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This present retrospective of material well-being and quality of life in the last decade, completed through the study of the available knowledge, highlights the importance of increasing material well-being, an important and multidimensional factor in the evolution of humanity and economic development. This analysis, based on the current study of knowledge in order to research and develop the present article regarding the retrospective of the material well-being of the last decade, brought to light other theoretical works carried out by researchers devoted to the study of material well-being and the increase of the quality of life. This work aims to develop a concept about the evolution, development and interpretation of the well-being of the individual and society. Therefore, the evaluation of the indicators identified in this study of knowledge went from the oldest interpretations of subjective fertility to the latest of today.

Positive psychology emerges as a branch of psychology around the year 2000 and promises, as the authors say, that the "new science" will help improve the quality of life and prevent the pathology that sets in when life is perceived as meaningless. At the individual level, it shifts the emphasis to identifying and optimising positive traits such as the capacity to love, vocation, aesthetic sense, capacity to forgive, spirituality, contentment and satisfaction with the past, hope and optimism for the future, happiness for the present. At the group level, the focus is on civic spirit, responsibility, altruism, moderation, tolerance, optimal experience, etc. This suggests a bold approach, but to begin with, in this article, we will only clarify a few concepts concerning some positive traits, considered essential from the point of view of Positive Psychology, namely the mental state of wellbeing, optimism, happiness and self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active efforts to develop the elements of territorial socio-economic systems of the Russian Arctic are the key to the efficient development of its resources. One such element is the labor potential, which, on the one hand, is a social factor of territorial self-development in the Russian Arctic, and, on the other hand, is capable of effectively implementing national interests in the Arctic. In this regard, the quality of labor potential of the regions of the Arctic zone of Russia is of particular relevance, which is the focus of the author’s research. The first two stages of the study identified labor potential as a social factor in the self-development of the regions and local communities of the Russian Arctic, and also analyzed child poverty as a systemic factor limiting the possibilities of quality reproduction of labor potential of the regions of the Arctic zone of Russia. The purpose of the next stage of the study, the results of which are presented in this article, was to analyze the socio-economic situation of young people in the regions of the Russian Arctic as part of the formation of qualitative characteristics of labor potential of the Arctic zone of Russia. The research methods include statistical analysis of socio-economic situation of youth in the regions of the Russian Arctic and analysis of normative legal documents regulating certain issues of socio-labor relations. In the course of the study the main problems of socio-economic situation of the youth in the Russian Arctic, limiting the promising opportunities of their life activity in the regions of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, were identified. The results of the study are focused on their practical use in the management of the development of labor potential of the regions of the Russian Arctic.

Abstract Background A variety of studies point to a deterioration of educational equity in Sweden and increasing school segregation with respect to achievement and socioeconomic composition. Some schools are resilient to socioeconomic disadvantages in their student body and demonstrate high levels of achievement. However, little attention has been given to these resilient schools. Material well-being, as one important dimension of student well-being, comprises the student’s home background and school resources. The relationship between home background and achievement is well-established but less literature includes school-level factors of material well-being. In comparing the material well-being at resilient, non-resilient, and more advantaged schools, this study aims at detecting possible patterns that may provide crucial information as to why some schools succeed better in compensating for disadvantages. Methods Using Swedish data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) from 2000 to 2018, the shares of resilient, non-resilient, and more advantaged school groups with different achievement levels were identified by using aggregated achievement and socioeconomic background measures. Making use of a well-being framework specifically designed for PISA data, the school groups were compared regarding their material well-being as measured by the perceived shortage of material resources and teachers, the percentage of teachers fully certified, the availability of computers, and extracurricular activities. This comparison of school groups was computed using the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test and a Bonferroni-adjusted pairwise comparison. Results The shares of resilient schools decreased considerably from 14% in 2000 to 3% in 2015. Yet, the comparison of the material well-being at resilient and other school groups led to mostly non-significant results. Overall, disadvantaged schools reported higher teacher shortages than advantaged schools, which indicates the need for a more compensatory allocation of (human) resources. Conclusions The study concluded that the landscape of resilient schools is under continuous change. As no patterns of significant differences between resilient and other school groups were found, the study shows no indication that the material well-being at school compensates for disadvantages in a school’s student body. The findings call for further research regarding changes in the presence of resilient schools and their possible relationship with school material well-being.

