data were gathered using a semi-structured interview guide. Responses were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U Test. The results showed that the SWB of non-transnational children was significantly higher compared to their transnational counterparts (U = 134, p = .00). Also, analysis between females and males indicated a significant difference only on some aspects (U = 318, p = .71). Some recommendations were suggested to better understand the plight of the left-behind children.

Keywords: left-behind children, mothers, subjective well-being, transnational families

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Authors: Maria Luskova, Maria Hudakova, Katarina Buganova

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Established objective and subjective preconditions for entrepreneurship, forming the business organically related whole, are the necessary condition of successful entrepreneurial activities. Objective preconditions for entrepreneurship are developed by the market economy that should stimulate entrepreneurship by allowing the use of economic opportunities for all those who want to do business in respective field while providing guarantees to all owners and creating a stable business environment for entrepreneurs. Subjective preconditions of entrepreneurship are formed primarily by personal characteristics of the entrepreneur. These are his properties, abilities, skills, physiological, and psychological preconditions which may be inherited, inborn or sequentially developed and obtained during his life on the basis of education and influences of surrounding environment. The paper is dealing with issues of objective and subjective preconditions for entrepreneurship and provides their analysis in view of the current situation in Slovakia. It presents risks of the business environment in Slovakia that the Slovak managers considered the most significant in 2014 and defines the dominant attributes of the entrepreneur in the current business environment in Slovakia.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, innovations, opportunity, risk, uncertainty

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Authors: Grace Baptie, Jackie Andrade, Alison Bacon, Alyson Norman

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Background: Many women experience their childbirth as traumatic, and 4-6% of mothers present with postnatal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of their birth. Aims: To measure the relationship between obstetric and subjective experience of childbirth on mothers’ experience of postnatal trauma and identify salient aspects of the birth experience considered traumatic. Methods: Women who had given birth within the last year completed an online mixed-methods survey reporting on their subjective and obstetric birth experience as well as symptoms of postnatal trauma, depression and anxiety. Findings: 29% of mothers experienced their labour as traumatic and 15% met full or partial criteria for PTSD. Feeling supported and in control mediated the relationship between obstetric intervention and postnatal trauma symptoms. Five key themes were identified from the qualitative data regarding aspects of the birth considered traumatic including: obstetric complications; lack of control; concern for baby; psychological trauma and lack of support. Conclusion: Subjective birth experience is a significantly stronger predictor of postnatal trauma than level of medical intervention, the psychological consequences of which can be buffered by an increased level of support and control.

Keywords: birth trauma, perinatal mental health, postnatal PTSD, subjective experience

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Authors: Adilla Anggraeni

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The purpose of the paper is to investigate the effects of religiosity and subjective knowledge towards initial trust that a consumer has towards a product manufacturer. Since globalization enters the point of no return, it should be acknowledged that further exploration of country of origin image, its influences and possible limiting factors is imperative. This model aims to broaden COO-related research, especially related to different product categories based on the perception of consumers in emerging markets. The study employs quantitative method, aiming to involve 200 Indonesian respondents to evaluate different product categories (food/apparel). Relationships between variables are evaluated using structural equation modeling. It is expected that subjective knowledge will have significant influence towards initial trust that an individual possesses towards food products. A major contribution of this study will be the inclusion of religiosity and subjective knowledge in the country of origin study’s body of knowledge. Companies are also expected to benefit from the study as the acceleration of globalization may again repose the question of whether companies should market their product using similar strategies across different countries or different ones. Religiosity dimension is expected to add values to international marketing literature concerning emerging economies in particular, as many companies view the emerging economies as promising markets.

Keywords: country of origin, subjective knowledge, initial trust, emerging economy, Indonesia

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Authors: Mamoona Mushtaq, Komal Meher

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The COVID-19 pandemic, a global public health crisis, has triggered anxiety and fear of death in the public, particularly among health professionals. This study aimed to assess the direct and mediated associations between death anxiety, sleep quality, and subjective well-being in doctors working during the pandemic. Another aim was tested to analyze the interactive role of workplace locality in these associations. An indirect-effect model was tested on a sample of 244 doctors working during the pandemic. Findings revealed that the association between death anxiety and subjective well-being was mediated through depression. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Keywords: death anxiety, depression, subjective well-being, working locality

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Authors: Eszter Siposne Nandori

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The paper describes how the subjective interpretation of poverty changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of data collection at the end of 2020 are compared to the results of a similar survey from 2019. The methods of systematic data collection are used to collect data about the beliefs of the population about poverty. The analysis is carried out in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, one of the most backward areas in Hungary. The paper concludes that poverty is mainly linked to material values, and it did not change from 2019 to 2020. Some slight changes, however, highlight the effect of the pandemic: poverty is increasingly seen as a generational problem in 2020, and another important change is that isolation became more closely related to poverty.

