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Based on a nationally representative sample of adult Poles (N = 1,004), we examined structural relationships between financial knowledge, skills, confidence, attitudes, and behavior in debt-domain. We found that financial confidence--at least regarding debt-related issues--is tied to debt attitudes and behavior beyond the extent to which the attitudes and behaviors are linked to objective debt knowledge. Moreover, the relationship between objective knowledge and confidence turned out to be insignificant in our study. These findings suggest that confidence should be used as a separate marker of financial capability. Having established that skills correlate with behavior and attitudes differently than objective knowledge, we argue also to include them separately in financial capability measurements.

The link between higher education and employment is central to the understanding of social stratification and social mobility. We use three theories to analyse the importance of education and credentials in recruitment decisions in European graduate labour markets: human capital (HC), network capital (NC) and reputational capital (RC) theory. Latent class modelling was applied to data from over 5,000 European private-sector companies to allow segmentation. The results identify four groups of companies using different HC, NC and RC mixes in the recruitment process. A 'complementary effect' was found between these forms of capital at the time of recruitment. Company classes, however, vary in their emphasis on different types of capital according to their characteristics. The article further contributes to the literature by exploring how national political economies relate to segmentation patterns, and questioning some of the central tenets of the Varieties of Capitalism literature.

Meaning and purpose in life are recognised health determinants. Evidence on the factors contributing to the experience of meaning and purpose in life is limited. The bidirectional associations between the experience of meaning in life and physical health, emotional ill-being and daily life functioning from a 6-year perspective are examined. Longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) were analysed using generalised estimating equations. The sample included 16,361 middle-aged and older adults from 13 countries. Living a meaningful life was found to be associated with subsequent reduced risks of depression, loneliness, limitations in activities of daily living, and heart attack (at the 6-year follow-up). It was also found that prior experience of depression, loneliness and limited activities of daily living were associated with subsequent reduced sense of meaningful life. These associations were independent of demographics, socioeconomic status, personality, prior history of diseases and lifestyle. The sensitivity analyses provided evidence for the robustness of these associations. Evidence for health practitioners and policymakers on factors that may hamper the development and maintenance of meaningful life as well as on the role of sense of meaning in life for healthy aging was presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background There is substantial evidence on the importance of voluntary activities for the health of middle-aged and older adults. Evidence on the effects of health and well-being on volunteering is more limited. This study examines reciprocal longitudinal associations between voluntary and/or charity activities and 21 indicators related to physical health, well-being, cognitive impairment and daily life functioning among middle-aged and older adults. Methods Longitudinal data were collected between 2011 and 2020 from a sample of 19 821 middle-aged and older adults from 15 countries participating in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. An outcome-wide analysis and an exposure-wide analysis were applied and generalized estimating equations were used. Robustness analyses were conducted. Results Voluntary and/or charity activities almost every week or more often were prospectively associated with greater emotional well-being, reduced risks of limitations in activities of daily living and of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease at a 6-year follow-up. Positive reverse associations were found from emotional well-being to volunteering. Limitations in daily life activities, increased loneliness, high blood cholesterol, hypertension and chronic lung disease were found to impede participation in voluntary and/or charity activities over time. Feedback loops between voluntary and/or charity activities and well-being and limitations in daily activities may exist. Conclusion Understanding the reciprocal nature of the relationship between volunteering and health and well-being can help identify strategies to encourage volunteering among middle-aged and older adults with specific health conditions and to target health promotion efforts towards volunteers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether an orientation to promote good serves as a potential buffer against distress and facilitator of well‐being outcomes in three non‐Western samples with a recent history of conflict (Indonesia, Colombia, Mexico) and across three different time frames (1, 4 and 12 months). Longitudinal surveys provided data for cross‐lagged panel modelling. A series of sensitivity analyses provided evidence for the robustness of results. Persons with an orientation to promote good reported greater well‐being 1 month and 4 months post‐assessment and reduced distress 1 month and 4 months post‐assessment. The effects, with larger effect sizes, were also found for reverse associations. We did not find evidence of associations assessed at the 12‐month interval with the exception of a negative association between an orientation to promote good and subsequent life satisfaction and happiness. Orientation to promote good may be relevant for population's mental health and well‐being over the short‐ and medium‐term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents empirical evidence for a significant role of stated credit purpose for the level of interest rates paid by the end users of non‐mortgage credit (households). Data for the analysis was drawn from two waves of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. The results of median regression show that, with the exception of credit for consolidation of other debts, remaining credit purposes were associated with lower interest rates compared to the interest rates of credit for car purchases. Especially low interest rates were evidenced for educational debt. Quantile regression analysis has shown that households which, given their socioeconomic background, experienced the highest interest rate costs, paid additional premiums if their debt was related to consolidation of previous debts or consumption. In the case of households paying relatively low premiums, consolidation of other debts and consumption motives were associated with lower interest rates than loans devoted to car purchase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well documented that academic achievement of students from families of low socioeconomic status (SES) tends to be below their more socially advantaged peers. Several studies have identified factors and conditions that facilitate academic success for disadvantaged students (i.e., promote academic resilience). However, one of the main criticisms of this body of research is in the set of variables that explain academic success for low-SES students and which is not very different from the variables that would explain academic success for all students. The objectives of this article are dual: firstly, to identify factors and conditions associated with academic success, regardless of student SES, and secondly, to identify factors and conditions associated with academic resilience, that is, exclusively for low-SES students. To this end, we used data from Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, and Japan in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011. The study sample covered 23,354 students in 720 schools in the five countries. The strategy for analysis was driven by fit of logistic regression models, first predicting the probability of academic success and then subsequent identification of variables significant as predictors for success within the pool of low-SES students. Results indicated that variables, such as positive student attitude to mathematics, teacher confidence in student performance and the test language being spoken at home, were associated with greater chances of academic success. High academic expectations and time spent on mathematics at home demonstrated a differential effect between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students in Singapore. In Korea, being male (gender) and in Taipei, low levels of bullying at school, increased the likelihood of resilience. Results suggested that interventions impacting behavior reflected in differentially associated variables could help disadvantaged students to become academically resilient.

Prior cross-sectional research suggests that the importance assigned to well-being domains may be associated with actual self-reported well-being in these same domains. However, cross-sectional data cannot discern directionality, leaving an open question as to whether valuing well-being leads to higher actual well-being or the other way around—higher levels of well-being lead to valuing well-being more. In the present study, we used longitudinal data from 1209 employees to examine the associations between the perceived importance of six well-being domains (emotional health, physical health, meaning and purpose, social connectedness, character strengths, and financial stability) and subsequent well-being in these domains reported approximately 1 year later. Lagged linear regression models demonstrated that valuing character strengths and valuing social relationships were most strongly associated with subsequent well-being. None of the valuations were associated with higher subsequent emotional well-being and only one (importance of physical health) predicted physical health. We also found that higher valuations of character strengths and physical health were associated with lower ratings of subsequent financial stability. A stronger sense of the importance of each well-being domain was predictive of subsequent character strengths. Our findings suggest that living well appears to be achieved by valuing immaterial goods, especially social connectedness and character strengths, as opposed to domains such as financial stability or physical health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]