This study analyses the relationship between education and material well-being from a longitudinal perspective using the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data collected in Italy in four waves (2009–2012). It has two main aims: (i) to measure household material well-being on the basis of householders' responses to multiple survey items (addressed to gather information on the household availability of material resources) by advancing indexes, which can account for global and relative divergences in households' material well-being across survey waves; (ii) to assess how education and other sociodemographic characteristics affect absolute well-being and its variation (i.e. relative well-being) in the time span considered. Both aims are pursued, combining measuring and explanatory modelling approaches. That is, the use of the Multilevel Item Response Theory model allows to measure the global household material well-being and its yearly variation (i.e. relative material well-being) in the four waves. Meanwhile, the use of a multivariate (and multivariate multilevel) regression model allows to assess the effects of education and other sociodemographic characteristics on both components (absolute and relative well-being), controlling for the relevant sources of heterogeneity in the data. The value added to using the proposed methodologies with the main findings and economic implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of the article is to examine the causality between material well-being indicators of all the EU-27 countries and sustainable consumption behaviour indicators of the corresponding consumers. The authors assumed that the material well-being construct is determined by net income and actual individual consumption variables. In contrast, the sustainable consumption construct captures five selected behavioural variables. Research Design & Methods: The hypothesis was that material well-being significantly determines sustainable practices in European countries. The research model was tested by structural equation modelling (SEM) using path coefficients and developed construct predictors. Two sets of statistical data were used. The first was data on material well-being from Eurostat 2019, and the second was a public opinion poll covering the EU-27 countries as stated in the 2019 ‘Special Eurobarometer 501.’ Findings: Consumers in countries with lower material well-being indicators had a lower capacity for implementing consumers’ sustainable practices. Implications & Recommendations: The reported causality is essential for policy decision-makers to regulate measures more reliably according to specific countries and distribute scarce resources relevant to their sustainable consumer practices capability. Contribution & Value Added: The article contributes to the sustainable consumption theory by developing new theoretical construction that combines the different sustainability featured variables. Introducing policy measures for sustainable consumer behaviour, which simultaneously require sacrifice, will depend on consumer income and the ability to meet the costs of environmentally friendly activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the backbone markers of democracy identified by A. Tocqueville against the background of a comparison of aristocratic systems and effective democracy. The essential signs of democratic transformations are presented: a gradual but noticeable increase in the material well-being of an average citizen; effective central government with effective local self-government and significant influence on their decisions of universal human values; public opinion as one of the full-fledged branches of power; a quantitatively limited apparatus of officials/civil servants, as accessible as possible for communication with the population; lack of connection between an ascending political career and personal enrichment; subordination of citizens not to an official, but to the current legislation; education of patriotism by involving as many citizens as possible in the government of the country; mass will expressing with the help of political rights and freedoms. It is noted that such signs, according to A. Tocqueville, include the absence of political censorship, the presence of freedom of speech; the unimportance of the political struggle against the background of solving, first of all, the problems of the country's material life support; public activity; enlightenment of the people; respect for production work; intensive communication within the country with the help of a developed social infrastructure; constant formation of new goals of social development, as well as a permanent desire for their implementation; psychological youth of the average person; optimistic outlook on the future; dynamism of professional opinion regarding the solution of social problems; the rule of law, the equality of all citizens before the law; opportunities for citizens, thanks to the results of their own work, to compete for social success on an equal footing. It is emphasized that the “enemies” of democracy, according to A. Tocqueville, are unlimited, uncontrolled power; desire for its usurpation; use of excessive force; despotism, which is especially harmful to the production of material wealth; political absenteeism; social apathy; inaction; destructive traditionalism; the authority of the individual, associated only with hereditary status and wealth. The attention is focused on one of the paradoxes of A. Tocqueville, in which he saw the advantage of the democratic process. According to the philosopher, among the ruled there are many outstanding people who, as a result of the processes of electoral democracy, for some reason did not find themselves in the circle of the elite. It is emphasized that A. Tocqueville explained this by a wide range of available opportunities for personal self-realization outside of a political career. At the same time, the coming to power of an average person, according to the thinker, contributes to the growth of mass education, social activity, social responsibility, and rational thinking on a societal scale. All this forms a huge public energy for positive socio-political and economic changes. Particular attention is paid to the mutual influence of political freedom and economic prosperity, recorded by A. Tocqueville.

