Subjective Well-being and Social Capital: Their Link and
Comparison Between Czech, Indian, South African and New Zealand
University Students

k 2014

Subjective Well-being and Social Capital: Their Link and Comparison Between Czech, Indian, South African and New Zealand University Students

SLEZÁČKOVÁ, Alena, Štěpánka DVOŘÁKOVÁ, Johan POTGIETER, Kamlesh SINGH, Rajneesh CHOUBISA et. al.

Basic information

Original name

Subjective Well-being and Social Capital: Their Link and Comparison Between Czech, Indian, South African and New Zealand University Students

Authors

SLEZÁČKOVÁ, Alena (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution), Štěpánka DVOŘÁKOVÁ (203 Czech Republic), Johan POTGIETER (710 South Africa), Kamlesh SINGH (356 India), Rajneesh CHOUBISA (356 India), Aaron JARDEN (554 New Zealand) and Fiona HOWARD (554 New Zealand)

Edition

7th European Conference on Positive Psychology, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1-4 July 2014, 2014

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Prezentace na konferencích

Field of Study

50100 5.1 Psychology and cognitive sciences

Country of publisher

Netherlands

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14210/14:00076021

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

Keywords in English

well-being; happiness; life satisfaction; social capital; cross-culture study

Abstract

V originále

According to the World Database of Happiness (Veenhoven, 2013) New Zealand is one of the happiest countries in the world, whereas Czech Republic, South Africa and India belong among middle ranking countries. Also the Social Capital Index (Legatum Institute, 2013) shows that New Zealand has one of the highest level of social capital in the world, while Czech Republic and South Africa belong among upper middle ranking countries and India ranks at the bottom. In our cross-cultural study we compare subjective well-being and social capital among Czech, Indian, South African and New Zealand university students and explore the link between the variables of interest. Our sample consists of 165 Czech, 168 Indian, 110 South African and 131 New Zealand university students. Quantitative results from the SWLS (Diener et al., 1985), The Happiness Measure (Fordyce, 1988) and the Social Capital Integrated Questionnaire (Grootaert et al., 2004), were complemented by a qualitative methodology. Our research reveals interesting results: The level of life satisfaction of Czech, Indian, and New Zealand students does not differ across the countries. Life satisfaction is significantly higher among South African students. South African students also experience happiness most frequently, while Indian students experience happiness most intensively. Female university students from all four countries show more satisfaction with their lives than male students. Social capital reflects cultural characteristics respecting our specific sample. In Czech, Indian and New Zealand sample the social capital tends to be intertwined with respondents´ life satisfaction, whereas in South African sample is social capital rather linked to respondents' happiness.

Citovat

SLEZÁČKOVÁ, Alena, Štěpánka DVOŘÁKOVÁ, Johan POTGIETER, Kamlesh SINGH, Rajneesh CHOUBISA, Aaron JARDEN and Fiona HOWARD. Subjective Well-being and Social Capital: Their Link and Comparison Between Czech, Indian, South African and New Zealand University Students. In 7th European Conference on Positive Psychology, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1-4 July 2014. 2014.

@proceedings{1193173,
   author = {Slezáčková, Alena and Dvořáková, Štěpánka and Potgieter, Johan and Singh, Kamlesh and Choubisa, Rajneesh and Jarden, Aaron and Howard, Fiona},
   booktitle = {7th European Conference on Positive Psychology, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1-4 July 2014},
   keywords = {well-being; happiness; life satisfaction; social capital; cross-culture study},
   language = {eng},
   title = {Subjective Well-being and Social Capital: Their Link and Comparison Between Czech, Indian, South African and New Zealand University Students},
   year = {2014}
}

TY  - CONF
ID  - 1193173
AU  - Slezáčková, Alena - Dvořáková, Štěpánka - Potgieter, Johan - Singh, Kamlesh - Choubisa, Rajneesh - Jarden, Aaron - Howard, Fiona
PY  - 2014
TI  - Subjective Well-being and Social Capital: Their Link and Comparison Between Czech, Indian, South African and New Zealand University Students
KW  - well-being
KW  - happiness
KW  - life satisfaction
KW  - social capital
KW  - cross-culture study
N2  - According to the World Database of Happiness (Veenhoven, 2013) New Zealand is one of the happiest countries in the world, whereas Czech Republic, South Africa and India belong among middle ranking countries. Also the Social Capital Index (Legatum Institute, 2013) shows that New Zealand has one of the highest level of social capital in the world, while Czech Republic and South Africa belong among upper middle ranking countries and India ranks at the bottom. In our cross-cultural study we compare subjective well-being and social capital among Czech, Indian, South African and New Zealand university students and explore the link between the variables of interest. Our sample consists of 165 Czech, 168 Indian, 110 South African and 131 New Zealand university students. Quantitative results from the SWLS (Diener et al., 1985), The Happiness Measure (Fordyce, 1988) and the Social Capital Integrated Questionnaire (Grootaert et al., 2004), were complemented by a qualitative methodology. Our research reveals interesting results: The level of life satisfaction of Czech, Indian, and New Zealand students does not differ across the countries. Life satisfaction is significantly higher among South African students. South African students also experience happiness most frequently, while Indian students experience happiness most intensively. Female university students from all four countries show more satisfaction with their lives than male students. Social capital reflects cultural characteristics respecting our specific sample. In Czech, Indian and New Zealand sample the social capital tends to be intertwined with respondents´ life satisfaction, whereas in South African sample is social capital rather linked to respondents' happiness.
ER  -

SLEZÁČKOVÁ, Alena, Štěpánka DVOŘÁKOVÁ, Johan POTGIETER, Kamlesh SINGH, Rajneesh CHOUBISA, Aaron JARDEN and Fiona HOWARD. Subjective Well-being and Social Capital: Their Link and Comparison Between Czech, Indian, South African and New Zealand University Students. In \textit{7th European Conference on Positive Psychology, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1-4 July 2014}. 2014.

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