Round Of European Social Survey Research Articles

The Interrelationship between Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Subjective Well-Being: The Case of Central and Eastern European Countries

Scientists and policy makers more often point out that pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour are related to subjective well-being, but there is a lack of deep scientific insights, as well as possible measure analysis, which would promote pro-environmental behaviour but, at the same time, lead to higher subjective well-being. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between pro-environmental attitudes, concerns about climate change, and subjective well-being in Central and Eastern European countries. This study employs descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis to identify subjective well-being predictors in the case of Central and Eastern European countries. This study uses data from European Social Survey (ESS) rounds 4–10, and includes questions on pro-environmental attitudes, climate change cognition, orientation towards materialistic values, and households’ total net income. The conducted research revealed that pro-environmental attitudes were related to higher levels of subjective well-being in different ESS rounds in many Central and Eastern European countries. In addition, there is some evidence that the relationship between pro-environmental attitudes and subjective well-being is weaker among individuals who are more oriented towards materialistic values. According to the results of this study, policy makers should develop policies that not only address environmental problems but also contribute to subjective well-being.

Does Health Vulnerability Predict Voting for Right-Wing Populist Parties in Europe?

Abstract: Introduction: A recent article by Kavanagh et al. (2021) in American Political Science Review suggested that health vulnerability predicts voting patterns for the populist far-right. Aim: We sought to distinguish socioculturally conservative from antielite voting, expecting health vulnerability to predict only the former. Methods: We combined data from the European Social Survey (round 7) with the Chapel Hill Expert Survey (2014). We preregistered several other hypotheses regarding associations between health and voting and predetermined the smallest effect size of interest (SESOI: r = .05). Results: Health vulnerability did not predict socioculturally conservative voting, and the results for antielite voting were mixed. To investigate why our result differed from Kavanagh et al.’s, we reran their analysis employing covariate specification curve analyses. The statistical significance and the direction of the association between health vulnerability and voting depended on which covariates were included. Across 1,000 models with randomly drawn covariate specifications, 59.6% showed a positive, 29.8% a zero, and 10.6% a negative association between health vulnerability and voting for far-right populist parties. However, all effect sizes were more consistently smaller than our predetermined SESOI. Conclusions: Our study illustrates the necessity of causally justifying and preregistering all covariates and predetermining an SESOI.

Estimating the prevalence and characteristics of people in severe social isolation in 29 European countries: A secondary analysis of data from the European Social Survey round 9 (2018-2020).

The main aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of people in severe social isolation as a proxy for high risk of hikikomori using data from 29 European countries. The relationship between the presence/absence of severe social isolation and demographic and psychosocial variables was also investigated. Publicly available data from the European Social Survey (ESS) round 9 collected between August 2018 and January 2020 were used. Data from the ESS round 1 (September 2002 -December 2003) and round 10 (September 2020 -May 2022) were also examined to investigate changes in the prevalence of severe social isolation over time. Analyses were restricted to the working-age population (15-64 years). A complex sampling design to obtain weighted prevalence and results was used. The study protocol was preregistered online on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/6a7br/). The weighted prevalence of severe social isolation was 2.01% for the sample from the ESS 1, 1.77% for the sample from the ESS 9, and 1.71% for the sample from the ESS 10, indicating a decrease over time, mainly in males. Logistic regression models showed that different sociodemographic factors (e.g., being retired, being permanently sick or disabled, doing housework, living in Central and Eastern Europe, living uncomfortably on household income, having no income) were associated with severe social isolation. Further, feeling unsafe when walking alone in the neighbourhood after dark, low social trust, and support, decreased happiness and lack of future planning correlated with severe social isolation after adjustment for the effect of sociodemographic factors was made. In this study, the prevalence of severe social isolation as a proxy for hikikomori in European countries is in line with that found by previous representative studies conducted in Asian countries. The novelty of the findings as well as implications for hikikomori research are discussed according to recent scientific literature.

