Eesti kristlaskonna koroonapandeemiat puudutavad arusaamad ja nende seos isiklike ja kogukondlike veendumustega

Current paper is focusing on emerging Coronavirus theology of the Estonian Christian community, to understand and map the theological and biblical arguments for and against vaccination and, to analyze if these arguments real life decisions regarding the vaccination against COVID-19. The research is based on online survey which was filled by 127 individuals with varied denominational and social background.  It appears that many Estonian Christians have personal theological arguments (often both pro and con) about vaccination. At the same time, no relationship between membership of different congregation and attitudes towards the vaccination could be confirmed. More than two-thirds of respondents supported the idea that topics related to vaccination should be discussed within churches. However, almost no one indicated that the sermons had an impact on their attitudes towards the vaccination

Explaining the Relationship between Social Trust and Value Similarity: The Case of Estonia

The article is dedicated to explaining why value similarity fosters generalised social trust in high-trust societies. Previous findings by Beilmann and Lilleoja suggest that value similarity is more important in generating individual-level social trust in countries where the overall levels of social trust are higher, while in countries with a low level of social trust, congruity of the personal value structure with the country-level value structure tends to be coupled with lower trustfulness on the part of individuals. The article explores the meso-level indicators that could explain this relationship. The relationship between social trust and human values was examined in a sample of 2,051 people in Estonia, using data from the European Social Survey, round 7. The results suggest that when differences in socio-economic factors are controlled for, value similarity remains a significant factor in fostering generalised social trust in Estonian society. However, its direct effect is relatively low when compared with predictors such as trust in certain institutions, economic well-being, and ethnicity. Trust in the legal system and the police plays a particularly important role in fostering generalised social trust in a high-trust society wherein people believe that other people in general treat them honestly and kindly

Contextual drivers of environmental values cross-culturally: evidence from Europe between 2004 and 2012

Environmental issues continue to grow in international prominence, owing to the importance of environ- mental conditions to human wellbeing globally. This paper focuses on why people's values toward care for nature and environmental protection change - one of the antecedents to pro-environmental norms and behaviour. We aimed to clarify how individual and country-level contextual factors affect environmental values in Europe. Our cross-national study used data on individual environmental values from the 2004 and 2012 rounds of the European Social Survey, in combination with macro-level data on socio-economic security, countries' environmental performance and educational levels. Country-level results revealed that throughout the studied years, nature held more importance to people in countries with increased levels of unemployment and exacerbated income disparities, including in transitional, post-socialist economies. Care for environment is less prominent in countries already performing well in terms of socio-economic and environmental performance, i.e. in states that may have higher resilience capacity towards adverse environmental impacts. Besides a state’s science education, which functions as an effective socialiser of caring for nature, practical experiences with adverse environmental impacts (e.g. health impairment) could be used to predict an increase in the mean value of the natural environment in a country

Social trust and value similarity: the relationship between social trust and human values in Europe

The purpose of the current paper is to test whether value similarity may foster social trust in society and whether people have higher levels of social trust when they emphasise the same values that prevail in their country. The relationship between social trust and human values was examined in a sample of 51,308 people across 29 European countries using data from the European Social Survey round 6. Results suggest that value similarity is more important in generating individual level social trust in countries where the overall levels of social trust are higher. There is a stronger positive relationship between value similarity and social trust in Scandinavian countries, which have high social trust levels, while in countries with a low level of social trust, congruity of the personal value structure with the country level value structure tends to decrease the individuals trustfulness

Social Trust and Value Similarity: the Relationship between Social Trust and Human Values in Europe

The purpose of the current paper is to test whether value similarity may foster social trust in society and whether people have higher levels of social trust when they emphasise the same values that prevail in their country. The relationship between social trust and human values was examined in a sample of 51,308 people across 29 European countries using data from the European Social Survey round 6. Results suggest that value similarity is more important in generating individual level social trust in countries where the overall levels of social trust are higher. There is a stronger positive relationship between value similarity and social trust in Scandinavian countries, which have high social trust levels, while in countries with a low level of social trust, congruity of the personal value structure with the country level value structure tends to decrease the individuals trustfulnes

Explaining the Relationship between Social Trust and Value Similarity: The Case of Estonia

The article is dedicated to explaining why value similarity fosters generalised social trust in high-trust societies. Previous findings by Beilmann and Lilleoja suggest that value similarity is more important in generating individual-level social trust in countries where the overall levels of social trust are higher, while in countries with a low level of social trust, congruity of the personal value structure with the country-level value structure tends to be coupled with lower trustfulness on the part of individuals. The article explores the meso-level indicators that could explain this relationship. The relationship between social trust and human values was examined in a sample of 2,051 people in Estonia, using data from the European Social Survey, round 7. The results suggest that when differences in socio-economic factors are controlled for, value similarity remains a significant factor in fostering generalised social trust in Estonian society. However, its direct effect is relatively low when compared with predictors such as trust in certain institutions, economic well-being, and ethnicity. Trust in the legal system and the police plays a particularly important role in fostering generalised social trust in a high-trust society wherein people believe that other people in general treat them honestly and kindly

Does correction for measurement error have an effect on the structure and comparability of basic human values?

