Socio-demographic Components of Eudaimonic Well-Being: A Survey in an Italian Province

This work is part of a well-established strand of study about quality of life (QoL) and the different methodologies for its
quantitative evaluation. The study focuses on a specific dimension of QoL, that of the eudaimonic well-being (EuWB), with
two main objectives. On the one hand, we try to clarify how EuWB can be framed in the systematizations of QoL proposed in
the literature. Its relation to the concept of subjective well-being is discussed, and the need to distinguish such approach
from the so-called hedonic dimension of QoL is highlighted. On the other hand, the paper aims to investigate the link between
the perception of EuWB and individual socio-demographic characteristics through a quantitative analysis based on the results
of a survey. The survey carried out in Central Italy in 2010, involved a sample of 1,134 individuals, which are classified
according to their perception of EuWB. An analysis of the socio-demographic characteristics within the EuWB groups is then
performed in order to investigate the association between these variables and the perception of EuWB. Results are discussed
with respect to the evidences from similar surveys found in the literature. The analysis confirms the influence of some variables
on the perception of EuWB, yet it underlines the difficulty in comparing different studies on QoL without clarifying to which
of the different declensions of this concept the survey methodology refers to.