Unravelling subjective quality of life: An investigation of individual and community determinants

Subjective quality of life is a popular measure of outcomes across fields as disparate as medical research, community and health psychology and sociology. Its widespread use has led to recent calls for a better understanding of the psychological determinants of the construct, emphasising the need to build a substantial body of knowledge around what determines and impacts on perceptions of life quality if it is to live up to current expectations as an outcome variable. This study used two likely determinants of quality of life, an individual level variable, loneliness, and a community level variable, aspects of sense of community, and investigated their association with subjective quality of life. Confidence in the results of the study was strengthened by repeating it in two separate towns, matched on fundamental demographic variables. The results revealed that subjective quality of life was consistently associated with the individual level variable, loneliness, in both towns. Lonely people consistently reported significantly lower quality of life, particularly in the domains of intimacy, community involvement and emotional well-being. Once loneliness had been accounted for, the community level variables showed much weaker, and generally no association with reported quality of life. The importance of continuing to empirically identify variables that impact upon subjective quality of life is discussed.