Students’ expectations about future jobs as a factor influencing their quality of life

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Publishing House of Wrocław University of Economics Wrocław 2016

Quality of Life.

Human and Ecosystem Well-being

PRACE NAUKOWE

Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wrocławiu

RESEARCH PAPERS

of Wrocław University of Economics

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Copy-editing:RafałGalos Layout:BarbaraŁopusiewicz Proof-reading:BarbaraŁopusiewicz Typesetting:AdamDębski Coverdesign:BeataDębska Informationonsubmittingandreviewingpapersisavailableonwebsites: www.pracenaukowe.ue.wroc.pl www.wydawnictwo.ue.wroc.pl ThepublicationisdistributedundertheCreativeCommonsAttribution3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoderivsCCBY-NC-ND © CopyrightbyWrocławUniversityofEconomics Wrocław2016 ISSN 1899-3192 e-ISSN 2392-0041 ISBN 978-83-7695-590-2 Theoriginalversion:printed PublicationmaybeorderedinPublishingHouse WydawnictwoUniwersytetuEkonomicznegoweWrocławiu ul.Komandorska118/120,53-345Wrocław tel./fax713680602;e-mail:econbook@ue.wroc.pl www.ksiegarnia.ue.wroc.pl Drukioprawa:TOTEM

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Introduction

OnSeptember21-22,2015,6thInternationalScientificConference“QualityofLife 2015.HumanandEcosystemsWell-being”washeldinWrocław. Theconferencewasapartofthecycleoftheconferencesonthetopicofquality oflifethathavebeenorganizedbytheDepartmentofStatistics(WrocławUniversity ofEconomics)since1999.Theaimofthecycleistoparticipateinthestillrising alloverthewordwaveofscientificstudiesonqualityoflife:ethicalbackground anddefinitionsofqualityoflife,investigating(howtomeasureit),presentingthe resultsofdifferencesofqualityoflifeovertimeandspace,itsinterdependences with natural environment, mathematical methods useful for the methodology ofmeasuringqualityoflifeandfinally–possiblemethodsofimprovingit.The conferencesaremeanttointegratethePolishscientificcommunitydoingresearch onthesetopicsaswellastomakecontactswithforeignscientists.

ThisyearourhonoraryguestwasProfessorFilomenaMaggino,pastPresident of International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS), who presented aplenarylecture. Wehostedabout30participants,amongthemscientistsfromSpain,Romania, ItalyandJapan.Wehad24lecturesonsuchavarietyoftopicsascarbonfootprint andmathematicalpropertiesofsomeestimators.Thecommonbackgroundofall ofthemwastobettercomprehend,measureandpossiblytoimprovethequalityof humans’life. Thepresentvolumecontainstheextendedversionsofsomeselectedlectures presented during the conference. We wish to thank all of the participants of the conference for co-creating very inspiring character of this meeting, stimulating productivediscussionsandresultinginsomepotentiallyfruitfulcooperationover new research problems. We wish also to thank the authors for their prolonged cooperationinpreparingthisvolume,thereviewersfortheirhardworkandformany valuable,althoughanonymous,suggestionsthathelpedsomeofustoimprovetheir works.

Finally, we wish to thank the members of the Editorial Office of Wrocław University of Economics for their hard work while preparing the edition of this volume,continuouskindnessandhelpfulnessexceedingtheirdutiesofthejob.

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PRACE NAUKOWE UNIWERSYTETU EKONOMICZNEGO WE WROCŁAWIU RESEARCH PAPERS OF WROCŁAW UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS nr 435 ● 2016