Education and self-rated health: The moderating effect of primary care quality in 24 OECD countries, 2002 to 2018

It is well researched that people with lower education are more likely to become ill and die at an earlier age than those who are well educated. We, however know much less about the mechanisms which bring this about, especially the contextual factors. One way to obtain new information is to compare countries with similar features and focus on institutional factors such as the welfare state's organization. For health outcomes, the framework of the healthcare sector is highly relevant, but it has thus only been explored to a limited extent by comparative welfare state research. The present study places the main explanatory variable at the contextual level, particularly the institutional structure of the welfare state. The role of primary care quality for moderating the relationship between education and self-rated health will be empirically tested by comparing 24 affluent countries. Data from the European Social Survey (ESS) round 1 to 9, years 2002 to 2018, is pooled and matched with data on primary care quality from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The results lend support to the contention that primary care quality reduces the educational gradient in health and that the moderating effect of primary care depends on age. Respondents with low education were shown to benefit from improved primary care quality already as young adults, while for respondents with higher education, such an effect is found only amongst middle-aged and older adults.

Interviewer Involvement in Respondent Selection Moderates the Relationship Between Response Rates and Sample Bias in Cross-National Survey Projects in Europe

Abstract Survey researchers and practitioners often assume that higher response rates are associated with a higher quality of survey data. However, the evidence for this claim in face-to-face surveys is mixed. To explain these mixed results, recent studies have proposed that interviewers’ involvement in respondent selection moderates the effect of response rates on data quality. Previous analyses based on data from the European Social Survey found that response rates are positively associated with data quality when interviewer involvement in respondent selection is minimal. However, the association between response rates and data quality is negative when interviewers are more involved in respondent selection through household frame creation or within-household selection of target persons. These studies have hypothesized that some interviewers deviate from prescribed selection procedures to select individuals with higher response propensities, which increase response rates while reducing data quality. We replicate these results with an extended dataset, including more recent European Social Survey rounds and three other European survey projects: the European Quality of Life Survey, European Values Study, and International Social Survey Programme. Based on our results, we recommend that surveys include procedures to verify respondent-selection practices into their fieldwork control procedures.

Employers’ Retirement Age Norms in European Comparison

Abstract Policies incentivizing longer working lives can remain ineffective if employers are not able and willing to employ an aging workforce. Depending on what employers consider appropriate age norms for work and retirement, they may be more willing to recruit and retain older workers. This study investigates how these retirement age norms differ across Europe and how they are related to country- and gender-specific pension policies and employment practices. The study uses data from the European Social Survey round 9 (collected in 2018) for 27 countries. Employers are identified as self-employed with personnel and managers who supervise others. The data include questions about the ages of when someone is too young to retire and when someone is too old to work. These items are combined and used in a set of multilevel interval regression models to analyze: (a) How employers’ retirement age norms differ from those of employees and (b) How employers’ retirement age norms vary across countries. The results indicate that, overall, employers have higher retirement age norms than employees, but that the difference narrows substantially once controlled for other factors. Employers’ retirement age norms are positively related to countries’ gender-specific statutory retirement ages and older-worker employment rates. In the case of statutory retirement ages, this association is stronger among employers than among various socioeconomic groups of employees.

Religiosity of Migrants and Natives in Western Europe 2002–2018: Convergence and Divergence

Patterns of religiosity among both settled and migrant populations have been the subject of intense, and often conflicting, scholarly debate. In Europe, most analysis of migrant religiosity has focused on Islam, though migrants to Western European countries come from a wide range of religions and denominations. Despite a general assumption of assimilation over generations to greater secularization, evidence on trends in religiosity across migrants of different religions and for both first and second generations remains partial. We use the European Social Survey (rounds 1–9) to examine three dimensions of religiosity encompassing both performative and subjective domains, across 15 Western European destination countries over a 16-year period. While variation in religiosity between different affiliations is not large, migrants tend to have higher religiosity than non-migrants across the religious affiliations we consider. Over time we see that while natives show an overall decline in religiosity over the period, first- and second-generation Protestants and Muslims show increases in religiosity, providing some evidence for religious revival. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of secularization and religious revival, and the future religious landscape of Europe.

Comparability and reliability of the positive and negative affect scales in the European Social Survey.

This study examined the measurement invariance of the positive and negative affect scales in the European Social Survey (ESS) in 2006 and 2012. We employed Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis with an estimator for ordinal data, allowing us to test threshold invariance, which had not been previously investigated for these scales. A 3-item measure of Positive Affect and a 5-item measure of Negative Affect showed that configural, threshold and metric (loading) and partial scalar (intercept) invariance held across almost all countries and between the two ESS Rounds. Our results provide cross-cultural validity to a broader measure of negative affect than past research using the ESS and examine these scales across more countries than any past study. Besides providing valuable insights for researchers interested in well-being and the ESS, our study also contributes to the ongoing discussion about diverging analytical choices in invariance testing.

