Young people's view on material well-being and psychological distress

Mladi su prepoznati kao vrlo ranjiva društvena skupina, pri čemu promjene koje se zbivaju u suvremenom svijetu, gotovo uvijek i prije svih, pogađaju upravo njih. Osnovni razlog tomu je što se mladi nalaze na razdjelnici između zaštićenog svijeta djetinjstva i natjecateljskog svijeta odraslih, koji od njih očekuje odgovarajuću društvenu integraciju, što je uvijek zahtjevan i nerijetko stresan proces. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je produbiti spoznaje o obilježjima materijalne dobrobiti mladih i učestalosti doživljaja psihološkog distresa te njihovom međusobnom odnosu. Istraživanje je provedeno na uzorku od 224 mlade osobe u dobi od 18 do 30 godina koje žive na području Republike Hrvatske u 2019. godini putem društvene mreže Facebook. Rezultati ovog istraživanja pokazali su da postoji statistički značajna povezanost između procjene materijalne dobrobiti mladih i procjene doživljaja psihološkog distresa, pri čemu mladi koju svoju materijalnu dobrobit procjenjuju nižom u većoj mjeri doživljavaju psihološki distres. Rezultati također pokazuju da postoji statistički značajna razlika u procjeni materijalne dobrobiti obzirom na neka od ispitivanih socio – demografska obilježja (bračni status i životni aranžman), pri čemu mladi koji su samci svoju materijalnu dobrobit procjenjuju značajno boljom u odnosu na mlade koji su u vezi te mladi koji žive s partnerima (veza, brak, životno partnerstvo, izvanbračna zajednica) značajno lošijom procjenjuju svoju materijalnu dobrobit u odnosu na mlade koji žive s primarnom obitelji. Statistička analiza je pokazala da ne postoje značajne razlike u procjeni doživljaja psihološkog distresa obzirom na socio – demografska obilježja mladih. Rad započinje upoznavanjem s obilježjima siromaštva i siromaštva mladih, pregledom pristupa mjerenju siromaštva, upoznavanjem s obilježjima materijalne dobrobiti kao mjere siromaštva te psihološkog distresa. Potom slijedi metodološko objašnjenje, a nakon toga prikaz rezultata. Rad zaokružuje rasprava o dobivenim rezultatima i zaključak.Young people are perceived as a very vulnerable social group and the changes that occur in the modern world almost always and before anyone else affect them. The main reason for that is because young people are on the dividing line between the protected world of childhood and the competitive world of adults, who expect them to have appropriate social integration, which is always a demanding and often stressful process. The aim of the study was to broaden the knowledge of the characteristics of young people's material well-being and the frequency of experiencing psychological distress and the relation between them. The survey was conducted on a sample of 224 young people aged 18-30 living in the Republic of Croatia in 2019 via the social network Facebook. The results of this study have shown that there is a statistically significant correlation between the young people's assessment of the material well-being and the assessment of the experience of psychological distress, whereby young people who assess their material well-being are less likely to experience psychological distress. The results also show that there is a statistically significant difference in the assessment of material well-being in relation to some of the examined socio-demographic characteristics (marital status and living arrangements), whereby single young people assess their material well-being significantly better than the young people in the relationship and young people living with partners (relationship, marriage, life partnership, consensual union) have a significantly worse assessment of their material well-being than young people living with a primary family. Statistical analysis has shown that there are no significant differences in the assessment of the experience of psychological distress in relation to the socio - demographic characteristics of young people. The paper begins with an introduction to the characteristics of poverty and youth poverty, an overview of approaches to poverty measurement, an introduction to the characteristics of material well-being as a measure of poverty, and psychological distress. This is followed by a methodological explanation, and afterwards by a presentation of the results. The paper is completed with a discussion of the obtained results and a conclusion