Showing papers in "Social Indicators Research in 1981"

Predictors of satisfaction with housing and neighbourhood: A nationwide study in the Republic of Ireland

Abstract: The present paper reports results from a nationwide study, based on a representative sample in the Republic of Ireland It is part of a harmonised study of subjective social indicators which has been carried out in eight member countries of the European Community The data, which were obtained by survey techniques, are largely subjective or perceptual in nature However, objective data were also obtained, thus permitting direct comparisons, in many cases, between objective conditions and subjective measures related to housing and neighbourhood to determine which characteristics were most highly predictive of overall satisfaction with housing and overall satisfaction with neighbourhood In addition, the relationships between housing and neighbourhood variables and more global attitudinal variables (ie, life satisfaction and anomia) were explored

The quality of life in Australia

Abstract: This paper outlines a long term project on the quality of life in Australia and presents some initial survey data. The long term project is intended (1) to find which domains of life most affect the perceived well-being of Australians and the values/satisfactions people wish to achieve in these domains (2) to propose policy programs designed to enhance satisfaction with particular domains and (3) to assess the political feasibility of proposed programs. Policy programs intended to enhance satisfaction are termed positive welfare programs to distinguish them from conventional compensatory welfare programs. The survey data analysed here (national sample, N=679) deal with the satisfactions and dissatisfactions of Australians, the correlates of perceived well-being and the links between domains and values. Perceived well-being is measured by Andrews and Withey's Life-as-a-whole index and Bradburn's Affect Balance scale. Satisfactions are measured on a 9 point modified version of Andrews and Withey's delighted-terrible scale. Readers familiar with American, British and Canadian findings will find the results reported here broadly similar. However, the linkage between people's sociological characteristics and their satisfaction levels appears to be exceptionally weak in Australia, which tends to confirm the view that Australia is a comparatively unstratified society.

The uses, validity, and reliability of perceived environmental quality indicators*

Abstract: Perceived environmental quality indicators (PEQIs) rely on direct analysis of public preferences regarding the state of their environment. PEQIs can be useful policy inputs because they broaden the base of values considered and can increase the accountability of government. PEQIs are more relevant in the areas of aesthetics, environmental amenities, and recreation than in cases where there are major ecological or human health consequences.

A twist on the heisenberg principle: Or, how crime affects its measurement

Abstract: Evidence suggests that surveys of victimization are affected by large and systematic sources of bias which reduce the validity of comparisons over time and among geographical areas. This paper argues that the bias is especially severe because errors of measurement are correlated with the level of ‘true’ victimization. Evidence relevant to four hypothesized sources of bias is considered. First, it is hypothesized that lifestyle characteristics which are associated with victimization are also associated with respondent inaccessibility, resulting in the exclusion of victims from surveys. Second, coverage and response rates are lower in high crime areas, in part due to mutual avoidance by interviewers and respondents. Third, the social context influences rates of reporting and the classification of incidents of victimization. Finally, the bias introduced by variations in survey procedures is more severe when concepts are ambiguous and ill-defined. The hypotheses and evidence pertinent to them suggest that the measurement of trends and differences in victimization may be subject to large and fluctuating sources of error. Possible research strategies for investigating the sources of bias are suggested.

The parental families of Americans in birth cohorts 1890–1955: A categorical, linear equation model estimated from the NORC general social survey

Abstract: A linear, categorical statistical model with five variables, Father's Education, Father's occupation, Size of Place at Age 16, Mother's Employment, and Total Siblings, is estimated with data from the 1972–1978 NORC General Surveys to describe the parental families of Americans in the birth cohorts 1890 to 1955. The major substantive conclusions are: (1) The educational level of American parents increased at an accelerating rate from 1890 to 1955, (2) The proportion growing up in farm homes declined steadily. Farm fathers were less well educated but the educational difference grew steadily smaller, (3) The proportion of Americans growing up in cities of 50 000 or larger increased steadily, the trend being similar in both educational levels, (4) Metropolitan families increased at an accelerating rate, the acceleration being due to the acceleration in education attainment, (5) Farm families decreased at an approximately constant rate because two opposite trends — acceleration in Education and declining association between Education and Farm cancelled each other out, (6) Town Families —non farm families living in cities under 50 000 increased throughout the period, but faster before 1930 than afterwards, (7) Metropolitan families had consistently more children and more employment of mothers than Town families; farm families were slower in experiencing the trend toward working wives; farm families were about the same as town families in decreasing rates of fertility, so the urban/farm gap in fertility remained constant, (8) at the turn of the century higher status mothers were more likely to have small families and less likely to work. After 1910 the pattern changed, as better educated families opted for the pattern of working mothers and fewer children. By the birth cohort of 1955 the education difference in fertility had grown considerably while the education difference in maternal employment had reversed.

