Change in the quality of life in different countries of the world: Assessment on the EQLS database
-
DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.21(3).2023.44
-
Article InfoVolume 21 2023, Issue #3, pp. 558-572
- 250 Views
-
91 Downloads
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
The European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) is a tool that assesses quality of life across different aspects. Monitoring the quality-of-life indicators in times of crisis and post-crisis is crucial for human resource management as the quality-of-life indicators provide valuable insights into the well-being and needs of employees. The study aimed to examine the impact of social and economic changes on the selected quality of life areas of the EU population by analyzing data from the ESQL of 2016 and 2020. It was found that the average EU life satisfaction score went down. In 2020, the EU optimism average dropped when compared to 2016. According to 2020 survey data, EU citizens found coping with life’s challenges harder than in 2016. The EU average regarding the difficulty of dealing with essential issues in life increased by 1.5% in 2020 compared to 2016. The time needed to get back to normality after some mishaps was also investigated. The EU average regarding subjective feelings of tension rose by 7.4%. In comparison to 2016, depression and downheartedness grew stronger across the EU nations and the EU average in 2020. The average value increased by 6.8%. The changes may provide insights into the effects of social and economic trends on people’s well-being across Europe.
Acknowledgment
The paper is written under the project Multiplier effects of human capital quality on economic performance and competitiveness of the Slovak economy and supported by the Grant Agency VEGA of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic [No. 1/0357/21].
- Keywords
-
JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)H12, I30, I31
-
References60
-
Tables6
-
Figures6
-
- Figure 1. How satisfied are you with your life these days?
- Figure 2. Optimism about own future
- Figure 3. I find it difficult to deal with important problems that come up in my life
- Figure 4. When things go wrong in my life, it generally takes me a long time to get back to normal
- Figure 5. I have felt particularly tense
- Figure 6. I have felt downhearted and depressed
-
- Table 1. How satisfied are you with your life these days?
- Table 2. Optimism about one’s own future
- Table 3. I find it difficult to deal with important problems that come up in my life
- Table 4. When things go wrong in my life, it generally takes me a long time to get back to normal
- Table 5. I have felt particularly tense
- Table 6. I have felt downhearted and depressed
-
- Ahrendt, D., Anderson, R., Dubois, H., Jungblut, J-M., Leončikas, T., Sándor, E., & Pöntinen, L. (2018). European quality of life survey 2016. Publications Office of the European Union.
- Ahrendt, D., Cabrita, J., Clerici, E., Hurley, J., Leončikas, T., Mascherini, M., Riso, S., & Sándor, E. (2020). Living, working and COVID-19. Publications Office of the European Union.
- Ana-Maria, V. (2015). Satisfaction of participants in physical activity programs as an indicator of quality of life. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 150, 1434-1438.
- Andraško, I. (2016). Kvalita života v mestách. Východiská, prístupy, poznatky [Quality of life in cities. Starting points, approaches, knowledge]. Masarykova Univerzita. (In Slovak).
- Banerjee, B., & Kundu, A. (2020). Subjective well-being of the informal workers: An empirical study from Hooghly district of West Bengal, India. International Journal of Happiness and Development, 6(1), 1-25.
- Boehm, J. K., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2012). The heart’s content: The association between positive psychological well-being and cardiovascular health. Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 655-691.
- Burlan, S., Katkova, N., & Marushchak, S. (2021). Otsiniuvannia vzaiemozviazkiv mizh rivnem zhyttia naselennia, sotsialno-ekonomichnymy i demohrafichnymy protsesamy v ukraini [Evaluation of the correlation between the living standards level, socio-economic and demographic processes in Ukraine]. Financial and Credit Activity Problems of Theory and Practice, 2(37), 482-492. (In Ukrainian).
- Burns, R. A. (2020). Age-related differences in the factor structure of multiple well-being indicators in a large multinational European survey. Journal of Happiness Studies, 21(1), 37-52.
- Burns, R. A., & Crisp, D. A. (2022). Prioritizing happiness has important implications for mental health, but perhaps only if you already are happy. Applied Research Quality Life, 17(1), 375-390.
- Carey, B. (2021, March 12). Why older people managed to stay happier through the pandemic. The New York Times.
- Carstensen, L., Shavit, Y., & Barnes, J. (2020). Age advantages in emotional experience persist even under threat from the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological Science, 31(11), 1374-1385.