Quality of Life. Human and Ecosystem Well-being ISSN 1899-3192

e-ISSN 2392-0041

Katarzyna Ostasiewicz, Adam Zawadzki

WrocławUniversityofEconomics

e-mails:katarzyna.ostasiewicz@ue.wroc.pl;adam.zawadzki@o2.pl

STUDENTS’ EXPECTATIONS

ABOUT FUTURE JOBS AS A FACTOR INFLUENCING

THEIR QUALITY OF LIFE

OCZEKIWANIA STUDENTÓW

ODNOŚNIE PRZYSZŁEJ PRACY

JAKO CZYNNIK WPŁYWAJĄCY NA JAKOŚĆ ŻYCIA

DOI:10.15611/pn.2016.435.06 Summary: Qualityoflifeisathree-foldconcept.Itstwocomponents–whicharetoahigh degreeindependentoneonanother–arepositiveandnegativeeffects.Thethirdoneisa perspectiveforfuture,thatis,hopesandfearsregardingfuturelife.Amongthose,especially foryoungpersons,thataretoenterthejobmarket,animportantroleisplayedbyfeelings connectedwithjobandfinancialperspectives.Thepurposeofourresearchwastoinvestigate theattitudesofstudentsinWroclaw.Theywereaskedaboutthedegreeofbeingworriedabout jobperspectives,withspecialregardtosomeparticularaspectsofthejobmarket(e.g.kindsof contractsofemployment).Theresultswereexaminedinthecontextofsocialbackgroundof ourrespondents.Itturnedoutthattheleveloffearsamongthosepotentially“well-situated(at thejobmarket)persons”isveryhigh,withsignificantdifferencesbetweenwomenandmen. Itisrevealedthatthishighleveloffearstillholdsdespitethe(common)expectationofbetter performanceatjobmarketascomparedtotheothers. Keywords: qualityoflife,hopesandfears,jobperspectives. Streszczenie: Jakośćżyciajestkoncepcjątrójwymiarową.Dwomakomponentami,wdużej

mierze od siebie niezależnymi, są pozytywne i negatywne odczucia. Trzecią składową stanowią oczekiwania odnośnie przyszłości, czyli nadzieje i obawy dotyczące przyszłego życia.Pośródnich,szczególniewśródmłodychosóbmającychdopierowejśćnarynekpracy, ważną rolę odgrywają odczucia związane z perspektywami zawodowymi i finansowymi. Celempracybyłozbadanietychpostawpośródwrocławskichstudentów.Bylionipytanio poziomobawzwiązanychzperspektywamizawodowymi,wszczególnościzpewnymiich aspektami,jaknaprzykładrodzajkontraktu.Wynikizestawianebyłyzzapleczemsocjalnym respondentów.Okazujesię,iżpoziomobawjestbardzowysoki,zistotnymistatystycznie różnicamipomiędzypłciami.Wysokipoziomobawutrzymujesięrównieżwśródtych,którzy sąprzekonani,żenarynkupracyporadząsobielepiejwporównaniuzrywalami. Słowa kluczowe:jakośćżycia,nadziejeiobawy,perspektywyzawodowe.

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Students’expectationsaboutfuturejobsasafactorinfluencingtheirqualityoflife 99

1. Introduction

Developing the science of well-being revealed that this concept is very often oversimplified.Sometimeagoitwasobservedthatitwasnottheonedimension, withbeingunhappyatoneendandbeinghappyattheotherend.Rather,positive effects and negative effects are strongly independent one on another (see e.g. [Bradburn1969;Harding1982]),thus,theconceptofwell-beingwouldbeatleast two-dimensional.

Recently, the third one has been added to this two-dimensional picture. As pointed out by some authors (see e.g. [Cantril 1965; Glatzer 2013]) the present qualityoflifeofanindividualisinfluencednotonlybycurrentpositivewell-being andnegativewell-being,buthopesandfearsconcerningfutureperspectivesaswell. Individuals’worriesmayconcerndifferentobjectsanddifferentdomains.Following Boehnkeetal.[1998]onemaystatethat“[…]aworryisacognitionthatastateof self/ingroup(microobjects)orsociety/world(macroobjects)inoneofthefollowing domains:health,environment,socialrelations,meaning,work,economicsorsafety, willbecome(becomemore,orremain)discrepantfromitsdesiredstate”.Onthe otherhand,hopesalsoplayasignificantroleinthecurrentwell-being.Oneofthe 8statementstoberespondedofPsychologicalWell-BeingScalebyEdDienerand RobertBiswas-Diener[Diener,2009]is:“Iamoptimisticaboutmyfuture”.

According to Holmes and Rahe stress scale [Holmes, Rahe 1967] events connectedwithworkandfinancesplayaveryimportantroleinpersons’lives.On thescalewherethedeathofthespousecorrespondstothe(maximumvalue)of100 “lifechangeunits”ande.g.thedeathofaclosefriendto37units,dismissalfrom workrelatesto47“lifechangeunits”whilechangeinfinancialstate–38units.

