Skip to main content
Log in

Life domain statisfactions and personal social integration

  • Published:
Social Indicators Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Data from a sample of northwestern Wisconsin residents were analyzed to identify the contribution of specific life domain satisfactions to the prediction of satisfaction with social integration. The results show the dominant impact of family satisfaction across the sample and its sub-populations of age, sex and income. The contribution of satisfactions with spare time activities and organizational involvement is also fairly uniform over the various groups. The impact of satisfactions with work, spiritual life and the remaining domains, on the other hand, is highly selective for different subpopulations. The results support the hypothesis of greater family and community centeredness among the lower income individuals and the elderly, and of the greater impact of organizational involvement, spare time activities and national affairs on the high income individuals. The differential impact of some of the resource and consumption domains across the subpopulations underlines the prominence of alternate consumption orientations and different resource instrumentalities for attaining the feelings of social integration.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Bibliography

  • Andrews, Frank M.: 1974, ‘Social indicators of perceived life quality’. Paper presented at the Eighth World Congress of Sociology, Toronto, August, 1974, p. 6.

  • Andrews, Frank M. and Steven B. Withey: 1973, ‘Developing measures of perceived life Quality: Results from several national surveys’. Paper presented at the meetings of the American Sociological Association, New York City, August, 1973.

  • AndrewsFrank M. and Steven B.Withey: 1976, Social Indicators of Well-Being (New York, Plenum).

    Google Scholar 

  • AngyalA.: 1966, Neurosis and Treatment (New York, Wiley).

    Google Scholar 

  • BabchukN. and J. N.Edwards: 1965, ‘Voluntary associations and the integration hypothesis’, Sociological Inquiry 35, pp. 149–162.

    Google Scholar 

  • BauerR.: 1966, Social Indicators (Cambridge, Massachusetts. M.I.T. Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • BharadwajL. and E. A.Wilkening: 1977, ‘The prediction of perceived well-being’, Social Indicators Research 4, pp. 421–439.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bharadwaj, L. and E. A. Wilkening: 1979, ‘Life domain predictors of satisfaction with personal efficacy’, Human Relations (forthcoming).

  • BlauPeter M.: 1960, ‘A theory of social integration’, American Journal of Sociology, LXV, pp. 545–556.

    Google Scholar 

  • BlauZena: 1973, Old Age in a Changing Society (New York, New View Points).

    Google Scholar 

  • BromleyD. B.: 1974, The Psychology of Human Aging (Baltimore, Maryland, Penguin Books).

    Google Scholar 

  • CampbellAngus and D. E.Converse: 1972, The Human Meaning of Social Change. (New York, Russell Sage).

    Google Scholar 

  • CampbellA., P. E.Converse and W. L.Rodgers: 1976, The Quality of American Life. (New York, Russell Sage).

    Google Scholar 

  • CummingE. and W. E.Henry: 1961, Growing Old: The Process of Disengagement (New York, Basic Books).

    Google Scholar 

  • DubinRobert: 1956, ‘Industrial workers' worlds: A study of the central life interests of industrial workers’, Social Problems 3 pp. 131–142.

    Google Scholar 

  • FenglerAlfred P.: 1973, ‘The effects of age and education on marital ideology’, Journal of Marriage and the Family 35, pp. 264–271.

    Google Scholar 

  • FooteNelson N. and Leonard S.Cottrell: 1955, Identity and Interpersonal Competence: A New Direction in Family Research (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • KishLeslie: 1949, ‘A procedure for objective respondent selection within the household’, Journal of the American Statistical Association 44, pp. 380–387.

    Google Scholar 

  • KriegerMartin H.: 1969, ‘Social Indicators for the Quality of Individual Life’. Working Paper No. 104 (October). (Berkley, Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California).

    Google Scholar 

  • LandKenneth C.: 1969, ‘Principles of path analysis’. In Sociological Methodology, edited by E. F.Borgatta (San Francisco, Jossey-Bass), pp. 3–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • LandK. C. and S.Spilerman (eds.): 1974, Social Indicator Models (New York, Russell Sage Foundation).

    Google Scholar 

  • LandeckerWerner S.: 1951, ‘Types of integration and their measurement’, American Journal of Sociology 56, pp. 332–340.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKinleyDonald G.: 1964, Social Class and Family Life (New York, The Free Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • ParsonsT. and R.Bales: 1955, Family, Socialization and Interaction Process (New York, The Free Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • SchneiderD.: 1968, American Kinship: A Cultural Account (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall).

    Google Scholar 

  • ShanasE. and Others: 1968, Old People in Three Industrial Societies (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul).

    Google Scholar 

  • SheldonE. B. and W.Moore: 1968, Indicators of Social Change: Concepts and Measurement (New York, Russell Sage Foundation).

    Google Scholar 

  • TristE. L.: 1972, ‘The cultural absence of the post-industrial society’. In F. E. Emery and E. L. Trist, Towards a Social Ecology (London, Plenum Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • WilcoxLeslie, et al. 1972, Social Indicators and Societal Monitoring. An Annotated Bibliography (San Francisco, Jossey-Bass).

    Google Scholar 

  • WilenskyHarold L.: 1960, ‘Work, careers, and social integration’, International Social Science Journal XII, pp. 543–560.

    Google Scholar 

  • WilkeningE. A. and D.McGranahan: 1978, ‘Correlates of subjective well-being in northern Wisconsin’, Social Indicators Research 5, pp. 211–234.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

The research reported has been funded by the Research Division of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the University of Wisconsin, and the National Institute of Mental Health Grant #R01 MH25266-01. The Wisconsin Survey Research Laboratory was responsible for the sampling and data collection. Project assistant Nacy Ahrens performed the computer analysis of the data.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bharadwaj, L.K., Wilkening, E.A. Life domain statisfactions and personal social integration. Soc Indic Res 7, 337–351 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00305605

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00305605

Keywords

Navigation