Rural poverty and ecological problems: Results of a new type of baseline study

Abstract: This baseline study used data from a informant survey of 76 rural communities in Central Tunisia to construct, first, measures of rural poverty and ecological deterioration and, second, indices of the major institutional complexes in the region. Using factor analysis, the study identified five institutional dimensions: services, religious institutions, mechanized agriculture, irrigated agriculture and sedentary herding. These dimensions were then used as independent variables in a regression analysis of the two social indicators with the results that sedentary herding and religious institutions (negative) predict ecological problems, and the same two dimensions, with the addition of services (negative) predict poor housing. Compared to household survey baselines, this one is less expensive, simpler to analyze and provides an analytic picture of the institutional structure, in relation to key indicators, of a region.

Some comments on ‘the structure of subjective well-being in nine western societies’ by andrews and inglehart

Abstract: This paper makes a number of critical comments on a recent article by Andrews and Inglehart (1979), where the similarity of subjective well-being data from nine different countries was investigated. It is first shown that different MDS representations can be constructed for the data which differ considerably among each other and with respect to the similarity hypothesis. The goodness of the MDS solutions is discussed by using finer indices than overall Stress. Then, the measures of configurational similarity are evaluated statistically. Finally, it is shown that other, equally valid measures lead to completely different conclusions. It is argued that this poses an insurmountable problem. A facet theoretical approach which looks for prototypical structures rather than a single similarity index avoids this dilemma.

Political and bureaucratic dilemmas in social indicators for policy making

Abstract: This paper identifies a variety of political and bureaucratic constraints on the use of social indicators in policy making, including those associated with nonuse, misuse, quantification, and value-weighting. The basic elements in the policy making process are identified as value-conflict, bureaucratic maintenance, and analytic rationality. These elements and the activites of policy making are then related to social indicator research. Means for overcoming the constraints are discussed including: the use of sensitivity analysis, improved communication, a commitment to intellectural pluralism and moral responsibility, and especially improved policy modeling.

Housing progress in the seventies: New indicators

Abstract: This article introduces a conceptual model of housing quality that emphasizes consumers' experience of improvements during their lifetime. Following a review of the widely recognized inadequacies associated with the traditional indicators of housing quality, a ‘housing progress’ model is offered as an alternative method for conceptualizing the quality of persons' housing experiences. This model suggests that changes in the level of housing well-being are reflected by changes in the rate at which households move toward their personal housing preferences. To operationalize this concept, four indicators are developed that are based on the pattern of housing unit exchanges achieved by movers each year between 1973 and 1977. The indicators reveal a pronounced downtum in progress (on the order of 20 percent) with the fall in construction between 1973 and 1975. After 1975, progress increased with the rise in construction, but there is evidence of a widening gap between the housing opportunities of owners and renters.

Quantitative output of the criminal justice system: Case processing indicators for the United States, 1953?1976

Abstract: Time series trends in the processing of the seven major Index Offenses are assessed over the years 1953–76. Five types of offense-standardized criminal justice processing indicators are defined (arrest, clearance, formal charge, guilty-as-charged, and guilty-but-reduced rates or ratios) and calculated. Comparing patterns over time to evaluate overall processing trends, these data indicate generally positive correlations of processing indicators over the period studied and confirm the hypothesized decline in processing input-output rates and ratios since about 1960. The hypothesized impact of crime rates and juvenile arrest percentage upon these trends is supported generally by structural equation and difference equation analysis. Our analysis indicates that much of the processing trend indeed can be explained in terms of caseload pressures and the proportion of juvenile arrests which drive down the ‘performance’ of the examined processing indicators.

Crime and punishment: A national reading

Abstract: The results of a recent national survey pertaining to the perception of the seriousness of crime, the response to crime, and views regarding the three controversial areas of pornography, marijuana, and abortion are reported. Canadians are found to be deeply concerned with the level of crime and critical of the police and the courts, favouring more severe handling of offenders including the use of capital punishment. While the majority are opposed to the legalization of marijuana, they endorse the criminalization of neither pornographic distribution to adults nor abortion in select situations. The author concludes with a discussion of some of the implications of these findings.

Malthus and the social limits to growth

Abstract: This paper seeks to demonstrate a tradition of argument that starts with Malthus' writings on population and on the environmental limits to growth, and continues in today's neo-conservative writings on ‘mobilized demand’ and the social limits to growth. The basic Malthusian theorem shows a concern with effective or mobilized demand. In this form, the theorem can readily accommodate changes that so-called neo-conservatives were to introduce in centuries that followed. Today the debate on the perfectibility of man, and the end-point of progress continues; only the terms of reference have changed. A key modification is the switch of concerns from physical to social limits. This switch is exemplified in Fred Hirsch's book, Social Limits to Growth, which introduces the useful concept of ‘positional goods’ to help account for the unsatisfiability of modern wants. The paper concludes with a quote from Keynes, which clearly establishes the line of development from Malthus to the neo-conservatives; and with a question, asked by one of Keynes's critics, that can be addressed to the entire tradition Malthus founded.