There are many studies showing that unemployment negatively influences the quality of life and mental health of individuals (e.g. [Warr, 1987; McKee-Ryanetal.,2005;Dooley,Catalano,1988]).Moreover,ithasbeenobservedthat unemploymentmayhavedifferent(higher)impactonyoungpeoplethatarejust leaving schools than on the persons who lose their jobs [Donovan, Oddy 1982]. This is suggested to be due to the additional burden connected with the lack of well-establishedoccupationalidentitythatyoungpeopleseekfor.Moreover,asfor educationalstatusoftheunemployedwhohavejustenteredthejobmarket,thereare twocompetinghypotheses.Oneofthemstatesthatgraduatedyoungpeoplehaving higher expectances will suffer more from unemployment (e.g. [Kaufman, 1982; Feather,Bond1983].Ontheotherhandtheotherhypothesisstatesthatgraduated personsgenerallyhavegreaterenvironmentalresourceshelpingthemtobettercope withthestress(e.g.[Fryer,Payne1984;Kjos1988]).Bothhypothesesaresupported bysomeresults. Itislessknownhowthequalityoflifeisaffectedbyexpectationsaboutfuture occupationalstatus,insteadofthecurrentone.However,itisalsoknownthatpeople do worry about losing their job or not finding it. According to the latest World

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100 KatarzynaOstasiewicz,AdamZawadzki ValuesSurveys[WVS2015]foraquestion:“Towhatdegreeareyouworriedabout losingajobornotfindingajob?”61.8%ofpeoplefromallovertheworldanswered “verymuch”or“agreatdeal”(while32.3%“notmuch”or“notatall”).InPoland, therewere43.3%and47.1%,respectively.Figure1presentsthefractionsofanswers “verymuch”,“agreatdeal”,“notmuch”and“notatall”forPolandandsomeother chosen countries, including the ones with the largest fraction of answers “very much”(Mexico,almost80%)andtheoneswiththelowestfractionoftheseanswers (theNetherlands,5.4%).Note,thatthesumoffractionsdoesnotequalto100%as therewasalso“don’tknow”asapossibleanswer. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 A us tra lia C hi na Es to ni a G eo rg ia G er m an y Ja pa n N ew Z ea la nd M ex ic o N et he rla nd s Po la nd R om an ia R us si a Sp ai n Sw ed en U kr ai ne U SA W or ld "Not at all" "Not much" "A great deal" "Very much" Figure 1. Fractionsofanswers“verymuch”,“agreatdeal”,“notmuch”and“notatall” foraquestion:“Towhatdegreeareyouworriedaboutlosingjobornotfindingajob?” forPolandandsomeotherchosencountries Source:ownworkbasedonWorldValuesSurveydata[WVS2015]. Studentsconstituteaspecificsocialenvironment.Inthecontextofjobmarket, theyaregenerallysupposedtohaveabetterpositionthanothersofthesameage butlesseducated.Theaimofthisstudyistoinvestigatetheattitudesofstudentsin Wrocław.

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2. Labor market and the position of young people

after graduation in Poland

Unemployment of the young graduated in Poland is a well-recognized problem, however,therearecontroversiesaboutitssourcesandpossiblesolution.In2012a conference at Lazarski University (Warsaw) took place, which gathered representativesofacademia,business(potentialemployers)andgovernment(Daria Nałęcz,DeputyMinisterofScienceandHigherEducation).Theconferencewas entitled:“Thecheatedgenerationofgraduate.Isitpossibletohelpthem?”.Different partiesblamedthewrongsystemofeducationinPoland,thelowlevelofeducation orthelackofinnovationinbusinessfortheunemploymentofyounggraduated. Itisratherobvious,thatthesituationofpersonswithhighereducationinPoland isworsening.In1995theunemploymentrateforpeoplewithtertiaryeducationwas 0.23oftherateforthewholepopulation,in2005itwas0.34whilenowitis0.52 [GUS2015].Thequestionis:Isthisaresultofeducationbeingunderestimatedinthe lastyears,theworseningqualityoftheeducationormaybethe“inflation”ofthe education–therapidincreaseoffractionofpeoplewithhighereducationinPoland, whichmakesthemarket“saturated”withhigh-educatedpeople? Still,manyyoungpeopledecidetocontinueeducationaftersecondaryschoolto enhancetheirqualificationsandchancesatthejobmarket.Inspiteofallconcerns aboutthesituationofeducatedpeopleinPoland,itstillseemstobeagoodstrategy. Bothatthecountrylevelandinparticularvoivodeships,thehighertheeducational levelthelowerunemploymentrateandthehighertheactivityrate.Althoughitdoes notnecessarilyholdineachparticularcase(e.g.insomeregionsunemploymentrate ofthepersonswithpost-secondaryeducationmaybehigherthanforthepersons withgeneral-secondaryeducation),italwaysholdsthatfortertiaryeducationthe unemploymentrateisthelowestofalleducationalgroups.AccordingtotheCentral StatisticalOfficeofPoland[GUS2015]in2014therewere7765thousandpeople with higher education level in Poland, while only 225.4 thousand of them were unemployed. Accordingtothedatafromthesampleofthelaborforcesurvey(LFS)conducted bytheCentralStatisticalOfficeinthefirstquarterof2015[GUS2015]therateof unemploymentforpeoplewithtertiaryeducationwasequalto4.5%withactivity rate80.1%(ascomparedto8.6%and56%,respectively,forthewholepopulation).In theDolnoslaskieVoivodeshiptheunemploymentratewasevenlowerthaninwhole Poland(2.6%)withactivityratenearlythesame(80%). Apartfromthejobissuestherearealsosatisfactorypaymentissues.ManyPolish specialistsdecidetoworkabroad,forbothreasons.