- Carver, Ch. S., Scheier, M. F., & Segerstrom, S. C. (2010). Optimism. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 879-889.
- Chan, S. M., Chung, G. K. K., Chan, Y. H., Woo, J., Yeoh, E. K., Chung, R. Y-T., Wong, S. Y-S., Marmot, M., Lee, R. W-T., & Wong, H. (2023). The mediating role of individual-level social capital among worries, mental health and subjective well-being among adults in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic. Current Psychology, 42, 10260-10270.
- Daukantaité, D., & Žukauskiené, R. (2012). Optimism and subjective well-being: Affectivity plays a secondary role in the relationship between optimism and global life satisfaction in the middle-aged women. Longitudinal and cross-cultural findings. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(1), 1-16.
- Determann, M. M. (2007). Analyses of quality of life: Quality management or illusion? Zentralblatt für Chirurgie, 133(1), 31-34.
- Diener, E., Emmons, R.A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.
- Dunn, H. L. (1959). High-level wellness for man and society. American Journal of Public Health, 49(6), 786-792.
- Easterlin, R. (2001). Income and Happiness: Towards a Unified Theory. Economic Journal, 111, 465-484.
- Hagerty, M.R., Cummins, R., Ferriss, A.L., Land, K., Michalos, A.C., Peterson, M., Sharpe, A., Sirgy, J., & Vogel, J. (2001). Quality of Life Indexes for National Policy: Review and Agenda for Research. Bulletin of Sociological Methodology/Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique, 71(1), 58-78.
- Helliwell, J. F., Layard, R., Sachs, J. D., & De Neve, J.-E. (2021). World happiness report 2021. New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
- Hnilicová, H. (2005). Kvalita života a její význam pro medicínu a zdravotnictví [Quality of life and its importance for medicine and healthcare]. Triton. (In Slovak).
- Islam, K. M. A., Islam, S., Karim, M. M., Haque, M. S., & Sultana, T. (2023). Relationship between e-service quality dimensions and online banking customer satisfaction. Banks and Bank Systems, 18(1), 174-183.
- Jaskeviciute, V., Stankeviciene, A., Diskiene, D., & Savicke, J. (2021). The relationship between employee well-being and organizational trust in the context of sustainable human resource management. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 19(2), 118-131.
- Joshanloo, M, Sirgy, M. J., & Park, J. (2018). Directionality of the relationship between social well-being and subjective well-being: Evidence from a 20-year longitudinal study. Quality of Life Research, 27(8), 2137-2145.
- Joshanloo, M., Park, Y. O., & Park, S. H. (2017). Optimism as the moderator of the relationship between fragility of happiness beliefs and experienced happiness. Personality and Individual Differences, 106, 61-63.
- Kokkinos, C. M., Tsouloupas, C. N., & Voulgaridou, I. (2021). General mental health and subjective well-being among university students: The moderating role of personal cultural orientations. Human Arenas.
- Laluha, I., Ošková, S., & Stanek, V. (2005). Kvalita života, sociálne nerovnosti a diferenciácia obyvateľstva [Quality of life, social inequalities and population differentiation]. Sociológia – Slovak Sociological Review, 37(2), 119-142. (In Slovak).
- Layard, R. (2007). Happiness and the teaching of values. Centrepiece, 12(1), 18-23.
- Li, X., & Yang, H. (2023). Place-bound memory and people-bound memory affecting destination loyalty in the food tourism industry. Innovative Marketing, 19(2), 1-16.
- Margolis, S., Schwitzgebel, E., Ozer, D. J., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2019). A new measure of life satisfaction: The riverside life satisfaction scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 101(6), 621-630.
- Marsh, H. W., Huppert, F. A., Donald, J. N., Horwood, M. S., & Sahdra, B. K. (2020). The well-being profile (WB-Pro): Creating a theoretically based multidimensional measure of well-being to advance theory, research, policy, and practice. Psychological Assessment, 32(3), 294-313.
- Masárová, J., Koišová, E., & Habánik, J. (2022). Assessment of the evolution of the educational attainment in economically active population in the regions of the Slovak Republic. Economics & Sociology, 15(3).
- Masárová, T., & Živčicová, E. (2012). Meranie kvality života [Measuring quality of life]. Georg. (In Slovak).
- Melnyk, L., Matsenko, O., Kubatko, O., Korneyev, M., & Tulyakov, O. (2022). Additive economy and new horizons of innovative business development. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 20(2), 175-185.
