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ABSTRACT
Our study examines the relationship between social inclusion and the marital status of individuals. The family is interpreted as an integration-based institution affecting satisfaction. Through the interpretation of the integration function of the family, we examine whether the individuals’ life satisfaction is determined by their current marital status and what factors influence and explain the satisfaction with life in a post-socialist country a quarter of a century after the change of regime. Indeed, life satisfaction is one of the strongest social inclusion factors, so in our analysis, we seek to find out whether the different forms of coexistence (marriage, partnership, widowhood, divorced marital status) influence the level of satisfaction of individuals and what gender and other demographic and environmental features determine this the most. The study employs the database from the ‘Integration and disintegration processes in Hungarian society’ research. The sample contains 2687 people. The sample is nationally representative of gender, age, educational background, type of settlement, and region. The survey was made in 2015 with the support of OTKA (Hungarian Scientific Research Fund Programs). Through our path model analyses, we have proved that in society in Hungary the current marital status of individuals does not affect their satisfaction with life; rather, it is the quality of the cooperative spaces people live in, that is, primarily, the quality of their family relationships and their immediate living environment, and as a weaker but measurable impact, their subjectively perceived personal social prestige that does.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributor
Ibolya Czibere, associate professor at University of Debrecen. She is the director of the Institute of Political Sciences and Sociology and head of Department of Sociology and Social Policy. She is the editor in chief of ‘Metszetek’ and ‘Esély’ scientific journals. She is a member of the Sociology Committee of Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She is the president of Social policy subcommittee of Hungarian Academy of Sciences and leader of Regional studies PhD programme.
Notes
1 The Satisfaction with Life Scale, SWLS, has five items originally and respondents react to statements on a seven-point scale (Diener Citation2000).
2 Value of Chi-square: 171,657, p ≤ 0.001.
3 Value of Chi-square: 2005,433, p ≤ 0.001.
4 Value of Chi-square: man: 778.052, p ≤ 0.001; woman: 1189,091, p ≤ 0.001.
5 Kruskal Wallis test: Value of Chi-square: 22,061, p ≤ 0.001.
6 Kruskal Wallis próba: Value of Chi-square: 215,376, p ≤ 0.001.
7 Kruskal Wallis test: Value of Chi-square: 119,235, p ≤ 0.0001.
8 Kruskal Wallis test: Value of Chi-square: 4,068, p ≤ 0.044.
9 Kruskal Wallis test: Men: Value of Chi-square: 17,620, p ≤ 0.001. Women: Value of Chi-square: 13,303, p ≤ 0.001.
10 The respondent's average monthly net revenue per month.
11 The question was: 'How do you think your household can cover your usual expenses?' (With great difficulty, with difficulty, with minor difficulties, relatively easily, easily, very easily).
12 The question was: ‘Which social class would you place yourself in?' (Lower class, working class, lower middle class, middle class, upper-middle class, upper class).
13 The question was: 'How satisfied are you with … the surroundings where you live?' (Scale 0-10).
14 The question was: 'How satisfied are you with your relationships within your family … ?' (Scale 0-10).
15 Ágnes Utasi’s results (Citation2008) described the erosion of the social capital, the phenomenon of in-family isolation in the Hungarian society; indeeed, these correlations may explain our results as well.
16 The question was: ‘From the list, which classification is the most important for you, if you want to describe yourself?' As for the distribution of answers, it was ‘your family status and position, role within the family' that received the most nominations (40.4%), and the subsequent order of values is: citizenship: 11.4%, age: 9.9%, profession, occupation: 9.8%, etc.