Quality of life of the population of Russia in the 21st century: prosperous years (2002–2012). Review of the monograph by Yu.P. Averin

Abstract

The work is devoted to the assessment of the perceived quality of life of the Russian people and its changes during the decade of the most prosperous economic development of Russia. The assessment of life quality and factors of its formation is intended to solve the fundamental and practical problems of social science. First of all, the assessment allows understanding the stage of development of the society and the characteristics of the achieved life quality in general and concerning its separate components; secondly, it helps understanding the influence of social system and state institutions over the conditions of life quality; thirdly, it shows the state of separate objective components of life quality; fourthly, it represents the way objective components of life quality determine the state of its subjective components – perceived quality of life and its components; finally, the state of the perceived life quality, its separate components and their influence over the state of social order in the society. The book covers the substantiation of the methodological and methodical approaches to the study of the perceived life quality of the population. Based on the results of empirical studies conducted in 2002, 2008 and 2012 according to a common methodology and method, the authors describe the changes in the state of the eight characteristics of the perceived life quality of the adult population of Russia which took place during the mentioned period: physical activity, the roles of physical and emotional problems in limitation of life activity, mental health, pain sense modality, general health, vitality, social activity and the contribution of the state of these parameters to the generalized index of life quality of the Russian population. The following factors of formation of the state of these characteristics were disclosed: gender, age, employment, average income per person in a family, education, marital status, place of residence. The authors define the influence of the state of the economy and economic situation in Russia in this period over the state of the perceived life quality.