Browsing by Subject "European Social Survey"
Now showing items 1-8 of 8
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(2018)Happiness varies with age, but there is no general agreement regarding the feature of the variation. Many studies have found that it is U-shaped such that there is a minimum between approximately 40 and 50 years of age. The result largely depends on the control variables used in the happiness modeling. Some authors do not even allow the use of any control variables, but the conventional theory of U-shaped studies stipulates the inclusion of such controls that essentially influence the basic living conditions of people. In this study, we do not strictly follow earlier findings but estimate our age-shape with different versions of them, using the data of 28 or 30 European countries. We also estimate a model without proper controls. This does not give any minimum age and thus supports some studies. Moreover, using any or all of our three controls some type of U-shape is found in most countries. Our U-shapes are not as simple as conventional research suggests. Minimum happiness can occur either below 40 years, or much above 50 years. A special feature is that the U-shape phenomenon holds better for males than for females. We also estimated models to see what happens after the minimum age happiness. In the case of gender models, the turning points for males are substantially lower than for females. This means that the old-age happiness of males stops to increase approximately at 70 years but more than 10 years later for females.
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(2021)Popular consent is an essential element for success and stability of democracies. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that “electoral winners” (i.e. voters casting a ballot for government parties) are more satisfied with democracy than supporters of the opposition parties. However, little is known about the dynamics of satisfaction during the electoral cycle: Do winners become happier and losers even more discontent over time? We approach this question by utilizing an interview date in the European Social Survey (rounds 1–8) to position individuals within the different stages of electoral cycle. The results based on 199,207 responses from 199 surveys in 31 countries suggest that satisfaction with democracy stays relatively stable during the electoral cycle across various electoral systems if the political development is predictable. However, if actions of the parties are uncertain, namely the alternations of governments tend to be frequent, partial, and opened to all parties, and hence neither winners nor losers know how steady their status is with respect to the political development in the country, their satisfaction tend to fluctuate over time. Therefore, the conclusion reached is the more stable West European democracies have limited generalizability to the low-predictable systems in Central and Eastern Europe.
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(2023)This study examined the measurement invariance of the positive and negative affect scales in the European Social Survey (ESS) in 2006 and 2012. We employed Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis with an estimator for ordinal data, allowing us to test threshold invariance, which had not been previously investigated for these scales. A 3-item measure of Positive Affect and a 5-item measure of Negative Affect showed that configural, threshold and metric (loading) and partial scalar (intercept) invariance held across almost all countries and between the two ESS Rounds. Our results provide cross-cultural validity to a broader measure of negative affect than past research using the ESS and examine these scales across more countries than any past study. Besides providing valuable insights for researchers interested in well-being and the ESS, our study also contributes to the ongoing discussion about diverging analytical choices in invariance testing.
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(Helsingin yliopisto, 2021)Tutkimus käsittelee Schwartzin arvoteorian mukaisten konservatiivisten perusarvojen ja tyytyväisyyden demokratian toimivuuteen välistä yhteyttä Suomessa. Lisäksi tutkitaan mikä rooli tässä yhteydessä on kahdella poliittisella arvolla, EU-kielteisyydellä ja maahanmuuttokielteisyydellä. Tyytyväisyys demokratian toimivuuteen on keskeinen mittari demokraattisen järjestelmän toiminnalle, ja Schwartzin arvoteoria vakiintunut tapa mitata ihmisten perusarvoja. Aineistona on European Social Surveyn kyselyaineisto, joka kerättiin Suomen osalta aikavälillä 9/2018–2/2019 (N=1755). Tilastomallina on lineaarinen regressio, jossa selitettävä muuttuja on kysymys: kuinka tyytyväinen olet siihen, kuinka demokratia toimii Suomessa? Selittävät muuttujat ovat Schwartzin arvoteorian kolme konservatiivista arvoa (turvallisuus, yhdenmukaisuus, perinteet), EU-kielteisyys (summamuuttuja), maahanmuuttokielteisyys (summamuuttuja), sekä taustamuuttujat ikä, sukupuoli ja koulutus vuosissa. Keskeisin tulos on, että konservatiivisista arvoista yhdenmukaisuus lisää tyytyväisyyttä demokratian toimivuuteen ja perinteet laskee tyytyväisyyttä. Kuitenkaan perinteet ei ole tilastollisesti merkitsevä, kun malliin lisätään poliittiset arvot EU-kielteisyys ja maahanmuuttokielteisyys, jotka molemmat laskevat tyytyväisyyttä demokratian toimivuuteen. Näyttää siltä, että erityisillä politiikkakysymyksillä koskien Euroopan unionia ja maahanmuuttoa voidaan selittää enemmän demokratiatyytyväisyydestä kuin Schwartzin konservatiivisilla arvoilla. Suomessa vaikuttaa olevan demokratiaan tyytymättömien joukko, joka ei määrity konservatiivisilla perusarvoilla, vaan politiikkakysymysten kautta määrittyvän kansalliskonservatiivisuuden kautta.
