The Romanian Consumer And His/Her Rights: Opinions And Attitudes

An important component of the quality of life, the consumers’ rights and interests protection has become a priority of the European Union policy, a type of policy based among others on the results of the Eurobarometer type studies. Our study is a secondary analysis of the data provided by the special EB 69.1 Eurobarometer on the topic of „Consumer Protection on the Domestic Market” (Euopean Commission, 2008). We focused on aspects connected to the Romanian consumer: the ascribed factors which influence the purchasing decision related to gender, age, level of education, residence, the level of protection felt by the consumer, ways of consumers’ protection as they are seen by the consumers themselves, the mechanism of safety product assessment done by the consumers. From the data analysis in the present study we concluded that numerous Romanian consumers do not know the laws and the institutions entitled to protect their rights, but are discontent regarding the manner their rights are observed; they have as a main purchasing criterion the price; the producers take advantage of the lack of information and attitude of the consumers regarding their rights; and the consumers, lacking a suitable education, remain only at the level of discontent, of not trusting the possibility of their rights being respected, which in its turn causes a low level of self-protection. In these conditions we consider necessary the systematic education of the consumers as well as producers regarding the quality, the safety of the marketed products, of the attitude regarding the disobedience of the producers/suppliers for the regulations in this area, doubled by an increased interest from the authorities for consumer protection and a manifestation of individual or associative civic sense.the Romanian consumer, rights, attitudes, protection methods, safety

Children’s subjective well-being : a comparability study of 3 psychometric scales in 4 Latin-language speaking countries

En la actualidad, los investigadores así como los políticos están interesados en analizar las diferentes dimensiones que componen el bienestar subjetivo de los niños y los adolescentes, grupos a los cuales se les ha prestado escasa atención si se lo compara con la literatura sobre la población adulta. En esta investigación, se analiza la comparabilidad intercultural de tres escalas de bienestar subjetivo, en estudiantes del primer curso de enseñanza secundaria en Brasil, Chile, España y Rumania. Las escalas multi-ítem muestran buen ajuste con los datos de las muestras agregadas, así como con los respectivos modelos multigrupo con cargas restringidas, avalando la comparabilidad de las correlaciones y regresiones entre las poblaciones. No obstante, los modelos no ajustan con cargas y constantes restringidas, sugiriendo que las medias no son comparables entre países. Así también los resultados muestran puntuaciones en el bienestar subjetivo más altas que las esperadas en poblaciones adultas occidentales. Los resultados del modelo de ecuaciones estructurales que incluye todas las escalas sugieren que las dos escalas por ámbitos participan de un mismo supraconstructo.Currently both, researchers and politicians, are interested in analyzing the many dimensions that are the components of subjective well-being of children and adolescents, since little attention has been paid by the literature to these groups, when compared with adults. In this research we analyze the cross-cultural comparability of three measures of subjective well-being of members of the Freshman Class of High Schools in Brazil, Chile, Spain and Romania. The multi-item scales reveal a good fit with the aggregated samples, as well as with the respective multi-group models with bounded loads, supporting the comparability across correlations and regressions performed on the populations. However, the models do not fit when both loads and constants are bounded, suggesting that the means are not comparable between countries. Also, results reveal that the scores of subjective well-being are higher than those expected from western adult populations

Central and Eastern Europeans Migrants’ Subjective Quality of Life. A Comparative Study

There is no general agreement among scholars on the consequences oflabor migration on the sending countries. Some argue that the migration would increase the quality of life of the families or communities involved, giving support for democracy and market reforms in these countries, while others share the view that the brain drain and fiscal losses would have long term effects on the sending countries’ development. This paper takes another approach, focusing on the migrant persons’ subjective quality of life.Using data issued in the first two rounds of the European Social Survey (2002/2003, 2004/2005), the Eastern European immigrants’ satisfaction with their lives as a whole and with the social and political environment is measured. They report lower satisfaction with life as a whole, but higher satisfaction with the societal conditions than the natives and other kind of immigrants. Explanation lies in the different sources of these evaluations:when evaluating their overall satisfaction, the immigrants rely on their experiences in their receiving countries, while when evaluating the societal conditions they compare these to those from the sending countries. The fact that they show higher levels of satisfaction with the societal conditions than the other immigrants also supports this hypothesis, because the former are more recent and less accommodated to the receiving society than the latter

Opinia publicului despre utilizarea eficientă și responsabilă a resurselor de către administrațiile publice din mediul urban. Studiu în trei orașe românești

We propose an explanatory model for the citizens’ evaluation of the efficiency and responsibility in resource management of city public administrations. Using data issued starting with 1999 by Flash Eurobarometer 277, within the comparative research Urban Audit, we analyzed the relationships between these variables, as well as satisfaction with urban life in three Romanian cities: Bucureşti, Cluj Napoca and Piatra Neamţ. Results show that the level of public evaluation in these domains is much lower in Bucharest. Controlling for demographics and city characteristics, we provide evidence that the personal experience with public administration, as well as the perception of urban life quality (which we perceive because of the administrative work) influence our opinion on the responsible behavior of local public administration with regard to resource management.</p