According to the estimations of the Central Statistical Office of Poland [GUS 2015] based on the National Census in 2011, 6.8% of Polish citizens with highereducationallevellivedabroadformorethan3months,whileforthewhole

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102 KatarzynaOstasiewicz,AdamZawadzki population(foranyeducationallevel)itisabout5.4%.Thatmeansthatthepopulation ofemigrantsisbettereducatedthanthewholePolishpopulation.Almost64%of emigrantsleftPolandforthejobreasons.TwomainreasonsforreturningtoPoland were:theendofcontractabroad(firstplace)andfamilymissing(secondplace).This secondfactorsuggeststhatthequalityoflifeofeconomicemigrantsislowered,as familyandrelationshipsarekeyissuesinwell-being.

3. The survey

Employment status and the family/close relationships are two factors that play importantrolesinhumanwell-being,asdohopesandfearsrelatingtothosetwo factors.Takingthosefactsintoconsideration,wehaveinvestigatedtheattitudesof students towards those issues. Firstly, we wanted to know, how much (if at all) studentswereworriedabouttheirfuturejobs(and–whatisrelated–abouttheir futurefinancialstatus).Questionsweaskedwereasfollows:“Howmuch–ona scaleof0to10–areyouworriedaboutyourfuturejobstatus?”and“Howmuch–on ascaleof0to10–areyouworriedaboutyourfuturefinancialstatus?”Weadopted here 0-10 scale, as having a better discriminant capacity than shorter scales [Maggino, D’Andrea 2003]. More specifically, we asked the students about the issuesthatarenowadaysveryfrequentinpublicdebatesinPoland,thatis,theform ofemployment.Namely,weaskedthem“Howmuch–onascaleof0to10–areyou worried about the perspective of the so-called “junk contract”?” and, somewhat complementary,“Howmuch–onascaleof0to10–doyoucareaboutthecontract ofemploymentforanindefiniteperiod?“Wealsowantedtoknowwhattheywere readytosacrificeforthesakeofsecurity.Therefore,weaskedthestudentsaquestion: “Whatwouldbethelowestacceptablenetpaytoyou?”andanotherone:“What initial“takehome”salarywouldyouconsiderfair?”Iftheanswertothesecond questiongivesahigherfigurethantheanswertothefirstquestionthenitmeansthat apersoniswillingtoacceptsomethingthatseemsunfairtohim/her.Inthecontext ofmassiveemigrationwealsowantedtostudytheattitudesofstudentstowardsthe possibilityofleavingPoland.Weaskedthemquestions:“How−onascaleof0to10 –areyoureadytoleaveforatemporaryjobabroad?”,and“How–onascaleof0to 10–areyoureadytoleaveforapermanentjobopportunityabroad?”Furthermore, we wanted to know how other values were related to the employment/financial status.Wethusaskedaquestion“Towhatdegree–onascaleof0to10–willyour financialstatusinfluenceyourdecisionabouthavingchildren?”.Additionally,we askedourrespondentsabouttheirconfidenceintheavailabilityofhelpfromclose friends/relativesinthecaseofneed(”Towhatextent–onascaleof0to10–doyou believethatpeopleclosetoyou(family/friends)willhelpyoufinanciallyincaseyou needit?”).Wealsoquestionedabouttheirconfidenceinhumanityasawhole(the mostfrequentsinglequestionusedtomeasure“socialcapital”is:“Towhatdegree –onascaleof0to10–doyouagreewiththestatement:Canmostpeoplebetrusted