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Life Conditions as Mediators of Welfare State Effect on Mental Wellbeing among Oldest Old in Europe (2022)Background: Mental wellbeing is formed by our daily environments, which are, in turn, influenced by public policies, such as the welfare state. This paper looks at how different aspects of life conditions may mediate the welfare state effect on mental wellbeing in oldest old age. Methods: Data were extracted from Round 6 of the European Social Survey (2012). The dataset comprised of 2058 people aged 80 years and older from 24 countries. Mediation analyses determined possible links between the welfare state, including eleven intervening variables representing life conditions and five mental wellbeing dimensions. Results: Our study confirms that the higher the level of welfare state, the better mental wellbeing, irrespective of dimension. Although several life conditions were found to mediate the welfare state effect on mental wellbeing, subjective general health, coping with income and place in society were the most important intervening variables. Conclusions: All three variables centre around supporting autonomy in the oldest old age. By teasing out how the welfare state influences mental wellbeing in the oldest old, we can better understand the many drivers of wellbeing and enable evidence informed age-friendly policy making.
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(2018)The literature on new social risk (NSR) groups, such as single parents and temporary workers, has argued that they are less likely to join trade unions than other employees. It has been suggested that this is due to the unions’ incapacity or unwillingness to promote policies that mediate NSRs. We argue that there are differences in unionization between different NSR groups, and that country-level institutional structures, operationalized here as industrial relations (IR) regimes, have effects on how likely NSR groups are to unionize. Our multilevel logistic models using European Social Survey (ESS) data produce three main results: (1) family policy-related NSR groups (single parents, female employees with children and female caregivers) are more – not less – unionized than the average worker; (2) precarious workers (low-skilled service employees, temporary employees and part-timers) are, indeed, less unionized than average but (3) this result concerns mostly the liberal and transitional IR regimes.
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(Helsingin yliopisto, 2021)Uppmärksamhet har ökat kring riskuppfattningar av klimatförändring bland sociala vetenskapare. Tidigare forskning antyder att risk perceptioner kring klimatförändring har ökat både i Finland och internationellt, men det har också skepticism över klimatförändring. Determinanter har identifierats i litteraturen, klassificerade i fyra tematiskt distinkta dimensioner av van der Linden (2015) som inkluderar: socio-demografiska, socio-kulturella, kognitiva och erfarenhetsbaserade faktorer, vilka påverkar riskuppfattningar om klimatförändring i varierande grad. Målet med denna avhandling var att utvärdera om och hur mycket ett urval av sociokulturella (värderingar och politisk inriktning) och sociodemografiska faktorer (ålder, kön, akademisk utbildning) förutspår klimatoro bland finländare. Uppgifterna för denna studie hämtades från European Social Survey från 2016, som erbjuder ett representativt urval av finländare (N = 1925). Pearsons korrelationskoefficienter erhölls för att avslöja bivariata förhållanden mellan variablerna, följt av två linjära regressionsanalyser för att bedöma deras kombinerade effekt på klimatförändrings-riskuppfattningar. Resultaten stödde befintlig litteratur. Arbetet fann att sociokulturella faktorer är mer förutsägbara än socio-demografiska. Effekten av politisk inriktning och universalism var måttlig, medan effekten av ålder, kön och akademisk utbildning var svag. Resultaten visar att universalism och i synnerhet politisk inriktning förutspår risk uppfattningar om klimatförändring. Framtida forskning bör fortsätta att studera effekterna av socialpsykologiska faktorer, eftersom det finns indikationer av att de påverkar klimatförändrings-riskuppfattning i växande grad, medan effekterna av intuitivt tilltalande faktorer som ålder, kön och utbildning krymper.
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(2018)Aims: The aim of this research was to study health-related and sociodemographic determinants of the use of different complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments in Europe and differences in CAM use in various European countries. Methods: The study was based on a design-based logistic regression analysis of the European Social Survey (ESS), Round 7. We distinguished four CAM modalities: manual therapies, alternative medicinal systems, traditional Asian medical systems and mind-body therapies. Results: In total, 25.9% of the general population had used CAM during the last 12 months. Typically, only one CAM treatment had been used, and it was used more often as complementary rather than alternative treatment. The use of CAM varied greatly by country, from 10% in Hungary to almost 40% in Germany. Compared to those in good health, the use of CAM was two to fourfold greater among those with health problems. The health profiles of users of different CAM modalities varied. For example, back or neck pain was associated with all types of CAM, whereas depression was associated only with the use of mind-body therapies. Individuals with difficult to diagnose health conditions were more inclined to utilize CAM, and CAM use was more common among women and those with a higher education. Lower income was associated with the use of mind-body therapies, whereas the other three CAM modalities were associated with higher income. Conclusions: Help-seeking differed according to the health problem, something that should be acknowledged by clinical professionals to ensure safe care. The findings also point towards possible socioeconomic inequalities in health service use.
