Quality of life and Social Capital in Mashhad City in Iran

Quality of Life: definition Diversity in definition of QoL Our definition: perception of a person about his/her life facilities and happiness.

Quality of Life: dimensions Objective Subjective Individual Income, insurance, education, … Happiness, life satisfaction Collective Income average, ratio of insurance, literacy Average of sense of happiness, average of life satisfaction Veenhoven 2007

Social Capital: definition “Social Capital” has received much attention since 1960s. Our definition: Quality [importance and depth] and quantity [frequency] of a person’s social relationships.

Social capital: some basic ideas P. Bourdieu: social capital as a mean of inequality reproduction. (Field 2003). J. Coleman: Social capital as a set of resources which are in the nature social relationships and organizations (Coleman 1994: 300) R. Putnam: social capital as connections between individuals, networks and reciprocity and trustworthiness which derives from them.(Putnam 2000)

Social capital: dimensions Trust : expectations and commitments which people have in relation to each other and to organizations and institutions (Paxton 1999: 105). Social participation: voluntary and deliberate actions in which collective benefits have priority to personal benefits. Social networks: frequency of relationships and useful connections.

Effect of social capital on quality of life Quality of life is defined by some qualities and quantities Achieving these qualities and quantities needs some resources. These resources would be physical, cultural, social and symbolic.

Research design Research method: survey Method of data gathering: questionnaire Statistical population: one of parents in Mashhad city families Sample size: 300

Standardized equations of linear regression Findings(1) Standardized equations of linear regression QoL=.35(Social capital)+.33(income)+.15(education) (R=.60; adjusted r square=.35) Objective QoL=.18(Social capital)+.48(income)+.03(education) Subjective QoL=.40(Social capital)+.12(income)+.16(education)

Explanatory path analysis Findings (2) Explanatory path analysis

discussion Social capital and income have relatively equal effect on QoL. In explanation of subjective QoL the effect of social capital is much more. This shows that social capital is a very powerful determinant of QoL. Whereas Education has no significant effect on social capital, it has a significant effect on income. Here it seems that well educated people have less social relationships (of course they may have more useful connections). here social capital apart from other kinds of capital is a very important resource for most of people. It seems that social organizations and formal institutions don’t do their main functions correctly and people use their informal relationships and connections to please their needs.