Survey mode and nonresponse bias: A meta-analysis based on the data from the international social survey programme waves 1996-2018 and the European social survey rounds 1 to 9.

The constant increase in survey nonresponse and fieldwork costs are the reality of survey research. Together with other unpredictable events occurring in the world today, this increase poses a challenge: the necessity to accelerate a switch from face-to-face data collection to different modes, that have usually been considered to result in lower response rates. However, recent research has established that the simple response rate is a feeble measure of study quality. Therefore, this article aims to analyze the effect of survey characteristics, especially the survey mode, on the nonresponse bias. The bias measure used is the internal criteria first proposed by Sodeur and first applied by Kohler. The analysis is based on the survey documentation and results from the International Social Survey Programme waves 1996-2018 and the European Social Survey rounds 1 to 9. Random-effects three-level meta-regression models, based on data from countries from each inhabited continent, were created in order to estimate the impact of the survey mode or modes, sampling design, fieldwork experience, year of data collection, and response rate on the nonresponse bias indicator. Several ways of nesting observations within clusters were also proposed. The results suggest that using mail and some types of mixed-mode surveys were connected to lower nonresponse bias than using face-to-face mode surveys.

Immigration Status, Educational Level, and Perceived Discrimination in Europe.

Multiple studies have been conducted to test the moderating effect of immigration on the positive health results yielded through educational attainment. However, no study has been conducted to examine the role of immigration as a moderator in the association between educational level and perceived discrimination in Europe. We aimed to study whether an inverse association exists between educational level and perceived discrimination in European countries and whether immigration status moderates the association between educational level and perceived discrimination. Data from the 10th round of the cross-sectional European Social Survey (ESS) were used in this cross-sectional study. A total of 17,596 participants between 15-90 years old who lived in European countries were included. The independent variable was educational level, a categorical variable, and the dependent variable was perceived discrimination. Immigration status was the moderator, and age and sex were confounders. Of 17,596 participants, 16,632 (94.5%) were native-born and 964 were immigrants (5.5%). We found that higher levels of educational level were protective against perceived discrimination, which was also found in immigrant participants; however, the effect was weaker. This study found that educational level was a protective factor against perceived discrimination. This effect, however, was more robust in the native-born participants than in their immigrant counterparts.

Weakly institutionalized, heavily contested: Does support for contemporary welfare reforms rely on norms of distributive justice?

Abstract Three reforms each appealing to a different logic of (re)distribution are strongly politicized in contemporary welfare states: means-tested benefits, demanding activation policies and basic income schemes. While the policy design of means-tested benefits relies on the distributive justice principle of need, demanding activation policies are intrinsically related to the principle of equity and basic income schemes depend on equality. Based on the moral economy and policy feedback literatures, which assume that public opinion adapts to the normative conceptions of justice encapsulated by institutions, attitudes towards these welfare reforms are expected to be grounded on these distributive logics. However, as these reforms are weakly institutionalized and their underlying principles are politically contested, the normative foundation of their public support remains unclear. This study investigates how distributive justice preferences shape support for these proposals by applying structural equation modelling on data from the CRONOS panel linked to the European Social Survey round 8 (2016/2017). Results indicate that only basic income schemes and demanding activation policies are to some extent connected to each of the justice principles. Overall, this study nevertheless indicates that the justice principles have limited explanatory power, which confirms that attitudes towards contemporary welfare reforms rely weakly on justice norms.

Loneliness and intersectionality: A progressive conditional approach

Both loneliness and intersectionality have become well established areas of academic research since the 1970s and 1980s. Nevertheless, only very recently some meaningful connections were made between the two, although researchers have paid attention to the interactive effects of two or more socio-demographic attributes on loneliness. For intersectionality, much of academic research is invested in establishing it as a theoretical approach in tackling social injustice, whilst how it should be studied empirically remains a major challenge. In contrast, research on loneliness has been predominantly empirical, and the small number of studies on loneliness from the intersectional perspective have adopted different research methodologies. This paper proposes and illustrates an approach loyal to the fundamental principles of intersectionality and simple to conduct in empirical investigations at the same time. First, it focuses exclusively on intersectional cross-classifications rather than both the main and the interactional effects; second, it demands a rationale of starting from one attribute and then moving on to include an additional attribute at a time; third, it examines the intersectional cross-classifications and their relationships with the interested outcome systematically without transforming the data in set memberships. The approach is illustrated with analyses of the data collected in Great Britain in the seventh round (2014/15) of European Social Survey. Young people (under 30) of ethnic minority and born inside Great Britain suffered from the highest percentage of frequent loneliness (15%), whilst their counterparts born outside the country enjoyed the lowest rate. Among the middle-aged, ethnicity determined how vulnerable they were to frequent loneliness. For older people (60+) born outside Great Britain, regardless of ethnicity, the percentage of frequent loneliness was 10%.

