LOCAL WELLBEING INDEX: THEORETIC MODEL AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY VALIDATION

Abstract

The article contains a description of the development process of Local Wellbeing Index (LWBI) by the Rating Lab research laboratory for urban and rural settlements. The first part of the text is dedicated to building a theoretical model based on publications from sociological and psychological fields, which studied one’s wellbeing in settlements The models and studies of urban research, psychological and emotional parameters of wellbeing of residents of settlements, sustainability of well-being, provision of basic needs in the settlement and cities as zoned spaces were used a basis for the study. The following part depicts the results of constructing an empirical model for LWBI measurements built based on conducting of two waves of testing surveys on small-scale samples. The final model consists of 22 indicators which are distributed across five dimensions – emotional perception of a settlement, the level of economic opportunities, the level of orderliness of a settlement, the level of education and medicine, and the level of civil security in a settlement. The third stage of our study covered the measurement of LWBI in Ukrainian settlements based on the results of a national representative survey (n=8572). The retrieved data was used to validate the methodology we developed according to the parameters of the model’s reliability, criterion, and construct validity. Such methods as correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the checks of data’s applicability to the data were applied to achieve the results. Overall, we have managed to confirm the validity of our measurement tool and its suitability for research projects aimed at measuring the levels of local wellbeing in urban and rural settlements.