Perceptions of the present and expectations from the future: quality of life in a local environment and life satisfaction of young people in Vukovar-Syrmia County (Croatia)

Abstract

In recent decades, the quality of life in the local environment has become a key issue in research focused on neighborhoods, cities, and smaller regions. The quality-of-life concept is used to determine positive and negative aspects of life in the local community, which makes it a complex and multidimensional concept. Having that in mind, this paper tries to evaluate the quality of life based on dimensions related to the socio-material aspects of life in a settlement but also to the social opportunities important for young people's transition to adulthood and planning their future. This paper is based on the data collected from a survey of third and fourth grade students of high schools in Vukovar-Syrmia County, on the eastern border of the Republic of Croatia, conducted in 2019. The goal was to answer the following research questions: 1) to what degree do certain dimensions of life quality impact general satisfaction of young people with their lives, 2) how relevant are certain assessments of the life quality dimensions for understanding the future of the local community. Since both individual lives and the lives of local communities are rooted in the temporal dimension, the quality of life research enables us to find the link between the present state and the perception of the future. The results of the research not only contribute to a better understanding of local living conditions on attitudes and satisfaction of young people