Kapitał społeczny w Polsce w świetle Diagnozy Społecznej – pomiar i wyniki

The aim of the article is to present an approach to measuring social capital, and the results of its application in the context of contemporary Poland. Since the notion and the methods of measurement of social capital has not been defi nitely established yet, this paper tries to adapt the approach proposed by Van Oorschot, Arts and Gelissen (2006). Firstly, their conceptual model of social capital is discussed. Secondly, it is verifi ed whether the Social Diagnosis survey is a good source of indicators of social capital. Thirdly, the measurement models for various dimensions of social capital (networks, trust and norms) are discussed and estimated based on the Social Diagnosis data. Finally, on the basis of the estimates, changes in the dimensions of social capital between 2005 and 2009 are assessed. It is worth underlining that the results obtained are the consequence of the choice of data source and the proposed approach to operationalisation. Nevertheless, the results show that the dimensions of social capital can be operationalised and quantifi ed following the modifi ed approach proposed by Van Oorschot, Arts and Gelissen (2006) and using data from the Social Diagnosis survey. They are justifi ed by the fi t statistics of models estimated for each wave separately as well as of the multigroup model (for all three waves together), expected sign of factor loadings and signifi cance of most indicators

Quality of life in cities – Empirical evidence in comparative European perspective

This study investigated aspects of urban quality of life in European cities. To this end, the Flash Eurobarometer 366: Quality of life in European cities was used. The survey provides opinions of 41 thousands inhabitants from 79 European cities, which enables analysis of interrelation between citizen characteristics, neighbourhood and city contexts and satisfaction with life in a city. The study analysed the following dimensions potentially related to satisfaction with life in a city: (1) availability of services, environment and social aspects in cities and neighbourhood; (2) socio-demographic factors; and (3) city characteristics such as economic development, labour market pressures, size, location, quality of institutions and safety. Findings indicated that satisfaction with life in a city varied considerably both inside cities and across Europe. Dissatisfaction with public transport, cultural facilities, availability of retail outlets, green space, air quality, trustworthiness of people, public administration and administrational efficiency, contributed significantly to dissatisfaction with life in a city. However, when citizens felt secure and satisfied with their place of living, they were also more likely to be satisfied with life in a city. Finally, cities with high percentage of people satisfied with safety in a city tended to be those in which citizens were also more satisfied with life in a city

The effects of arts-based learning on individual wellbeing and organizational change

This paper examines the effects of arts-based learning (ABL) on individual well-being and organisational change. Through a literature review, the article explores the research evidence that showcases the various benefits of ABL. These benefits include improvements in physical health, enhanced psychological outcomes, increased employee creativity and motivation, fostering collaborative behaviour, effective team-building, and improved communication with co-workers. The study provides a classification of ABL methods and emphasises the role of arts in organisational learning and creating innovative, healthy, and collaborative workplaces

Can adherence to moral standards and ethical behaviors help maintain a sense of purpose in life? : evidence from a longitudinal study of middle-aged and older adults

Personal factors, such as character strengths, have been shown to be favorably associated with concurrent and future well-being. Positive associations have also been reported between purpose in life and concurrent and subsequent health and well-being. Evidence on antecedents of purpose in life is, however, limited. This study examines whether the adherence to moral standards and ethical behaviors (AMSEB) is associated with subsequent purpose in life. Data from the Health and Retirement Study obtained from a sample of 8,788 middle-aged and older adults in the US (mean age = 64.9 years, age range 50–96 years) were used. The prospective associations between AMSEB and purpose in life were examined using generalized linear models. A rich set of covariates and prior outcomes were used as controls to reduce the risk of reverse causation. The robustness analyses included computation of sensitivity measures, E-values, and running a set of secondary analyses conducted on subsamples of respondents and using a limited set of covariates. It was found that middle-aged and older adults who demonstrated higher AMSEB reported a higher sense of purpose in life after the 4-year follow-up period. This association was found to be monotonic, moderately robust to potential unmeasured confounding and independent of demographics, prior socioeconomic status, prior health conditions, and health behaviors as well as prior psychological predispositions such as dispositional optimism and life satisfaction. It was also robust to missing data patterns. Policymakers and health practitioners may consider a predisposition to adherence to moral standards and ethical behaviors as a potential intervention target, as its improvement and/or maintenance has the potential to improve longevity and to help promote healthy and purposeful aging

