Societal and personal concerns, their associations with stress, and the implications for progress and the future

Highlights

• Concern with a range of personal and societal issues was examined in four nations.

• Personal issues of greatest concern were health, wellbeing and financial issues.

• Societal issues causing greatest concern were social and political issues.

• Both sets of concerns, but especially personal, predict perceived personal stress.

Abstract

A survey of more than 2000 people in four countries examined levels of concern across 19 personal and 23 societal issues. On average, 49% were moderately or seriously concerned about the personal issues, with health, wellbeing and financial concerns topping the ranking. Country differences were small, but generational differences were substantial. An average of 58% of Generation Y were moderately or seriously concerned, compared to 35% of Pre-boomers, with significant differences for 14 of the 19 issues. In terms of societal issues, an average of 41% were moderately or seriously concerned, with social and moral issues ranking ahead of economic and environmental matters. Americans were the most concerned with societal issues and Australians the least. Societal concerns increased with age. Both sets of concerns, but especially personal, were predictors of perceived personal stress, although specific concerns were both positively and negatively associated with stress. The ranking of societal concerns, country differences, age differences, and the relationship between concerns and stress are discussed. Findings provide insights into the relationships between social conditions, personal circumstances and wellbeing, supporting an argument that researchers need to pay more attention to the “psychosocial dynamics” of contemporary life in assessing human progress as a pathway to the future.

Introduction

We measure human progress and development by how well we are doing relative to the past on a range of indicators of quality of life and wellbeing. Concepts and measures of progress are also how we map a course towards the future. There are complex, dynamic, often reciprocal relationships between quality of life and wellbeing, contemporary social conditions, progress and the future (Eckersley, 2005, pp.185–201; Eckersley, 2016).

In these relationships, perceptions matter. Perceptions of our lives today affect our wellbeing and how we see the future, in terms of both what we expect and what we wish for − interpretations of the present world can set boundaries on what is considered possible tomorrow and what outcomes are more likely. Visions of the future can impact on contemporary society through qualities such as social cohesion, optimism and confidence, and on personal wellbeing through their effects on qualities such as hope, belonging, purpose, and meaning in life. Wellbeing can shape present social conditions and our ability to shape the future and meet its challenges through its impact on critical factors such as morale, vitality and resilience.

In other words, quality of life and progress are functions of how people feel about their lives as well as the material conditions in which they live. Traditionally the research and policy focus has been on objective indicators, such as standard of living measured as per capita income, life expectancy, and education (which make up the Human Development Index) (Eckersley, 2016). In the past two decades researchers, statistical agencies, and policy analysts have become more interested in broader and better measures, notably the subjective dimension of quality of life and progress (Eckersley, 2009, Eckersley, 2016). Most attention has focused on people’s “subjective wellbeing”, commonly measured as self-reported life satisfaction or happiness.

Measures of subjective wellbeing do not fundamentally alter the dominant view of quality of life, and so of human progress, which is broadly equated with modernisation (Eckersley, 2016). A recent paper notes that “there appears to be an emerging consensus in the policy community that subjective wellbeing ought to be the key criterion of policy success” (Zagorski, Evans, Kelley, & Piotrowska, 2014 p. 1107).

However, there are some streams of evidence that expose the limitations of subjective-wellbeing indicators, and cast doubt on how we currently conceptualise and measure progress. Some of this evidence emerges from different, and wider, measures of personal wellbeing (Eckersley, 2009, Eckersley, 2011, Eckersley, 2016).

Other research that challenges the legitimacy − or at least the completeness − of subjective-wellbeing measures people’s perceptions of population or societal wellbeing or quality of life. This social focus has attracted much less attention than subjective wellbeing, with some researchers disregarding the social perspective because it is at odds with the objective data and subjective wellbeing. The two perspectives can be very different: the personal is largely positive and optimistic, the societal more negative and pessimistic (Eckersley, 2000a, Eckersley, 2000b, Eckersley, 2009, Eckersley, 2016, Steenvoorden, 2015).

One way of tapping into people’s perceptions of life, both personal and societal, is to ask about their level of satisfaction or concern about a range of issues or priorities, covering both personal and societal issues. These surveys are often carried out by social research organisations, and are not usually integrated into general assessments of quality of life, progress or the future; more often they feed into contemporary political debates (e.g. Edelman Intelligence, 2017, Ipsos MORI, 2017, Ipsos Social Research Institute, 2015, Pew Research Center, 2015).

An important way in which perceptions of life can influence quality of life is through psychological stress, which has been found to predict wellbeing in studies of the general population, specific populations and across different countries (Firth-Cozens, 2003; Rowlands, Dobson, & Mishra, 2015; Wiklund, Malmgren-Olsson, Ohman, Bergstrom, & Fjellman-Wiklund, 2012). Research shows that levels of stress and stress-related illness increase when people feel that their stress is a result of worsening circumstances, they have little control over its causes, and do not know how long it is going to last (Sapolsky, 2005).

This study examines people’s levels of concern with a range of societal and personal issues characterising modern life (but often having a futures orientation), and their associations with personal stress, in four countries − the US, UK, Canada and Australia. A companion paper, based on other data collected in the same survey, explored people’s ratings of future threats to humanity, and their associations with these contemporary concerns and personal stress (Randle and Eckersley, 2015).

For the purposes of the present study, quality of life is defined as the degree to which people enjoy living conditions (social, economic, cultural and environmental) that are conducive to total wellbeing (physical, mental, social and spiritual). Progress, by which we chart humanity’s journey from the past and towards the future, is defined as improving quality of life. Important to assessing both quality of life and progress are the “psychosocial dynamics” of modern life: the complex interactions and relationships between the subjective and objective worlds, between social conditions and individual psychology and behaviour (Eckersley, 2009, Eckersley, 2016).

Specifically, the aims of this study were to:

• Explore the issues that are of most concern to people at the moment

• Understand whether people are more concerned with personal or societal issues

• Examine what impact concern about different issues has on perceived personal stress

• Identify whether differences exist between (i) countries and (ii) generations.

While this study is not located, at first glance, within the discipline of futures studies, the findings are relevant to futures research, especially in terms of elucidating the subjectivity and complexity of the subject, as noted above and elaborated on later. This work is a product of cross-disciplinary research involving input from psychology and transdisciplinary analysis of human progress and wellbeing.