Background: A variety of studies point to a deterioration of educational equity in Sweden and increasing school segregation with respect to achievement and socioeconomic composition. Some schools are resilient to socioeconomic disadvantages in their student body and demonstrate high levels of achievement. However, little attention has been given to these resilient schools. Material well-being, as one important dimension of student well-being, comprises the student's home background and school resources. The relationship between home background and achievement is well-established but less literature includes school-level factors of material well-being. In comparing the material well-being at resilient, non-resilient, and more advantaged schools, this study aims at detecting possible patterns that may provide crucial information as to why some schools succeed better in compensating for disadvantages. Methods: Using Swedish data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) from 2000 to 2018, the shares of resilient, non-resilient, and more advantaged school groups with different achievement levels were identified by using aggregated achievement and socioeconomic background measures. Making use of a well-being framework specifically designed for PISA data, the school groups were compared regarding their material well-being as measured by the perceived shortage of material resources and teachers, the percentage of teachers fully certified, the availability of computers, and extracurricular activities. This comparison of school groups was computed using the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test and a Bonferroni-adjusted pairwise comparison. Results: The shares of resilient schools decreased considerably from 14% in 2000 to 3% in 2015. Yet, the comparison of the material well-being at resilient and other school groups led to mostly non-significant results. Overall, disadvantaged schools reported higher teacher shortages than advantaged schools, which indicates the need for a more compensatory allocation of (human) resources. Conclusions: The study concluded that the landscape of resilient schools is under continuous change. As no patterns of significant differences between resilient and other school groups were found, the study shows no indication that the material well-being at school compensates for disadvantages in a school's student body. The findings call for further research regarding changes in the presence of resilient schools and their possible relationship with school material well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the problems of the material well-being of the Russian population. It presents the research results that continues the author's developments on the assessment of inequality in the distribution of the population by monetary income and housing provision. This study aimed to identify and analyse the inequality of material well-being in the aspect of intergenerational differentiation. The authors relied on the normative methodology for identifying material well-being based on the original system of social standards of monetary income and housing provision. The assessments based on data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE) (28th round, 2019). Data on the existing inequality in material well-being identified by social standards under three distribution models — one-criterion (monetary income, housing provision) and two-criterion (joint distribution according to the criteria of material well-being) — for three generations: youth, middle, and older generation. According to the results of the study, those who live in households with dependents (children, nonworking members of households) are the most vulnerable in terms of material well-being characteristics, and, on the contrary, those who live alone or from small households (2 people) are in the best position. At different “poles” of the material well-being are the young people living separately with children and the older generation — living alone or married couples. The results obtained in the course of the study can be used to increase the validity of social policy and develop targeted measures differentiated relative to different generations of Russians and their socio-demographic groups based on indicators of the actual distribution of material well-being — monetary income and/or housing provision.