Keywords: Hungary, interpretation of poverty, pandemic, systematic data collection, subjective poverty

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Authors: Atefeh Bagherianziarat, Dana Hamplova

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The inverse social gradient in life satisfaction (LS) is a well-established research finding. To estimate the influence of inequality on LS, most of the studies have explored the effect of the objective aspects of inequality or individuals’ socioeconomic status (SES). However, relatively fewer studies have confirmed recently the significant effect of the subjective aspect of inequality or subjective socioeconomic status (SSS) on life satisfaction over and above SES. In other words, it is confirmed by some studies that individuals’ perception of their unequal status in society or SSS can moderate the impact of their absolute unequal status on their life satisfaction. Nevertheless, this newly confirmed moderating link has not been affirmed to work likewise in societies with different levels of social inequality and also for people who believe in the value of equality, at different levels. In this study, we compared the moderative influence of subjective inequality on the link between objective inequality and life satisfaction. In particular, we focus on differences across welfare state regimes based on Esping-Andersen's theory. Also, we explored the moderative role of believing in the value of equality on the link between objective and subjective inequality on LS in the given societies. Since our studied variables were measured at both individual and country levels, we applied a multilevel analysis to the European Social Survey data (round 9). The results showed that people in deferent regimes reported statistically meaningful different levels of life satisfaction that is explained to different extends by their household income and their perception of their income inequality. The findings of the study supported the previous findings of the moderator influence of perceived inequality on the link between objective inequality and LS. However, this link is different in various welfare state regimes. The results of the multilevel modeling showed that country-level subjective equality is a positive predictor for individuals’ life satisfaction, while the GINI coefficient that was considered as the indicator of absolute inequality has a smaller effect on life satisfaction. Also, country-level subjective equality moderates the confirmed link between individuals’ income and their life satisfaction. It can be concluded that both individual and country-level subjective inequality slightly moderate the effect of individuals’ income on their life satisfaction.

Keywords: individual values, life satisfaction, multilevel analysis, objective inequality, subjective inequality, welfare regimes status

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Authors: Chiahsu Yang, Peiling Wu, Ted Ho

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From emphasizing economic development to stressing public happiness, the international community mainly hopes to be able to understand whether the quality of life for the public is becoming better. The Better Life Index (BLI) constructed by OECD uses living conditions and quality of life as starting points to cover 11 areas of life and to convey the state of the general public’s well-being. In light of the BLI framework, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) of the Executive Yuan instituted the Gross National Happiness Index to understand the needs of the general public and to measure the progress of the aforementioned conditions in residents across the island. Whereas living conditions consist of income and wealth, jobs and earnings, and housing conditions, health status, work and life balance, education and skills, social connections, civic engagement and governance, environmental quality, personal security. The ICT area consists of health care, living environment, ICT-enabled communication, transportation, government, education, pleasure, purchasing, job & employment. In the wake of further science and technology development, rapid formation of information societies, and closer integration between lifestyles and information societies, the public’s well-being within information societies has indeed become a noteworthy topic. the Board of Science and Technology of the Executive Yuan use the OECD’s BLI as a reference in the establishment of the Taiwan-specific ICT-Enabled Better Life Index. Using this index, the government plans to examine whether the public’s quality of life is improving as well as measure the public’s satisfaction with current digital quality of life. This understanding will enable the government to gauge the degree of influence and impact that each dimension of digital services has on digital life happiness while also serving as an important reference for promoting digital service development. The content of the ICT Enabled Better Life Index. Information and communications technology (ICT) has been affecting people’s living styles, and further impact people’s quality of life (QoL). Even studies have shown that ICT access and usage have both positive and negative impact on life satisfaction and well-beings, many governments continue to invest in e-government programs to initiate their path to information society. This research is the few attempts to link the e-government benchmark to the subjective well-being perception, and further address the gap between user’s perception and existing hard data assessment, then propose a model to trace measurement results back to the original public policy in order for policy makers to justify their future proposals.

Keywords: information and communications technology, quality of life, satisfaction, well-being

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Authors: Jiaqi Zhang, Zhi Dong, Pan Xing

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With the continuous development of urban agglomerations, higher demands are placed on intercity public transport travel services. To improve these services, it is necessary to comprehensively understand the views and evaluations of travelers. Taking the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration in China as the object, this study explores subjective attitude indicators from self-administrated survey data and examines the relationship among perceived accessibility, preference, and satisfaction for intercity public transport using a structural equation model. The results show that perceived service quality has a direct positive impact on perceived accessibility and satisfaction. Perceived accessibility and preference significantly affect satisfaction. In addition, perceived accessibility mediates the effect of service quality on satisfaction. This study provides valuable insights from a policy perspective to improve the subjective evaluation of intercity public transport travelers while emphasizing the importance of subjective variables in transport system evaluation and advocates for their subdivision to more comprehensively improve the travel experience.