Mind-stimulating leisure activities : prospective associations with health, wellbeing, and longevity

Introduction: This study examines prospective associations within a 6-year perspective between three mind-stimulating leisure activities (relaxed and solitary: reading; serious and solitary: doing number and word games; serious and social: playing cards and games) and 21 outcomes in (1) physical health, (2) wellbeing, (3) daily life functioning, (4) cognitive impairment, and (5) longevity domains. Methods: Data were obtained from 19,821 middle-aged and older adults from 15 countries participating in the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Temporal associations were obtained using generalized estimating equations. All models were controlled for prior sociodemographic, personality, lifestyle factors, health behaviors, and pre-baseline leisure activity values and all outcome variables. The Bonferroni correction was used to correct for multiple testing. E-values were calculated to examine the sensitivity of the associations to unmeasured confounding. Secondary analyses (1) under the complete case scenario, (2) after excluding respondents with health conditions, and (3) using a limited set of covariates were conducted to provide evidence for the robustness of the results. Results: The relaxed solitary activity of reading almost daily was prospectively associated with a lower risk of depression, experiencing pain, daily functioning limitations, cognitive impairment, lower loneliness scores, and more favorable wellbeing outcomes. Engaging in serious solitary leisure activities almost daily was prospectively associated with a lower risk of depression, feeling full of energy, and a lower risk of death by any cause. Occasionally engaging in these activities was prospectively associated with greater optimism and a lower risk of cognitive impairment. Engaging in serious social activities was prospectively associated with greater happiness, lower scores on the loneliness scale, a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, and an increased risk of cancer. Additionally, occasionally engaging in serious social activities was associated with greater optimism and lower risk of depression, pain, and mobility limitations. These associations were independent of demographics, socioeconomic status, personality, history of diseases, and prior lifestyle. The sensitivity analyses provided substantial evidence for the robustness of these associations. Discussion: Mind-engaging leisure activities can be considered a health and wellbeing resource. Practitioners may consider them tools that help middle-aged and older adults maintain their health and quality of life

Character strengths and health-related quality of life in a large international sample : a cross-sectional analysis

We examine associations between 24 character strengths (CS) and 15 health-related outcomes. We hypothesize that CS are favorably associated with positive health-related quality of life (HRQoL) outcomes, health behaviors, purpose in life, and lead to lower disease risk. Data from a large sample of approximately 60,000 respondents from 159 countries were used. CS yielding the most significant favorable associations across HRQoL outcomes were zest, self-regulation, hope, and gratitude. Concerning health behaviors, the primary character strengths were zest and self-regulation, while for a sense of purpose in life, these were hope, spirituality, and zest. The most consistently unfavorable association with the outcomes was observed for the strength of appreciation of beauty. Some negative associations may result from suboptimal use of CS

Do all savings matter equally? : saving types and emotional well ‑being among older adults : evidence from panel data.

Ill-being and mental ill-health have been on the rise in both Europe and the United States, especially among middle-aged and older adults. Although financial security has been shown to play a protective role in emotional well-being, little is known about the protective role of different types of family assets on mental health and well-being. Using longitudinal survey data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) collected between 2004 and 2017, we examined the role of different types of family assets in emotional well-being and depression. A multivariate proportional hazard model with time-varying covariates was used. We found that family assets may play a significant protective role against depression, loneliness, and a decreased quality of life. Different forms of family assets may play diverse roles in protecting against the risks of ill-being and mental ill-health; however, their roles in increasing the chances of overcoming ill-being are less pronounced. Promotion of saving behaviours and proper financial management can help protect against adverse well-being and health outcomes in middle-aged and older adults. Keyword

Turning the Mirror on the Architects: A Study of the Open-Plan Office and Work Behaviors at an Architectural Company