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Copyright of Galician economic journal is the property of Ternopil Ivan Puluj National Technical University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The study of problems related to the study of living standards is quite relevant in modern economic conditions. The socio-economic category “standard of living” is used in legal and regulatory documents, in scientific literature to characterize the degree of satisfaction of physical, spiritual and social needs of people in society, i.e. the quality of life of the population, the magnitude of its well-being and well-being and serves as an important socio-economic criterion in the selection of directions and priorities of economic and social policy of the state. On the one hand, the standard of living of the population is determined by the composition and magnitude of the needs for various life benefits (food, clothing, housing, transport, various utilities and household services, education, health care, cultural and educational activities, etc.), on the other - the ability to meet these needs, based on the proposals on the market of goods and services and real incomes of people, their wages. The ongoing socioeconomic transformations in Russia, which have caused an intensive process of economic stratification of the population with the phenomena of a significant decline in the standard of living of the prevailing group of families, pose to society at the present stage a number of serious problems that require urgent solutions. Both the attention and the demands on living standards have now increased. A very important area is the use of indicators of living standards for conducting comparisons on an objective calculation basis: in time - to assess the impact of socioeconomic changes on the life of the population, for individual income and property groups of the population – to determine the degree of economic differentiation of society, as well as in different regions of the country – to assess and take into account differences in the level and living conditions of the population in them. The aim of the study is to characterize and analyze inter-regional comparisons of indicators of the standard of living of the population. The article provides an economic and statistical analysis of the variation of indicators of living standards of the subjects of the Volga Federal district. To identify regions with a similar level of material well-being of the population, a multidimensional classification of the subjects of the Volga Federal district was carried out. Statistical tools of the study were the method of grouping, variational method of analysis, methods of multivariate analysis; tabular and graphical methods of data visualization.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the influence of child involvement in family financial management and material well-being on children’s subjective well-being among children from intact families and non-intact families. Fifty students from intact families and fifty students from the non-intact family have participated in this research. The students were selected using stratified random sampling techniques from junior high schools in Bogor Regency. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and were followed with in-depth interviews with some students. The result of this research showed that child involvement, material well-being, and subjective well-being were categorized as medium. The result of the independent sample T-test showed that there were no significant differences between students from intact families and students from non-intact families in terms of their involvement in family financial management, material well-being, and subjective well-being. The result of the multiple linear regression test showed that child involvement in family financial management significantly positively affected their subjective well-being. Thus, the higher the children involved in family financial management, the better their subjective well-being.

Money‐metric welfare, or material well‐being, can be defined by household expenditure. We find that the 2009 ARRA benefit increase improved material well‐being at all expenditure levels, which is interpreted as a first‐order policy improvement. The adverse effects of the 2013 benefit cuts, however, were concentrated among the most disadvantaged SNAP subpopulations. These effects are almost entirely driven by changes in food rather than nonfood spending. The asymmetric shift in the distribution of well‐being speaks to the resource management skills and coping strategies among the low‐income households, especially the most disadvantaged, and calls for improved education on budgeting skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human development typically refers to the set of opportunities that allow individuals to flourish in their lives. This study explores whether the provision of human development opportunities such as education and primary healthcare contributes to economic well-being among poor households who obtain microfinance loans. Using panel data from over 1,700 households in rural Bangladesh, this study analyzes the interaction effect between credit and human development opportunities. The findings suggest that when access to credit is coupled with conditions for human flourishing, household earnings are further enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transmission of pro‐socialness across generations is modeled using the warm‐glow approach. The parent generation seeks to cultivate pro‐social values in their children as this would improve their material well‐being when they grow up as cooperative adults. I show that communities endowed with more productive resources have a stronger incentive to teach their children social cooperation. Thus, there is a correlation between a village's level of material well‐being and villagers' steady‐state level of pro‐socialness. When the cost of moral education is directly dependent on the parent generation's level of pro‐socialness, the multiplicity of steady states may emerge. If a community's initial level of pro‐socialness is high, the system will reach an interior steady state; in contrast, if this initial level is low, eventually the level of pro‐socialness will approach zero in the long run. Thus communities that start with similar initial levels of pro‐socialness may end up at drastically different steady states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The standard of living of the inhabitants of Latvia, especially in the context of material well-being or disposable income, is a guarantee that the inhabitants will be able to meet their basic needs, which are important for ensuring an adequate standard of living. Inhabitants ensure their material well-being mainly by working and receiving a net salary, which is paid after the calculation and deduction of labour taxes. However, the state is essentially the same inhabitant, which has its own basic needs, the financing of which requires income, which is mainly obtained after the collection of certain taxes, which accordingly reduces material well-being or disposable income of the inhabitants which is an essential component of the standard of living. The goal of the research: to investigate the impact of the labour taxes on the standard of living of the inhabitants of Latvia. The research uses general scientific research methods: the method of monographic or descriptive research, the comparative analysis method, an expert survey, data grouping, and the graphical method. Authors of the paper believe that employees employed in Latvia should be encouraged to use the possibilities of gross salary relief, thus promoting the growth of their net salary. In order to raise the living standards of the inhabitants in the short and long term, the government of Latvia and local governments must emphasize their attention to the growth of the national economy. The government of Latvia and local governments must implement measures aimed at raising the long-term living standards of the population and gaining material benefits in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigación cuantitativa que buscó establecer la relación entre la satisfacción vital (variable principal) y las variables autoestima personal, bienestar material percibido, prejuicio grupal percibido, discriminación personal percibida e identidad nacional, identificando cuáles, entre estas últimas, podían predecir la primera. La muestra, no probabilística, estuvo conformada por 171 colombianos, hombres y mujeres, residentes en Estados Unidos. Los resultados indicaron que la autoestima y el bienestar material percibido fueron las variables más estrechamente relacionadas con la satisfacción vital, siendo, además, las únicas predictoras positivas de esta. Las expresiones de prejuicio no impactaron significativamente la satisfacción vital, mientras que la identidad nacional presentó un impacto nulo.