Design for a microcomputer-based rural development information system

Abstract: A new type of rural development information system is described. It is based on two recently introduced low-cost technologies; microcomputers and the informant survey. When the informant data from the universe of subdistricts in a region are analyzed with modern multivariate techniques, it is possible to derive comprehensive measures of institutional structure as well as five measures of rural progress. The latter are: a level of living scale based on housing characteristics, a measure ofinequality derived from the difference between the housing of irrigated and dryland farmers, an estimate of agricultural productivity, a score of ecological problems, and a measure of status group restrictions, specifically restrictions on females. These and similar measures of social structure constitute the ‘macrosocial accounting’ file. In addition this information system includes project monitoring and administrative accounting files. The uses of this system are familiar — comparative description, monitoring and evaluation — but in this integrated and upgraded form, the potential problem solving capacity of rural development agencies should be significantly enhanced.

Determinants of morbidity and disability trends in the united states, 1958–77

Abstract: Macrodynamic structural-equation models are presented that show how changes in annual levels of aggregate indexes of several morbidity and disability conditions for the United States over the years 1958 to 1977 affect each other and are affected by other aggregate demographic and socioeconomic changes. After reviewing the record of annual changes in these indexes based on data from the National Health Interview Survey, patterns of temporal covariation in the time series are discussed and some tentative structural-equation models are constructed to account for their behavior. Statistically, the analyses reveal considerable variation in levels of year-to-year variance explained for these indexes-from 35 percent explained for days of school loss to 97 percent for all acute conditions. Substantive findings imply that a decreasing proportion of preschool children in the population contributes to a decline in the incidence of infective and parasitic diseases, and an increasing proportion of the population at the older ages results in increases in the prevalence of chronic conditions, days of bed disability, and days of restricted activity. Further, increases in economic prosperity lead to an increase in the incidence of injuries and a decrease in the incidence of viral conditions, while higher levels of unemployment produce more injuries and restricted activity days. These inferences corroborate, for the most part, results of prior studies that have been restricted to crosssectional analyses. In addition, however, they provide a basis for making explicit quantitative projections of future levels of morbidity and disability in the American population on the basis of exogenous demographic and socioeconomic conditions.

On the use of social indicators for planning

Abstract: A social indicator in the context of planning, which induces a course of social change, is not a mere ‘good statistic’. While its validity depends on the relation drawn among its constituent properties, its relevance would depend upon the sequential relations it can draw with the other variables concerned with the envisaged course of change. And its necessity and efficiency will be rated accordingly as it can epitomize the situation which all these variables depict. A properly constructed set of indicators, therefore, may not only suggest the planning measures which should be employed but also throw light on a better formulation of the targets, goals and even the objective of planning. These points are briefly discussed in this paper with illustrations from India.

Canadian corporate charitable contributions: Trends and policies

Abstract: Corporate contributions play a significant role in the funding of Canadian charitable institutions. In this paper, the trends of absolute and relative contributions, as reported by taxation Statistics and Statistics Canada figures, are given on a yearly and industry basis. some reasons for the trends are suggested. A number of policy issues related to contributions are presented. Their role in the present contribution situation is set out and a number of suggestions for changes are given in an attempt to create a dialogue between the various parties affected — charitable institutions, corporations, individual citizens and governments.

On the quality of life in India: An exploratory survey

Abstract: This is an abridged version of a paper written for the Unesco, Paris, to explore the feasibility of studying in India the role of value systems and life goals in quality of life, with reference to social structural variations and the prevailing socioeconomic conditions. Time and money constraints did not permit the examination of Indian society in its structural and cultural diversity. The focus was on the indication of possibilities of variation in the subject matter and how to elicit such variations. Moreover, in its abridged form, the paper deals essentially with the methodology of studying the quality of life in any society instead of substantial findings.

Years of life lost due to genetic disease

Abstract: ‘Years of life lost’ is a quantity widely used in biostatistics to assess the importance of a cause of death. In its traditional meaning the phrase refers to the number of additional years that the average person in a specified reference group could expect to live if a given cause of death were eliminated. Recently the idea has been reformulated and applied to genetic conditions. The present paper begins with a description of the traditional calculation and goes on to present the reformulation, first for congenital diseases and then for diseases with delayed onset. A discussion follows of how different ages in a person's life should be weighted and the value considerations implicit in whatever decision one makes. The next topic is the way one eliminates a genetic disease, the concrete procedures used to do it, followed by morbidity due to genetic disease and the calculation of years of life lost due to nongenetic risk factors. The paper concludes with next steps in assessing the impact of genetic disease.