MESOC Serapeum | Where culture meets AI

Id		103
Author		Grossi, E., ; Sacco, P.L., ; Blessi, G.T., ; Buscema, M.,
Title		The Interaction Between Culture, Health and Psychological Well-Being: Data Mining from the Italian Culture and Well-Being Project
Reference		Grossi, E.; Blessi, G.T.; Sacco, P.L.; Buscema, M. (2012). The Interaction Between Culture, Health and Psychological Well‑Being: Data Mining from the Italian Culture and Well‑Being Project. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(1): 129–148.
Keywords		psychological well-being; cultural participation; health; Italy; cultural access
Link to article		https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-011-9254-x
Abstract		The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of health status and cultural participation upon psychological well-being, with special attention to the interaction between patterns of cultural access and other factors known to affect psychological well-being. Data for this report were collected from a sample of 1,500 Italian citizens. A multi-step random sampling method was adopted to draw a large representative sample from the Italian population. Subjects underwent a standard questionnaire for psychological well-being the Italian short form of the Psychological General Well Being Index (PGWBI) , and a questionnaire related to the frequency of participation to 15 different kinds of cultural activities during the previous year. The results show that, among the various potential factors considered, cultural access unexpectedly rankes as the second most important determinant of psychological well-being, immediately after the absence or presence of diseases, and outperforming factors such as job, age, income, civil status, education, place of living and other important factors. According to a semantic map generated by a powerful data mining algorithm, it turns out that different factors (among which cultural access and health status in particular) may be viewed as concurrent elements of a complex multi-causal scheme that seems to play a primary role in determining psychological distress or well-being. In particular, distress seems to be tightly connected with: living in the Southern part of Italy, average income level, living in semi-urban and urban areas, age group 46–60, presence of more than two concomitant diseases and a low level of cultural access. Well being, on the other hand, is tightly connected with: male gender, high cultural access, and absence of diseases. Some of these associations are confirmed by Principal Component Analysis.
Metodology		Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI): used to measure self-representations of intrapersonal affective or emotional states reflecting a sense of subjective well-being or distress. It is composed of 22 items. Each item has six possible answers scores from 0 a 5. Total index goes from 0 to 110. The highest the better wellbeing. Researchers used a standard questionnaire for psychological well-being the Italian short form of the Psychological General Well Being Index (PGWBI) , and a questionnaire related to the frequency of participation to 15 different kinds of cultural activities during the previous year.
Technique		Questionnaire