The article deals with factors in the spread of extremism among young people, in particular, due to the decrease in the level of satisfaction with existing conditions of life. The author emphisizes the fact that the level of life satisfaction is a comprehensive measure that reflects both personal feelings and objective side of life. The author clarifies that the degree of life satisfaction does not directly affect the behavior of young people in its conformist-protest activities, but reflects the nature of social relations, the level of material well-being, social and educational progress, etc. In the article the results of studies reflecting the assessment by the respondents of different spheres of life, the level of trust the youth to the state and public institutions, as well as the priority ways of solving challenges facing the young people of the problems and possibilities of young people to join the agencies, organizations, and movements that spread extremist ideas and behaviors. The author concludes that the youth don't participate in extremist movements because of a number of interrelated factors such as: general political apathy and alienation of the population from participation in any active political, including protest, and action; in the Russian society there are a specific structure of a civil action, dominated by detached interest in the events, but not direct personal participation; institutional constraints have a great importance, that's why extremism is actually outside the space of public morality.

Material well-being is defined in terms of satisfaction with a range economic concerns such as government’s handling of the economy, taxes, the cost of basic necessities, household income, pay and fringe benefits from one’s job, financial security, standard of living, and agreement within the family regarding how money should be spent. Much evidence is available demonstrating the substantial effect of material well-being on a variety of measures of subjective well-being. The literature review uncovered a host of antecedents or predictors of material well-being. These antecedents involve two sets of constructs, namely personal factors and contextual factors. Personal factors include socio-demographics (age, gender, education, income, marital status, family structure, etc.); personality traits (self-esteem, etc.) and personality dynamics (compensation, top-down spillover, etc.); needs and need satisfaction (how wealth serve to satisfy different needs), beliefs and mental associations (images of wealthy people); goals and aspirations (income goals and goal attainment); skills, behavior, and resources (financial capability, financial behavior, and lack of financial resources); and values (materialism), lifestyle (consumption), and habits (compulsive consumption). Contextual factors include social comparison (how evaluations of standard of living are influenced by social comparisons), adaptation (how income expectations are adapted by changing circumstances), and changes in the macro economic environment (changes in the rate of unemployment, inflation, economic growth, etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the latest official figures, more than 3 million Syrians are residing in Turkey under the status of temporary protection, and more than 50% of these are under 18 years old. The number of children from Syria between 5 and 14 years of age is 677,217 and 315,000 for the 15–19 age group, meaning that more than 1 million children are at a school age. According to the temporary protection status, children from Syria have the right to access education, including preschool education in Turkey. However, the percentage of registered children in schools varies 15–30% and this ratio is significantly lower outside of the camps. After the introduction of new regulations, more registration is expected. In this article, we focus on the factors that determine being out of school for children from Syria living in Turkey. We use the findings of the fieldwork conducted for the Baseline Assessment Study for an NGO in Turkey as a basis in order to understand the current situation. Our data comprise 541 interviews conducted in Şanlıurfa and Hatay, two cities where Syrians form a significant portion of the population, in February and March 2016. According to the findings, providing support to families with the lowest incomes, those families who have more than four children and those parents with the lowest education will increase children’s access to school, which definitely contributes to their overall well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports a study testing the hypothesis that, compared with community residents who are not affiliated with the tourism industry, residents affiliated with tourism are likely to perceive tourism impact more positively, and the more positive their perceptions of tourism development, the more likely they feel satisfied with their lives. The study involved a survey of community residents of four tourist destinations in the United States. A total of 407 responses were used for data analysis. The results provided support for the notion that the influence of community residents’ perceptions of tourism impact and their life satisfaction is dependent on whether the residents are affiliated or not affiliated with the tourism sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an adaptation and validation of Sanchez-Canovas (1988) well-being scales to Portuguese based on a sample of 825 workers. This scale has four well-being sub-scales: subjective well-being, material wellbeing, well-being at work and well-being with a partner. The psychometric results were good: construct validity, concurrent validity, reliability (Cronbach alpha between .84 and .94) and sensitivity (the results allow differentiation of the participants according to sociodemographic variables such as gender, age group and marital status). This study legitimizes the use of this Portuguese version of the scale and of its subscales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between material situation and happiness is hardly examined among children, perhaps because of the almost exclusive use of household income as a proxy for material situation. This article aims to fill this gap by examining the link between material situation and subjective well-being (SWB) from children's perspectives, cross-nationally. Two preliminary measures that reflect children's material situation were developed: Material Resources State (MRS) measure and Social Exclusion measure. They were found to be valid in 13 countries out of the 14 tested, using the 12-year-olds' sample in the second wave of the Children's Worlds survey ( N = 16,967). These measures' association with affective and cognitive SWB was then tested, cross-nationally. Findings show both lower MRS and higher social exclusion are associated with lower SWB. However, regression models showed that Social Exclusion has a much greater ability to explain the variance in children's SWB, even after controlling for demographic variables and countries' economic indices, and in the vast majority of the countries. The prominent place of social exclusion was even more salient compared to economic indices (such as GDP and Gini) that showed only very low ability to explain children's SWB; the association between MRS and Social Exclusion with SWB was not found to be stronger in countries with lower GDP and higher inequality as suggested by some of the literature. The findings are discussed in the context of the general debate of the relation between material situation and happiness, bringing also some possible implications for social policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests a new and comprehensive approach to the assessment of the material well-being at the individual level by constructing a multidimensional index. Using this approach, material well-being is understood as a generic notion that covers a number of different domains, whereas the concept of domain is used to distinguish between different aspects of people's resources, including income security, basic needs, durables, housing and subjective material well-being. Each dimension is measured independently, using the best indicators available, to generate a score or domain index for each aspect of material well-being. The procedure of re-weighting the indicators within the separate domains enables us to account for the disparity in resources and consumer preferences across different population subgroups. The final domain scores, combined with explicit weighting, are then used to generate a summary material well-being index. The domain indices and the summary material well-being index are validated by exploring their relationships to key socio-economic attributes, which were previously shown to be strongly associated with individual material well-being. The results showed that the summary indices of material well-being are characterized by greater differentiation in relation to such measures, as occupational class and judgments of satisfaction with one's life. This allows us to conclude that our summary indices capture the latent concept of material well-being better than any of our domain indices used separately. Although the index is constructed using the Russian Gender and Generation Survey data for 2007, the methodological approach that we applied can be easily replicated in other surveys which contain information on several aspects of material well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research was to study the relationship between life satisfaction and various psychosocial variables usually linked to international migration processes. Specifically, this study explored the relationship between life satisfaction-a cognitivedimension of subjective well-being- and perceived group prejudice, perceived personal discrimination, global personal self-esteem, national identity and perceived material well- being. The research, of empirical quantitative type, was conducted with a non-probabilistic sample of Colombian migrants at several cities of Ecuador. As expected, the hypothesis that life satisfaction was positively related to self -esteem and perceived material well-being was confirmed. Also, a negative correlation was confirmed between life satisfaction, perceived personal discrimination and national identity. Results show that the variables self-esteem, perceived material well-being, perceived personal discrimination and national identity are significant predictors of life satisfaction. Findings didn·t confirm the expected negative association between life satisfaction and perceived group prejudice. Results are analyzed from a psychosocial perspective.

