Differentiate Patterns of Individually Perceived Quality of Life in Big Cities, Towns and Rural Areas

Abstract

Generally, it is agreed that QoL differs in diverse local places. Explaining these differences remains a complex and challenging problem. Scientific research has concluded that the impacts of socio-economic circumstances in local places (measured by social indicators) on subjectively perceived individual QoL are not direct, but complex, versatile and diverse. Objective differences of socio-economic factors in local places suggest that personal characteristics as well as other objective and subjective QoL factors, specific to individuals, could form some common patterns, able to disclose the differences in individually perceived QoL in different socio-economic conditions and diverse local places, e.g. cities, towns, or rural areas. The research aims at investigating differences in the patterns of individual subjectively perceived QoL in diverse local places. The differences of the considered local places are reasoned by the indicators of objective socio-economic conditions in cities, towns and rural areas. The tested presumption is that common patterns of individual subjectively perceived QoL differ, respecting objective socioeconomic factors in local places. The research concludes with the discovery and discussion of statistical regression models to predict individual subjectively perceived QoL in towns, big cities and rural areas. Residents' attitude to social environment, their abilities to deal with important problems in life, household total income and age are used as predictors to explain the differences of individual subjectively perceived QoL. The case of Lithuania is being investigated, using European Social Survey (round 6, 2013) data.

What Is Rural Well‐Being and How Is It Measured? An Attempt to Order Chaos*

“…2013); (3) personal growth/self‐development (Waterman et al. 2010); (4) positive relations/belonging (Higgs 2007); (5) purpose in life/meaningfulness (Dolan and Metcalfe 2012); and (6) self‐acceptance/self‐esteem (Rybakovas 2016). Supporting the notion of fulfillment, new measures like connection to nature (Aguado et al.…”

“…Yet others use it as the ultimate measure of individual WB (Dillman and Tremblay 1977) or as a complement to life satisfaction (Fulford et al. 2015; Rybakovas 2016) when evaluating one's overall life.…”

“…Some studies use it as a single indicator of psychological WB (Strotmann and Volkert 2018), and others use it as one of the indicators of psychological WB (Dolan and Metcalfe 2012). Yet others use it as the ultimate measure of individual WB (Dillman and Tremblay 1977) or as a complement to life satisfaction (Fulford et al 2015;Rybakovas 2016) when evaluating one's overall life.…”