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Happiness, trust, and social relationships: The social dimensions of urban quality of life in Debrecen
51-62Views:6The study of happiness and quality of life in urban settings has become increasingly prominent in both international and domestic social science research. The quality of social relationships and the level of trust are among the key determinants of subjective well-being. This study aims to explore the relationships between happiness, trust, and social ties among the urban population of Debrecen, and to examine how these vary across different demographic groups. The analysis is based on a representative sample of 500 respondents from the “Debrecen 2025” survey, using questionnaire-based data collection. The findings indicate that the subjective well-being of Debrecen’s residents is generally favourable and closely associated with the quality of their social relationships. In particular, family and friendship ties, as well as levels of trust, show consistent associations with life satisfaction. At the same time, it is not the quantity of social ties, but their quality, that proves to be decisive. No significant gender differences were found, whereas notable variations emerge across age groups and levels of educational attainment: older individuals and those with higher levels of education tend to report higher levels of well-being and trust. The results confirm the importance of social capital in shaping urban quality of life and suggest that strengthening social relationships and fostering trust may play a key role in improving overall well-being.
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The role of higher education socialization in shaping students' future-oriented work ethic
111–118Views:8Research on higher education clearly indicates that the institutional environment, as well as the relationships formed with faculty and peers, not only influence academic achievement and the risk of dropout, but also have a significant long-term effect on students' life trajectories, future outlook, future orientation, and even their decisions to remain in a given geographic location (Pusztai, 2011; Bess & Dee, 2012; Sütő, 2021; Sütő, 2025; Demeter-Karászi, 2025). This suggests that higher education institutions do not operate merely as knowledge-transfer organizations, but also as socializing environments that shape students' relationship with work, achievement, and long-term goals. The theoretical framework of our research is therefore grounded in approaches that interpret future-oriented work ethic not exclusively as an individual psychological trait, but as a phenomenon embedded in social relationships and institutional contexts (Berger, 2001; Kuh & Umbach, 2004). Our research seeks to answer what associations can be identified between the characteristics of the social and institutional environment of higher education institutions — in particular, institutional culture, relationships with faculty and peers, and institutional trust — and students' future-oriented work ethic. Our empirical data are drawn from the 2023–2024 survey of the MTA–DE Public Education Development Research Program, a large-scale international database comprising 1,336 respondents. The results indicate that trust-based relationships with both faculty and peers, as well as the perception of a transparent and fair institutional atmosphere, are significantly associated with higher levels of future-oriented work ethic, with perceived supportive institutional culture emerging as the strongest predictor (β = 0.252; p < 0.001). It is particularly noteworthy that the effect of institutional and relational factors persisted even after controlling for social background variables. Our findings thereby corroborate the theoretical stance that future-oriented work ethic is not solely derived from individual attributes, but can be understood as an orientation shaped during higher education socialization through institutional and social environments. This is an especially important finding in light of the growing heterogeneity of the student body, as it suggests that a supportive institutional culture may contribute to strengthening the future orientation and long-term academic success of students from diverse social backgrounds.
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Pathway to academic well-being: The role of institutional social capital in the well-being of academics in five Central and Eastern European countries
85-98Views:6This study examined the relationship between institutional social capital and the emotional well-being of academics in Central and Eastern European higher education systems. Building on Pusztai’s conceptual framework, this study distinguishes between intragenerational social capital, referring to collegial cooperation and communicative exchange, and intergenerational social capital, referring to informal interaction with students beyond formal teaching. The analysis draws on survey data collected in 2023 from academics in five countries (Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, and Ukraine) (N ≈ 800). Institutional social capital is operationalised through indicators capturing the frequency and diversity of interactions, while emotional well-being is measured using Warr’s Affective Well-being Scale. The results show that intragenerational social capital is a significant positive predictor of well-being, whereas intergenerational social capital has no independent effect. The findings suggest that collegial relational embeddedness constitutes a relevant, albeit limited, resource for emotional well-being in academic work.
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“Narrating” Bodies. Physical “Reflexive” Activities between Gender Images and Socio-pedagogical Processes - Research on the Yoga’s Representations
21-27Views:292This article intends to offer a reflection on how reflexive physical activities can support a socio-pedagogical approach to educating about gender diversity through media communication. We use the term “reflexive” to refer to all those activities aimed at enhancing the person and his relationships, self-realization, selfknowledge, and self-improvement: in other terms, a circuit of bodily experiences that determine bodily knowledge as a social construction (as described by Connel, 2005). These activities focus mainly on ethical purposes, rather than on performative ones. An example of such disciplines can be considered the practice of yoga which is a currently growing phenomenon both in Europe and in the United States. Yoga is practiced today in the USA by 35.2 million adults, by over 2.5 million people in Italy, and is garnering scientific interest in its contributions to balanced, healthy growth of children and adults. The World Health Organization, in its global action plan on physical activity 2018-2030: More Active People for a Healthier World, calls it a means to improve health. The diffusion of these disciplines responds to a personal and social search for meaning that weighs especially heavily on highly secularized Western culture. This diffusion also portrays a media phenomenon, whose images and messages validate and reinforce capitalist ethics. From this point of view, the “mediated” representation of sports bodies appears to apply to the world of consumers. The images of women practicing yoga, oriented toward alternative values rather than beauty and sexuality, are above all confirmed by the purchase of goods and services that are not related to outward personal appearance. Using the results of an analysis carried out in 2021 of two main international yoga magazines, we are going to discuss the role of yoga as a “reflexive” physical activity and its pedagogical potential oriented to the body as a “primary place of experience”, not just a consumer item, but also a tool for education about gender diversity.
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The Influencing Factors of Dropout and Persistence of Central European Hungarian Minorities in Higher Educational Institutions
90-98Views:334The statistics show that minority Hungarians’ education and participation in higher education, lags far behind the majority of society in Central Europe. Furthermore, we also know that the smaller the community, the more educated they are. The explanation for this could be, those who are less educated are more prone to assimilate. As a result, the existential question from these minority groups comes down to the growth of their level of education, a condition of which is university students’ acquisition of diplomas. Those factors deserve more scrutiny, in their identification, that increase the chances of getting a diploma. The goal of our study is (1) to identify the students who are persistent and at risk of dropping out, (2) to define the risk factors, and (3) at the same time to uncover the protective/ supporting factors as well. The theoretical background for our research was constituted by the institutional integrational model. The database used for this study contains data collected during a survey of Hungarian students from four different countries in Central Europe (IESA 2015, N= 2017). We found from our research that though the effect of intergenerational connections among students at Central European minority schools proved significant, the effect of place of residence, of settlement type, and of relationships within the family was even stronger.