This quantitative investigation aimed at establishing the relationship between life satisfaction (main variable) and the variables personal self-esteem, perceived material well-being, perceived group prejudice, perceived personal discrimination and ethnic identity. The sample, not probabilistic, was comprised of 171 Colombians, men and women, who reside in the United States. Results indicated that self-esteem and perceived material well-being were the variables most closely related to life satisfaction, being, moreover, the only positive predictors in the model. Expressions of prejudice did not significantly impact life satisfaction while ethnic identity showed not impact at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the International Wealth Index (IWI), the first comparable asset based index of household's material well-being, or economic status, that can be used for all low and middle income countries. IWI is similar to the widely used wealth indices included in the Demographic and Health Surveys and UNICEF MICS surveys, but adds the property of comparability across place and time. IWI is based on data from 2.1 million households in 97 developing countries. With IWI we provide a stable and understandable yardstick for evaluating and comparing the situation of households, social groups and societies among all regions of the developing world. A household's ranking on IWI indicates to what extent the household possesses a basic set of assets, valued highly by people across the globe. IWI is tested thoroughly and turns out to be a stable index that hardly depends on the inclusion of specific items or on data for specific regions or time periods. National IWI values are highly correlated with human development, life expectancy, and national income, and IWI-based poverty measures with poverty headcount ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine how payday loan access and use relates to food-related material hardship with a sample of nonelderly households in both the December 2008 and January 2009 Current Population Surveys (CPS). We find that state legislation limiting access to payday loans increases the prevalence of our marginal food security measure by 1.4 percentage points and the probability of reporting that more money is needed for food (food inadequacy) by 2.3 percentage points. Further analyses using state payday loan limits as an instrumental variable suggest that using payday loans helps protect some households from food insecurity, especially those at the cusp of food insecurity. Our findings suggest that many households that are at risk for food insecurity face an unmet need for short-term credit and that improved credit access could reduce food insecurity and improve well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern philosophy recognizes two major ethical theories: deontology, which encourages adherence to rules and fulfillment of duties or obligations; and consequentialism, which evaluates morally significant actions strictly on the basis of their actual or anticipated outcomes. Both involve the systematic application of universal abstract principles, reflecting the culturally dominant paradigm of technical rationality. Professional societies promulgate codes of ethics with which engineers are expected to comply (deontology), while courts and the public generally assign liability to engineers primarily in accordance with the results of their work, whether intended or unintended (consequentialism). A third option, prominent in ancient philosophy, has reemerged recently: virtue ethics, which recognizes that sensitivity to context and practical judgment are indispensable in particular concrete situations, and therefore rightly focuses on the person who acts, rather than the action itself. Beneficial character traits-i.e., virtues-are identified within a specific social practice in light of the internal goods that are unique to it. This paper proposes a comprehensive framework for implementing virtue ethics within engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a conceptual framework and a complex understanding of the quality of life. On the basis of the system of indicators of the quality of life as offered by the author, a long term changes in the quality of life of the Lithuanian population during the period of functioning of the market over 1990-2012 is analysed. There is presented analysis of the changes of Lithuanian population's on the areas of material well-being, health and demographics according to the trends of shift of cultural, moral-ethical and spiritual values1. The article presents how the quality of life of Lithuanian population has changed after the implementation of the market economy, membership in the European Union and through the time of the crisis. The main positive and negative factors influencing the population's quality of life are identified as well as achievements, major issues and the possible ways of their solutions and future prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linking household composition of older persons and material well-being is an important step toward understanding quality of life among elders in less developed settings. The association is particularly important in sub-Saharan Africa, given the poverty in the region. Ordinary least square regressions using data from 23 countries examine how age composition among all households and presence of offspring and grandchildren among older person households associates with a wealth index that is based on ownership of resources and housing characteristics, and whether the association is consistent across countries. Results indicate older-person-only households, and older persons with youth, have, generally, less wealth than households with other age compositions. Among older person households, those without offspring or grandchildren and skip-generation households fare worst in most countries. Findings highlight the importance of considering older persons households when assessing material well-being and chances of living in poverty in poor regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we investigate the relationship between income shocks and food insufficiency for U.S. households. Using Survey of Income and Program Participation data on U.S. households, we test the importance of both stable and transitory income components in determining food insufficiency. In a logistic regression model, we find that both the level of income and negative income shocks affect the predicted probability of food insufficiency, while positive income shocks do not. Although we do not have a definitive measure of a household's liquidity constraint status, our work suggests that negative shocks may matter more for households that face liquidity constraints. Understanding the role of income shocks in determining food insufficiency is especially important in light of recent policy changes. It is likely that welfare reform in the U.S. increased the volatility of income in the low-income population. Our findings here suggest that this increase in volatility may not be without consequence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]