Deadline: 2012, August 31. “International Wellbeing Index”

Data postării: Feb 19, 2012 5:30:47 PM

Guest editor: Graciela Tonon, Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, Universidad de Palermo, Argentina

Journal of Social Research & Policy invites original paper submissions for a special issue on “International Wellbeing Index”, to bring together papers exploring the application of this instrument in different regions of the world and with different populations.

The study of quality of life refers to the material (social welfare) and psychosocial (wellbeing) environments. Quality of life has been defined as a concept that implies objective and subjective dimension. The use of domains in the study of quality of life allows a more precise measurement than could have been reached through simple questions.

WBI has two scales: the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and the National Wellbeing Index (NWI), scaled from 0 to 10. PWI contains eight items of satisfaction, each one corresponding to a quality of life domain: standard of living, health, achievement in life, relationships, safety, community-connectedness, future safety, and spirituality/religion. These eight domains are theoretically embedded, as representing the first level deconstruction of the global question: ‘How satisfied are you with your life as a whole?’ The NWI reflects nearly the same domains in the national context.

The International Wellbeing Group currently involves researchers from 49 countries who already had or intend to trial the Index in his/her own country. But the Index didn´t remain unchanged over time: this project will undergo controlled evolution as theory and empirical data are brought to bear on its composition. To this end there is an active e-forum that discusses the composition of the Index as data are progressively collected and analyzed (www.deakin.edu.au/research/acqol/iwbg/).

In this special issue we encourage researchers that are using or had used the International Wellbeing Index in different countries and regions of the world to report data and/or methodological analyses their papers on issues such as (but not limited to):

• • validity, reliability and factorial structure of PWI and NWI

  • cognitive and affective dimensions of subjective wellbeing

  • psychological and socio-demographical correlates of wellbeing

  • wellbeing in regional and national contexts

  • inter-country comparisons of wellbeing

  • wellbeing in different groups (children, adolescents, young people, adults, elders, women, gifted students, people with intellectual disabilities, single mothers, unemployed, original cultural groups, etc.)

  • longitudinal comparisons of well-being

  • public policy implications of wellbeing scores

This will allow our readers to know the results of the use of the WBI in particular contexts and situations.

All submissions will be peer reviewed. For guidelines on manuscript preparation and submission, please visit the journal website.

Please address any inquiries to Graciela Tonon: gracielatonon@hotmail.com

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 31 August 2012