Keywords: intercity public transport, perceived accessibility, satisfaction, structural equation model

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Authors: A. Llopis Alvarez, D. Muller-Eie

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Participatory GIS (geographic information systems) are designed for community mapping exercises in order to produce spatial representations of local knowledge. Ideally, participatory GIS caters to public participation through the use of spatial data in order to increase community-led policy-and decision-making. Having defined a spatial object, such as a neighborhood, subjective mapping involves attaining a description of the spatial, physical, social and psychological characteristics of that spatial object. This paper highlights an emerging appreciation of the subjective component, particularly in spatial analyses. The beliefs, feelings, and behaviors associated with an urban area reflect its sense of place for an individual or a group. It is important therefore to understand what types of beliefs, emotions, and behavioral patterns are relevant to particular resident, groups and urban scales. In this sense, resident’s emotional attachment to their urban areas motivates civic engagement and facilitates awareness of its strengths and its problems. Similarly, subjective perceptions act in complex ways to influence the formation and maintenance of social identity and quality of life. This paper reports on findings from a case study of immigrant population in Norwegian cities, their residential conditions and their relationship to quality of urban life. Cognitive mapping methodologies are used in this study to understand local perceptions of urban qualities. Thus, measures to alleviate disadvantages and improve quality of urban life are more likely to be effective when they are informed by an understanding of a place as constructed by those who live in it, meaning their subjective perceptions about it.

Keywords: mapping methodologies, participatory GIS, perceptual maps, public participation, spatial analysis, subjective perceptions

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Authors: Yuan Zhang, Xin Fu, Yixin Tan

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Gender role conflict is a key factor influencing the mental health condition of adolescents. It has a strong connection with the noticeably growing mental health crisis of high school students. This study elucidates the relationship between gender role conflict and reports of subjective well-being of teenagers through mixed-methods empirical research based on surveys conducted in two Chinese cities, namely Shenzhen and Yuxi. These two cities are from two provinces of very distinct economic and cultural backgrounds. We believe a comparison between the two cities reveals the unequally distributed social conditions in China. We found that teenagers who possess a higher degree of gender role conflict tend to exhibit more negative emotions and that this relationship is conditioned upon other important factors such as gender, only child status, and socio-economic factors. Furthermore, we discovered that the social environment that is more progressive and open to various gender roles is correlated with higher levels of subjective well-being of teenagers in Shenzhen and Yunnan.

Keywords: gender role conflict, mental health conditions, subjective well-being, social environment

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Authors: Kaili C. Zhang

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Mental well-being is an integral part of university students’ overall well-being and has been a matter of increasing concern in the UK. This study addressed the impact of university experience on students by investigating the changes students experience in their beliefs, lifestyles, and well-being during their first year of study, as well as the factors contributing to such changes. Using a longitudinal two-wave mixed method design, this project identified importantfactors that contribute to or inhibit these changes. Implications for universities across the UK are discussed.

Keywords: subjective well-being, beliefs, lifestyles, university students

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Authors: Supannee Chaiumporn

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This article is to introduce the meaning and form of social quality moving process as indicated by members of two suburb communities with different social and cultural contexts. The form of social quality moving process is very significant for the community and social development, because it will make the people living together with sustainable happiness. This is a qualitative study involving 30 key-informants from two suburb communities. Data were collected though key-informant interviews, and analyzed using logical content description and descriptive statistics. This research found that on the social quality component, the people in both communities stressed the procedure for social quality-making. This includes the generousness, sharing and assisting among people in the communities. These practices helped making people to live together with sustainable happiness. Living as a family or appear to be a family is the major social characteristic of these two communities. This research also found that form of social quality’s moving process of both communities stress relation of human and nature; “nature overpower humans” paradigm and influence of religious doctrine that emphasizes relations among humans. Both criteria make the form of social’s moving process simple, adaptive to nature and caring for opinion sharing and understanding among each other before action. This form of social quality’s moving process is composed of 4 steps; (1) awareness building, (2) motivation to change, (3) participation from every party concerned (4) self-reliance.

