Quality of Life in Jasper, Alberta

• Published in: Social indicators research Vol. 49; no. 2; pp. 121 - 145
• Main Authors: Zumbo, Bruno D., Michalos, Alex C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Kluwer Academic Publishers 01.02.2000; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Alberta; Attitudes; Beliefs; Canada; Censuses; Child care; Communities; Community; Community Relations; Community Satisfaction; Community support; Economic sociology; Family Income; Family Involvement; Family relations; Federal taxes; Feedback (Response); Females; Government (Administrative Body); Happiness; Households; Housing; Library Services; Life Satisfaction; Likert Scales; Modeling; Municipalities; National parks; Parks & recreation areas; Polls & surveys; Predictor Variables; Provincial government; Public services; Quality of Life; Questionnaires; Recreation; Sampling; Sampling techniques; Self esteem; Social Attitudes; Sociology; Sociology of economy and development; Spouses; Standard of living. Income; Statistical analysis; Variables; Alberta; Canada; Jasper Alberta Canada; Environmental Policy; Health Service; Local government; Leisure activity; Accomodation; Health; Satisfaction; Educational institution; Interpersonal Relationship; Living conditions; Fiscal System; Quality of Life; Judicial system; Environment; Federal administration; Public Facilities
• ISSN: 0303-8300; 1573-0921
• DOI: 10.1023/A:1006941329541

This paper describes and explains citizen beliefs and attitudes about the quality of life in Jasper, Alberta in the summer of 1997. We report on 447 survey respondents' satisfaction with a wide variety of aspects of their community and their lives, the best and worst things about living in Jasper, and the things they would change first to improve the quality of their lives. There was not much enthusiasm for use-fees or the value received from tax dollars. Fifteen new indices of satisfaction with fundamental aspects of people's lives were created. Happiness, life satisfaction and overall satisfaction with the quality of life were explained from a limited set of 14 variables, providing comparisons with results from seven other surveys taken over nearly 20 years. Finally, we used a simple linear model to account for 63% of the variance in life satisfaction scores, 44% of the variance in satisfaction with the quality of life scores and 37% of the variance in happiness scores.