Individual, family and neighbourhood factors related to life satisfaction and perceived discrimination among low-income, non-immigrant mothers in seven European countries

ABSTRACT

We examined associations between dimensions of social exclusion and maternal life satisfaction and maternal perceived discrimination for low-income, non-immigrant mothers of children at preschool and primary school age in seven European countries (Czech Republic, England, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal – N = 1227), using standardized survey data from a large-scale interview study. Life satisfaction and perceived discrimination were found to be associated, indicating that both dimensions are important to consider in relation to subjective well-being. The results of linear mixed effect regression models demonstrated that lack of resources in multiple dimensions of social exclusion were linked to our well-being measures, including objective life condition variables (material deprivation, poor neighbourhood quality; both outcomes) as well as more relational aspects (unemployment, less social support; life satisfaction) and adult literacy related difficulties (perceived discrimination). These findings reaffirm the importance of combatting social exclusion. There are implications for public policy, emphasizing the importance of joined-up policies that tackle different forms of exclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• social exclusion
• life satisfaction
• perceived discrimination
• family disadvantage
• international study

Acknowledgements

This study would not have been possible without the efforts of the researchers in each participating country and the collaboration of the wider ISOTIS team. ISOTIS researchers involved in this study were: Lenka Kissová, Zuzana Lenhartová, Jana Obrovská, Ladislav Zilcher (Masarykova Univerzita), Edward Melhuish, Katharina Ereky- Stevens, Pinar Kolancali (University of Oxford, England), Katrin Wolf, Hande Erdem, Beyhan Ertanir, Yvonne Anders (Freie Universität Berlin), Konstantinos Petrogiannis, Ioanna Strataki (Hellenic Open University), Sophie Sarcinelli, Cecilia Rubiolo (University of Milano-Bicocca), Olga Wysłowska, Kamilla Wichrowska (Uniwersytet Warszawski), Inês Ferreira, Cecília Aguiar (Instituto Universitário de Lisboa). More information on the large-scale structured interview study can be found in Broekhuizen et al. (2018). The authors would like to thank all institutions, schools and professionals who supported us in reaching out and contacting participant families and/or providing the conditions for conducting some of the interviews with families. We are very grateful to all mothers and other primary caregivers who participated in this study, by sharing their experiences and perspectives.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The research leading to these results is part of the ISOTIS project (www.isotis.org). The work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under grant agreement No. 727069.