Keywords: social quality, form of social quality moving process, happiness, different social and cultural context

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Authors: M. J. Zuroni, O. Syuhaily, M. A. Afida Mastura, M. S. Roslina, A. K. Nurul Aini

Abstract:

The impact of country development has caused an increase of solid waste. The increase in population causes of excess usage thus effecting the sustainable environment. Zero waste management involves maximizing practices of recycling and minimizing residual waste. This paper seeks to analyze the relationship between knowledge, attitude, perceived behavior control, subjective norm and behavior of household solid waste towards household solid waste management among urban households in 8 states that have been implemented and enforced regulations under the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act 2007 (Act 672) in Malaysia. A total of respondents are 605 and we used a purposive sampling for location and simple sampling for sample size. Data collected by using self-administered questionnaire and were analyzed using SPSS software. The Pearson Correlation Test is to examine the relationship between four variables. Results show that knowledge scores are high because they have an awareness of the importance of managing solid waste. For attitude, perceived behavior control, subjective norm and behavioral scores at a moderate level in solid waste management activities. The findings show that there is a significant relationship between knowledge and behavior of household solid waste (r = 0.136 **, p = 0.001), there is a significant relationship between attitude and behavior (r = 0.238 **, p = 0.000), there is a significant relationship between perceived behavior control and behavior (r = 0.516 **, p = 0.000) and there is a significant relationship between subjective norm and behavior (r = 0.494 **, p = 0.000). The conclusion is that there is a relationship between knowledge, attitude, perceived behavior control and subjective norm toward the behavior of household solid waste management. Therefore, in the findings of the study, all parties including the government should work together to enhance the knowledge, attitude, perceived behavior control and behavior of household solid waste management in other states that have not implemented and enforced regulations under the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 (Act 672).

Keywords: solid waste management, knowledge, attitude, perceived behavior control, subjective norm, behavior

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Authors: Anggi Permana, Zahrah Nabila Putri, Anisa Dwi Arifani, Veany Aprillia

Abstract:

This research aims to evaluate the validity of Zimbardo’s Stanford Time Perspective Inventory (STPI) in Indonesian context. The model of validity used in this study is the criterion-based validity, in which the associated variables are depression and subjective well-being (SWB). BDI (Beck Depression Inventory) was used to measure depression, while PANAS (Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale) and SWLS (Satisfaction with Life Scale) were used to measure subjective well-being. The analysis showed that STPI variables are closely related to STPI Dimension, Present Hedonistic showed pro validity to SWB, Future indicated contra validity to SWB, and Present Fatalistic revealed contra validity to depression and pro validity to SWB. The subjects of this research are from the same university.

Keywords: BDI, PANAS, STPI, subjective well-being, SWLS

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Authors: Ladda Thiamwong, Renata Komalasari

Abstract:

Falls are the leading cause of disability and hospitalization in low-income older adults. Fear of falling is present in 20% to 85 % of older adults and has been identified as an independent risk factor of fall risk, activity restriction, and loss of independence. About 12% of American older adults have subjective cognitive decline. Cognitive impairment is also an established factor of fall risk. However, it is unclear whether measures of fear of falling and subjective cognitive decline have the greatest association with fall risk in low-income older adults. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between fear of falling, subjective cognitive decline-functional performance (SCD-FP), and fall risk using simple screening tools. In this cross-section study, we collected data from community-dwelling older adults 60 years or older in low-income settings in Central Florida, and 86 participants were included in the data analysis. Fear of falling was assessed by the Short Fall Efficacy Scale- International (Short FES-I) with seven items. Subjective cognitive decline-functional performance (SCD-FP) was assessed by a self-reported experience of worsening or more frequent confusion or memory loss in the past 12 months and its functional implications. Fall risk was evaluated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Stay Independent checklist with 12 items. The majority of participants were female, and more than half of the participants were African American. More than half of the participants had a higher school degree or higher, and less than 20% had no financial problems. Less than 30% of the participants perceived their general health as very good- excellent. More than half of the participants lived alone, and less than 15% lived with a partner or spouse. About 60% of the participants had hypertension, 40% had diabetes, 16% had cancer, and 50% had arthritis. About 30% of the participants had difficulty walking up ten steps without resting, more than 40% felt unsteady when walking, and 30% had been advised to use a cane or walker to get around safely. Regression analysis showed that fall risk was associated with fear of falling ( = .524, p <.001) and subjective cognitive decline-functional performance ( = .465, p =.027). The structure coefficient showed that fear of falling (rs2 = .922) was a stronger predictor of fall risk than subjective cognitive decline-functional performance (rs2= .200). Fear of falling and subjective cognitive decline-functional performance are growing public health issues, and addressing those issues is a public priority. Proactive screening for fear of falling and subjective cognitive decline-functional performance is critical in fall prevention. A combination of all three self-reported tools (Short FES-I, SCD-FP, and CDC's Stay Independent checklist) takes less than 5 minutes to complete. Primary care providers or public health professionals should consider including these tools to screen fear of falling and subjective cognitive decline-functional performance as part of fall risk assessment, especially in low-income settings. Thus, encouraging older adults and healthcare professionals to discuss fear of falling, subjective cognitive decline, and fall risk during routine medical office visits.

Keywords: falls, fall risk, fear of falling, cognition, subjective cognitive decline, low-income, older adults, community, screening, nursing, primary care

Procedia PDF Downloads 38