Following the rising cost of real estate and a desire to increase collaboration and communication among employees, the open-plan office has been trending over the past decades. Research about the impact of the open-plan office on humans is equivocal in endorsing this trend. The mixed results are further confounded following the specific job requirements, such as the need for privacy in jobs requiring a high level of concentration or, in contrast, the need for open workspace in jobs benefitting from team work and knowledge sharing. This study aims to understand the relationship between perceptions of three characteristics of the open-plan office (acoustical privacy, visual privacy, and office density), and the impact they yield on employees' judgment as well as affect-driven behaviors. The study benefits from the data from 456 employees located in 20 regional office locations within the same architectural firm. The restriction to employees of a design firm enables examinations of participants, who are already sensitive to the impacts of space by the nature of their work. The variables of interest included employee perception of the workspace (privacy, office density, and fit into workspace), employee rating of social relationships, self-reported mood (irritability) and optimal functioning (number of limited ability days), and work impacts (job satisfaction, work engagement, and job performance). The Model of behavior in an open-plan office setting based on affective events theory is adopted. Mediation roles of irritability and perception of fit into the workspace are examined. Structural equation modeling is applied to test the joint significance of the association between independent and dependent variables (direct effect) and the association between independent variables, mediator, and dependent variables (indirect effect). Nested structure of the data is accounted for by adjusting the standard errors for clustering. The significance of indirect and total effects is evaluated by the bootstrapping method. Our results show that working in the open-plan office limits the experience of privacy and intensifies the perception of intrusion among employees of an architectural company, mostly architects and designers. Additionally, employees' perception of lack of privacy and high office density negatively affect job satisfaction, work engagement, and internal work relation as well as increases the number of limited ability days. Interestingly, the lack of privacy and high office density seem to positively affect expressive personal relations among coworkers and job performance. We find supporting evidence for mediation roles of negative emotions, that is, irritability and perception of fit into the workspace

Children's dietary diversity and related factors in Rwanda and Burundi: A multilevel analysis using 2010 Demographic and Health Surveys

BACKGROUND: One of the reported causes of high malnutrition rates in Burundi and Rwanda is children's inadequate dietary habits. The diet of children may be affected by individual characteristics and by the characteristics of the households and the communities in which they live. We used the minimum dietary diversity of children (MDD-C) indicator as a proxy of diet quality aiming at: 1) assess how much of the observed variation in MDD-C was attributed to community clustering, and 2) to identify the MDD-C associated factors. METHODS: Data was obtained from the 2010 Demographic and Health Surveys of Burundi and Rwanda, from which only children 6 to 23 months from rural areas were analysed. The MDD-C was calculated according to the 2007 WHO/UNICEF guidelines. We computed the intra-class coefficient to assess the percentage of variation attributed to the clustering effect of living in the same community. And then we applied two-level logit regressions to investigate the association between MDD-C and potential risk factors following the hierarchical survey structure of DHS. RESULTS: The MDD-C was 23% in rural Rwanda and 16% in rural Burundi, and a 29% of its variation in Rwanda and 17% in Burundi was attributable to community clustering. Increasing age and living standards were associated with higher MDD-C in both countries, and only in Burundi also increasing level of education of the mother's partner. In Rwanda alone, the increasing ages of the head of the household and of the mother at first birth were also positively associated with it. Despite the identification of an important proportion of the MDD-C variation due to clustering, we couldn't identify any community variable significantly associated with it. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend further research using hierarchical models, and to integrate dietary diversity in holistic interventions which take into account both the household's and the community's characteristics the children live in.The authors received no specific funding for this work.S

Prospective associations between social connectedness and mental health : evidence from a longitudinal survey and health insurance claims data

Objectives: Evidence on social stimuli associated with mental health is based mostly on self-reported health measures. We aimed to examine prospective associations between social connectedness and clinical diagnosis of depression and of anxiety. Methods: Longitudinal observational data merged with health insurance data comprising medical information on diagnosis of depression and anxiety were used. 1,209 randomly sampled employees of a US employer provided data for the analysis. Robust Poisson regression models were used. Multiple imputation was conducted to handle missing data on covariates. Results: Better social connectedness was associated with lower risks of subsequently diagnosed depression and anxiety, over a one-year follow-up period. Reports of feeling lonely were associated with increased risks of depression and anxiety. Association between community-related social connectedness and subsequent diagnosis of depression, but not of anxiety, was found. The associations were independent of demographics, socioeconomic status, lifestyle, and work characteristics. They were also robust to unmeasured confounding, missing data patterns, and prior health conditions. Conclusion: Social connectedness may be an important factor for reducing risks of depression and anxiety. Loneliness should be perceived as a risk factor for depression and anxiety