TRUST AND LIFE SATISFACTION IN ALBANIA

Abstract

Scholars argue that life satisfaction is one of the primary goals of most individuals.
With regard to post-socialist societies, research has found that their citizens self-report lower
levels of life satisfaction compared with those of the individuals living in the affluent Western
countries. Evidence shows that post-socialist countries have undertaken several complex
economic and institutional reforms which have reshaped their institutions, changed their
rules and adapted their norms to meet the European Union admission criteria. The previous
research reveals that a trusting society is also a satisfied society because it establishes trustful
conditions for its members to maximize their benefits. However, few studies have examined
the link between various types of trust (i.e., social trust, and institutional trust) and life
satisfaction in post-socialist countries, in general, and in Albania, in particular. Therefore, the
main purpose of the present quantitative study was to assess to what extent various types of
trust (i.e., social trust, and institutional trust) are associated with individual life satisfaction in
Albania after controlling for gender, age, and education level. It used data from a sample of
1,063 participants aged 18-74 years who participated in the round 6 of the European Social
Survey conducted in Albania in 2012-2013. Results of ordinal and multiple ordinal regression
analyses showed that both types of trust were significantly associated with life satisfaction.
However, gender did not make a significant contribution to the model. Findings of this study
have some implications for policy makers