The Perception Regarding the Urban Environment in Romanian Cities

<p>The present paper brings forth an analysis of the urban inhabitants’ perception regarding the quality of environmental factors. The research is based on a secondary analysis using data provided by the Flash Eurobarometer 277: Urban Audit Perception Survey<em>. </em>The main conclusion of this paper is centered on the fact that Romanian urban inhabitants give little attention to environmental factors, their priorities targeting other areas like work and health connected issues. A greater amount of attention to environmental factors is given by the more educated population which is more aware of the environmental factors’ importance for their daily life. The practical conclusion of the study consists in the necessity to make the whole population aware of the environmental problems, in view of adopting an appropriate behavior and attitudes regarding urban surroundings. The public administration has to play a key role in this respect, thus the paper tries to underline the possible outcomes that this situation can have on the decisions made by local authorities.</p

Children’s subjective well-being: A comparability study of 3 psychometric scales in 4 Latin-language speaking countries

En la actualidad, los investigadores así como los políticos están interesados en analizar las diferentes dimensiones que componen el bienestar subjetivo de los niños y los adolescentes, grupos a los cuales se les ha prestado escasa atención si se lo compara con la literatura sobre la población adulta. En esta investigación, se analiza la comparabilidad intercultural de tres escalas de bienestar subjetivo, en estudiantes del primer curso de enseñanza secundaria en Brasil, Chile, España y Rumania. Las escalas multi-ítem muestran buen ajuste con los datos de las muestras agregadas, así como con los respectivos modelos multigrupo con cargas restringidas, avalando la comparabilidad de las correlaciones y regresiones entre las poblaciones. No obstante, los modelos no ajustan con cargas y constantes restringidas, sugiriendo que las medias no son comparables entre países. Así también los resultados muestran puntuaciones en el bienestar subjetivo más altas que las esperadas en poblaciones adultas occidentales. Los resultados del modelo de ecuaciones estructurales que incluye todas las escalas sugieren que las dos escalas por ámbitos participan de un mismo supraconstructo.Currently both, researchers and politicians, are interested in analyzing the many dimensions that are the components of subjective well-being of children and adolescents, since little attention has been paid by the literature to these groups, when compared with adults. In this research we analyze the cross-cultural comparability of three measures of subjective well-being of members of the Freshman Class of High Schools in Brazil, Chile, Spain and Romania. The multi-item scales reveal a good fit with the aggregated samples, as well as with the respective multi-group models with bounded loads, supporting the comparability across correlations and regressions performed on the populations. However, the models do not fit when both loads and constants are bounded, suggesting that the means are not comparable between countries. Also, results reveal that the scores of subjective well-being are higher than those expected from western adult populations.  

Adolescent’s participation and their subjective well-being: a comparison between Brazil, Chile, Spain and Romania

Adolescents’ participation in all the matters that affect them has great importance for their life and well-being. Just a few studies explore adolescents’ social participation and even less address the link between adolescents’ participation and their subjective well-being (SWB). This article explores adolescents’ perceptions on their participation in family, school, and community and its’ relationship with their SWB measured by four psychometric scales: OLS, SLSS5, BMSLSS and PWI-SC5. Data have been collected within International Survey of Children’s Well-Being-ISCWeB (the fi rst international extended pilot 2011-2012) from four samples of adolescents (M=12,1, SD=0,68): Brazil, Chile, Romania and Spain. Descriptive and exploratory analyzes were performed using independent sample ‘t’ test in order to examine mean scores of the SWB indicators by gender in the four countries and Pearson Chi-Square to test gender differences between the group of adolescents who perceive they are listened by adults and the group with nonparticipation. The relationship between adolescents’ perception on participation in family, school and community, gender and their SWB was explored by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results indicated that greater perceived participation of adolescents aged 12 is signifi cantly associated with higher subjective well-being. Variations between countries in SWB in the way that adolescent’s perceive their participation and also between boys and girls were found. The results are discussed with focus on the implementation of children’s rights and programs which enables adolescents’ participation in the contexts of their life and also on the need to improve policies for children and adolescents

Adolescent’s participation and their subjective well-being: a comparison between Brazil, Chile, Spain and Romania

Adolescents’ participation in all the matters that affect them has great importance for their life and well-being. Just a few studies explore adolescents’ social participation and even less address the link between adolescents’ participation and their subjective well-being (SWB). This article explores adolescents’ perceptions on their participation in family, school, and community and its’ relationship with their SWB measured by four psychometric scales: OLS, SLSS5, BMSLSS and PWI-SC5. Data have been collected within International Survey of Children’s Well-Being-ISCWeB (the fi rst international extended pilot 2011-2012) from four samples of adolescents (M=12,1, SD=0,68): Brazil, Chile, Romania and Spain. Descriptive and exploratory analyzes were performed using independent sample ‘t’ test in order to examine mean scores of the SWB indicators by gender in the four countries and Pearson Chi-Square to test gender differences between the group of adolescents who perceive they are listened by adults and the group with nonparticipation. The relationship between adolescents’ perception on participation in family, school and community, gender and their SWB was explored by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results indicated that greater perceived participation of adolescents aged 12 is signifi cantly associated with higher subjective well-being. Variations between countries in SWB in the way that adolescent’s perceive their participation and also between boys and girls were found. The results are discussed with focus on the implementation of children’s rights and programs which enables adolescents’ participation in the contexts of their life and also on the need to improve policies for children and adolescents