The winner takes all the trust: populism, democracy, and winner-loser gaps in political trust in Central and Southern Europe

ABSTRACT Studies typically find that supporters of populist parties exhibit low political trust. Drawing on research on winner-loser gaps in political support and the consequences of political polarization on attitudes, I re-examine the association between populism and political trust taking into account the supported party’s status in or outside of government, distinguishing between government leaders and junior coalition partners. I analyze data from the European Social Survey Rounds 1–9 from nine Central and Southern European countries that experienced populist parties as government leaders, combined with party characteristics from the Varieties of Party Identity and Organization as well as democracy scores from the Varieties of Democracy datasets. Results show that the effect of party status on political trust is stronger among supporters of populist than non-populist parties. Further, I find that supporters of populist governments enjoy greater trust advantages in less democratic contexts.

Social inequalities in multimorbidity patterns in Europe: A multilevel latent class analysis using the European Social Survey (ESS)

Multimorbidity is associated with lower quality of life, greater disability and higher use of health services and is one of the main challenges facing governments in Europe. There is a need to identify and characterize patterns of chronic conditions and analyse their association with social determinants not only from an individual point of view but also from a collective point of view. This paper aims to respond to this knowledge gap by detecting patterns of chronic conditions and their social determinants in 19 European countries from a multilevel perspective. We used data from the ESS round 7. The final sample consisted of 18,933 individuals over 18 years of age, and patterns of multimorbidity from 14 chronic conditions were detected through Multilevel Latent Class Analysis, which also allows detecting similarities between countries. Gender, Age, Housing Location, Income Level and Educational Level were used as individual covariates to determine possible associations with social inequalities. The goodness-of-fit indices derived in a model with six multimorbidity patterns and five countries clusters. The six patterns were “Back, Digestive and Headaches”, “Allergies and Respiratory”, “Complex Multimorbidity”, “Cancer and Cardiovascular”, “Musculoskeletal” and “Cardiovascular”; the five clusters could be associated with some geographical areas or welfare states. Patterns showed significant differences in the covariates of interest, with differences in education and income being of particular interest. Some significant differences were found among patterns and the country groupings. Our findings show that chronic diseases tend to appear in a combined and interactive way, and socioeconomic differences in the occurrence of patterns are not only of the individual but also of group importance, emphasising how the welfare states in each country can influence in the health of their inhabitants.

Combination of physical activity and screen time on life satisfaction in adults: A cross-sectional survey.

BackgroundSufficient physical activity (PA) and limited screen time (ST) have been shown to be positively associated with a variety of mental health outcomes. It has been known that PA and ST are independently associated with life satisfaction. Whereas, little is known about the association between combinations of PA and ST with life satisfaction in adults. This study aimed to explore the associations between PA and ST (in insolation or combination) and life satisfaction in adults.MethodsData from the 2014 European Social Survey (ESS) round 7 consisting of 22 countries were analyzed in this study. In total, self-reported data from 40,185 adults were included in the final analysis. The self-administered method was used to collect demographic information, PA, ST, and life satisfaction. The prevalence of meeting PA guidelines (at least 150 min per week) and ST guidelines (no more than 3 h per day) was calculated according to Canadian 24-h Movement Guidelines for Adults.ResultsAdults who were engaged in sufficient PA and limited ST were more likely to report a higher level of life satisfaction. Meeting PA or ST guidelines was more likely to report higher life satisfaction scores [odds ratio (OR) = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.16–1.47]. Compared with not meeting any guidelines, those who met both PA and ST guidelines had a higher OR (OR = 1.55, 95% CI: 1.37–1.76).ConclusionThis study found that participating PA while limiting ST concurrently was linked with better life satisfaction. Creating an active lifestyle is important to population’s well-being.