- Moroz, S., Moroz, V., Kalagin, Y., Grygoryeva, S., Sutula, O., Kozlova, O., & Moroz, O. (2022). The dependency of an individual’s and state well-being on higher education quality: Analysis of Ukrainian students’ and employers’ opinion. Financial and Credit Activity Problems of Theory and Practice, 5(46), 283-299.
- Nguyen, H. N. (2021). Burnout, inter-role conflicts, and job performance among bankers who have children during social isolation. Banks and Bank Systems, 16(4), 137-148.
- Pacione, M. (2003). Urban environmental quality and human well-being – A social geographical perspective. Landscape and Urban Planning, 65(1-2), 19-30.
- Pukeliene, V., & Starkauskiene, V. (2011). Quality of life: Factors determining its measurement complexity. Engineering Economics, 22(2), 147-156.
- Pukeliene, V., & Starkauskiene, V. (2015). Assessment of changes in the quality of life of emerging economies in the context of developed economies of the European Union. Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, 6(2), 103-120.
- Rao, S., & Ramesh, N. (2015). Depression, anxiety and stress levels in industrial workers: A pilot study in Bangalore, India. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 24(1), 23-28.
- Ruzevicius, J., & Akranaviciute, D. (2007). Quality of life and its components’ measurement. Engineering Economics, 2, 43-48.
- Ruzevicius, J., & Valiukaite, J. (2017). Quality of life and quality of work life balance: Case study of public and private sectors of Lithuania. Calitatea: Acces la success, 18(157), 77-81.
- Sang, N. M. (2021). Financial well-being of Vietnamese students. Investment Management and Financial Innovations, 18(4), 355-365.
- Sanli, E., Celik, S. B., & Gencoglu, C. (2019). Validity and reliability of the authentic happiness scale. Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 22(1), 5-20.
- Senasu, K., & Singhapakdi, A. (2018). Quality-of-life determinants of happiness in Thailand: The moderating roles of mental and moral capacities. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 13(1), 59-87.
- Shankar, N., Vinod, S., & Kamath, R. (2022). Financial well-being – A Generation Z perspective using a structural equation modeling approach. Investment Management and Financial Innovations, 19(1), 32-50.
- Tay, S. (2013). Subjective well-being in Greater China: Broadening the framing of citizen well-being in public policy. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, 35(1), 71-92.
- Teo, T. C., & Divakar, A. (2022). Voluntourism inspiring change in service of the common good: The mediating role of volunteer travelers. Tourism and Travelling, 4(1), 16-29.
- The Economist. (2021, March 20). The pandemic has changed the shape of global happiness.
- Touburg, G., & Veenhoven, R. (2015). Mental health care and average happiness: Strong effect in developed nations. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(4), 394-404.
- Tulsa SEED Study. (2020, August 18). Parents, teachers, and distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: A snapshot from Tulsa, OK.
- Veenhoven, R. (2009). Is there a conflict between individual and society? Social Indicators Research, 91, 5-21,
- Wang, Y., & Peng, J. (2017). Work-family conflict and depression in Chinese professional women: The mediating roles of job satisfaction and life satisfaction. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 15, 394-406.
- WHO Quality of Life Assessment Group. (1996). What quality of life? World Health Forum, 17(4), 354-356.
- Wong, W. L. L., & Yuen, C. K. J. (2023). Associations between fragility of happiness beliefs and subjective well-being among Chinese: Inconsistent mediation by valuing happiness. Current Psychology, 42, 15564-15574.
- Yardley, J. K., & Rice, R. W. (1991). The relationship between mood and subjective well-being. Social Indicators Research, 24(1), 101-111.
- Yevdokimov, Y., Melnyk, V., Melnyk, L., & Dehtyarova, I. (2022). Socio-economic innovations in systems analysis: Environmental and economic aspects. International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 25(1-2), 134-153.
- Yıldırım, M., & Özaslan, A. (2022). Worry, severity, controllability, and preventive behaviours of COVID-19 and their associations with mental health of Turkish healthcare workers working at a pandemic hospital. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 20, 2306-2320.
- Yoo, J., You, S., & Lee, J. (2022). Relationship between neuroticism, spiritual well-being, and subjective well-being in Korean university students. Religions, 13(6), 505.
- Živčicová, E., Bulková, K., & Masárová, T. (2017). Comparison of the selected indicators of work life balance in European Union countries. Economic & Sociology, 10(1).