It is a well-known fact that survey data always contains measurement errors, which can in different ways bias the results of an analysis (Alwin, 2007). In quantitative research, this problem has usually been ignored due to lack of quality estimates and the complexity of correction procedures. However, this argument is not valid anymore, as there exists a new approach to determining the quality of any specific question based on a prediction of quality using the program SQP2 (Survey Quality Predictor 2.1), which in turn allows for the correction of measurement error by following a relatively simple procedure as described by Saris and Gallhofer (2014) and illustrated by DeCastellarnau and Saris (2014). During recent years, there has been an increasing number of studies researching the structure of basic human values (Schwartz, 1992), which has resulted in improvements to the theory and led to a new 19-factor value model (Schwartz et al., 2012; Saris, Knoppen, & Schwartz, 2013). However, none of the recent studies have concurrently taken into account random and systematic errors, which can potentially have an effect on the structure. Therefore in this paper we will try to overcome this shortcoming and will be analysing the effect of the correction for both types of measurement error on the structure of basic human values. We use the same representative data from Estonia that was used in a study by Lilleoja and Saris (2014), which enabled us to compare value structures before and after the correction for measurement error. Due to the existence of a large ethnic minority in Estonian society, the sample additionally allowed testing the equivalence of the measurements in the two subpopulations after correcting for measurement error. This study shows that the correction for measurement error provides additional support for the validity of a new value structure and it also sheds some new light on cross-cultural equivalence

Testing a new operationalization of the basic values in Estonia on two subpopulations: A Estonian and a Russian speaking subpopulation

The Theory of Basic Human Value developed by Shalom Schwartz has held a dominant place on the field of value studies for at least two decades. It has been used widely across countries and different disciplines worldwide. Despite some modest adaptations, the theory has maintained its original form. Still, an increasing number of critical discussions have recently been published throwing doubt upon universality of its inner structure (ex. Mohler and Wohn 2005, Clercq 2006, Perrinjaquet et al. 2007, Davidov and Schmidt 2007, Davidov, Schmidt and Schwartz 2008, Davidov 2008, Knoppen and Saris 2009a, Fischer et al. 2010, Knoppen and Saris 2009b), which in turn have amplified the amount of research on methodological issues. Most of these studies have proposed ways to improve raised model shortages, mainly through unification of some adjacent value types. For example several studies lead by Eldad Davidov (Davidov and Schmidt 2007, Davidov, Schmidt and Schwartz 2008, Davidov 2008), which were all based on ESS data (PVQ21), referred to the need to join 3 sets of values, which showed low discriminant validity. In reflection to these studies Knoppen and Saris (2009a and b) showed that the given grouping of factors was a consequence of misspecifications in the model. They proved that the chosen items for the different problematic values had cross loadings on each other and when these cross loadings were ignored the correlations between the factors became very high sometimes even higher than 1.0. They also showed that an alternative model for the items of same PVQ resolved the problem of high correlations. Their results have been confirmed largely in several recent papers (Cieciuch and Schwartz 2012, Beierlein et al 2012) Schwartz has referred to the Estonian population as one of the most deviating ones (Schwartz 1992: p 21). That fact might have been related with the existence of relatively large ethnic minority in this society, whose value structure could have been varying compared with the one of ethnic majority. Therefore, this paper will test the new model on a representative sample of the Estonia population, collected in late 2008. In doing so the equivalence of the measurement in the two subpopulations will be tested as well

Measurement of concepts based on the media module of the ESS

Given the importance of the media in all societies, the Central Coordinating Team of the European Social Survey (ESS) asked Ken Newton to propose a module for Media use which could be used in the core questionnaire of the ESS. Together with the Central Coordinating Team of the ESS, a module for media use has been developed. This module allows the measurement of the “total time spent on the traditional media” (TV, Radio and Newspapers),  ʺthe total time spent on political issues and current affairs in the media” and “the total time spent for other purposes in the media”. Besides that one can measure the “Interest of people for political issues in the media”. These measures are evaluated in this report. The questions asked are:  ‐ How are these concepts operationalized?  ‐ Can these measures be compared across countries?  ‐ How good are these measures and do we need these aggregated variables or should we rely on the separate measures of the use of different media? ‐ How should we compute optimal composite scores for these concepts?  ‐ How can we analyze the relationships of these variables with other variables taking into account the measurement errors in these variables. For the concepts which have been evaluated in a positive way “ Use of the media for political issues”, “the use of the media for entertainment” and “the interest in political issues in the media the concepts” the scores of all respondents for these concepts have been computed and placed in a data file. This data file can be added to the ESS data files and can be used for further analysis

The development of the program SQP 2.0 for the prediction of the quality of survey questions

Working paper number 24 of the series of the Research and Expertise Centre for Survey Methodology (RECSM)