Religiosity Decline in Europe: Age, Generation, and the Mediating Role of Shifting Human Values

Despite the fact that age is associated with higher religiosity, the aging European population has experienced a noticeable religiosity decline over recent decades. This study aimed to explain this paradox and to link it to an intergenerational shift in the pattern of values (as conceptualized by Shalom Schwartz). We conducted extended mediation analyses on the relationships between generational affiliation and the level of personal religiosity via human values in two studies (European Social Survey round 7, N = 29,775; and European Social Survey rounds 1–9, N = 224,314). Our results confirm a pronounced trend of religiosity decline and explain this process by changes in personal values. In particular, Europe's generational increase in openness to change values explains religiosity decline above and beyond the effect of people’s developmental age. We conclude that the perspective of human values provides a significant rationale for further research on religiosity, in relation to both past and future generations of Europeans.

A fuzzy-hybrid analysis of citizens’ perception toward immigrants in Europe

The public and political debate about immigration now play a big role in all European elections, and there is a trend increasing an anti-immigrant sentiment that receives important media attention. This work, based on the European Social Survey (ESS) round 9 data for 27 European countries, contributes to such debate by introducing a new method in the field, a Fuzzy-Hybrid Approach (FHA), that complements other methodological methods that have been used to measure citizens’ attitudes towards immigrants. The novel approach in the field provides a synthetic indicator that measures openness towards immigrants (OTISI). Then, we analyse the relationship that exists between some specific sociodemographic variables and the new index. Results show that country, political orientation, age, religion, economic situation, gender, birthplace, employment, education, universalism, and conformity are key drivers that explain different attitudes towards immigrants. Our findings concur with other previous studies showing that the results are robust and that the method can be applied in future social science studies.

Belief in the Just World in European Culture

General belief in the justice, in well-ordered and balanced social relations, the system where people get what they deserve is described in the concept of M. Lerner as “belief in the just world” (BJW). BJW helps to justify existing inequalities, to cope with unjust life situations, to keep optimistic view, but can also be a barrier for questioning and changing of unfair social relations. The research based on data of 9th round of Russian social survey (RSS) and European social survey (ESS) conducted in 30 countries revealed the prevalence of rational-skeptical view of Europeans on the chances of general justice. The average level of BJM appeared to be relatively low in Russia and in most other countries included in the analysis. To confirm the methodological rigor of these conclusions, the evaluation of statistical cross-national equivalency of BJM scale was conducted. The empirical validity of the BJW scale in Russia was assessed using cognitive interviews on randomly selected follow-up sample among RSS respondents. It showed the interpretative and motivational multidimensionality of the concept, but also the consistency of empirical semantic space of the concept to theoretical construct and general validity of the scale. Factors influencing the formation of BJW have two-fold structure. The impact of value-cultural factor leads to the similarity of views on BJW in Russia and in Europe on aggregate level. Personal situation and socio-demographic factors plays on individual level have differential impact. BJW as general worldview attitude has strong impact on framing particular socio-political attitudes and evaluations. High level of BJW is related to loyalty toward existing political system, trust to governing institutions and positive evaluation of incumbent’s performance which is consistent with findings from previous research. In opposite, the hypothesis on the impact of BJW on the support of conservative ideology and anti-liberal social attitudes was not confirmed.

Anti-immigrant Attitudes in the European Union: What Role for Values?

This paper aims to analyse the connection between values individuals hold and perception whether immigration is bad or good for economy in the European Union. It applies the multilevel modelling approach on the European Social Survey rounds 1–7 and a set of the OECD economic measures. The method allows for an examination of personal (values, socioecomic and demographic) and contextual (GDP, inequality and unemployment rates) drivers of anti-immigrant tendencies. The results show that individual values are connected to how people perceive immigrants in the EU.

Values, concern, beliefs, and preference for solar energy: A comparative analysis of three European countries

Environmental research has increasingly recognised the relevance of energy-efficiency behaviours to mitigate climate change. In this perspective, we exploit data from the European Social Survey round 8 (2016) to provide new insights into the main factors leading to the preference for solar power in three European countries – France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. A Structural Equation Model is adopted to assess the impact of self-transcendent values, efficacy beliefs and concern about energy security on such preference. Our outcomes suggest the key role of self-transcendent values in driving preference for solar energy in all the analysed countries. On the other hand, the impact of efficacy beliefs and concern on such preference shows interesting cross-country differences: beliefs are relevant in France and Germany, while concern provides more guidance for French and British citizens. The provided evidence may assist policymakers in increasing the adoption of green energy sources among citizens, sustainably enhancing economic growth.