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Students’expectationsaboutfuturejobsasafactorinfluencingtheirqualityoflife 103 ingeneral?).Toexaminepossiblerelationshipsbetweentheanswersandthepersonal characteristicsofthestudentsweaskedourrespondentsabouttheirage,sex,thesize ofthecitytheyhadbeenbornandraisedin(forcalculations,wedividedanswers into“largecities,above100thousand”,codedas“1”,and“smallercitiesorvillages”, codedas“0”),aswellaseducationlevelsoftheirparentsandtheimportanceof certain values in the respondents’ lives (”What role – on a scale of to 10 – do followingvaluesplayinyourlife:satisfactionofthebasicmaterialneeds,livingin luxury,family,closerelationships(apartfromfamilyrelationships),pursuitofown interestsandpassions,religion,patriotism,Polishcultureandheritage,socialstatus and power?”) We also differentiated between the types of students: part-time studentsversusfull-timeones.Wealsowantedtoknowhowthestudentspredicted theirownfuture,askingthequestion:“Ifyouhadtopredict,howwouldyourate your future performance at the job market: Significantly below average/below average/average/above average/significantly above average?” For the calculations wedividedtheanswersforthislastquestionintotwogroups:“averageorbelow”, codedas“0”,and“aboveaverage”,codedas“1”.

Ourinvestigationswerebasedonthesampleselectedratherpurposivelyamong thesewhowerethinkingaboutgettingajob,andfromsucha“population”there were selected randomly about 200 students. After removing incomplete data we gotthesampleof147persons.Themainpurposeofourresearchwastogetany insightintothisacuteproblemconfrontedbyyoung,graduatedpeopleinPoland. Theproblemofexpectation,andaspirationaswellasfearofthefutureseemsto remainoutsidescientificconsideration.

4. The results

4.1. Payments Theaveragefirstnetpayaftergraduatingtobeacceptablebyinvestigatedstudents is2355.2PLN,whileaverageddeclared“fair”netpayis2898.3PLN.Theaveraged ratioacceptablenetpay/fairnetpayisequalto0.85whichmeansthatyoungpeople arereadytogiveup15%of“fair”payfacingtherealityofjobmarket.Thereisa significantdifferencebetweenwomenandmenwithrespecttobothacceptableand fairnetpay.Also,betweenthosewhoexpecttoperformonaverageorworseand thosewhoexpecttobebetterthanonaverage.Bothkindsofstudents(full-timeand part-time)andinallagesregardthesamenet-payasfair(notsignificantdifferences) butpart-timeandolderwouldacceptsignificantlyhighersums.

For getting deeper insight into the problem one needs to test appropriate hypothesesrequiringfulfillingconditions,whichinourcasearenotfullysatisfied. Forthisreasontherearecalculatedp-valuesonlyfortheinformativereason.

To investigate these dependences more closely, we have calculated partial correlationsofacceptableandfairnet-paywithoneof5featuressubsequently:age,

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104 KatarzynaOstasiewicz,AdamZawadzki

sex,cityofraising,typeofstudies,predictedfutureperformanceatthejobmarket− keepingtheremaining4featuresconstant.

Table 1. Averagesofacceptableandfairpayasperceivedbydifferentgroupsofsurvey

andsignificanceoftheirdifferences

Acceptable p-value Fair p-value Sex women 2115.5 0.0015 2578.3 0.0074 men 2702.8 3362.4 Typeofstudents full-time 2218.18 0.0418 2884.5 0.8783 part-time 2646.8 2927.7 Age ≤20 2086 0.0113 2683 0.1948 >20 2494 3009.3 Predictedfuture performanceat thejobmarket averageorbelow 2112.3 0.0106 2565.1 0.0194 above average 2492.2 3086.2 Source:owncalculations. 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 accept fair women men 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 accept fair full-time students part-time students 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 accept fair age ≤ 20 age > 20 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 accept fair average or below above average Figure 2. Acceptableandfairpayasperceivedbydifferentgroupstakingpartinthesurvey Source:ownconstruction. Assumingthatrespondentshavetheir“true”opinionaboutthepaymentsthey expected and the answers were deviated from this “true” opinion randomly, we testedthesecorrelationsforsignificance.Theresultsforacceptedpaymentareas follows:

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Table 2. Partialcorrelationsofacceptablenet-pay

Estimate t-statistic p-value

Age 0.28 3.58 5*10−4 Sex −0.24 −2.94 0.0038 City −0.04 −0.54 0.5915 Typeofstudies −0.01 −0.10 0.9200 Predictedperformance 0.08 0.92 0.3608 Source:owncalculations. Asonecansee,asfortheage,thatolderpersonsacceptmore,onaverage,and (assexiscodedhere“0”=man,“1”=woman),womenacceptlessthanmen,ceteris paribus. Thetypeofstudyandthepredictedfutureperformanceatthejobmarketdid notappeartobesignificant,asbothofthesevariableswerestronglyrelatedtoage (thetypeofstudy)andbothageandsex(thepredictedfutureperformance).The relationbetweenthetypeofstudiesandtheageisquiteobvious,asmostoffull-time students are just after college. More interesting is the relationship between predictedperformanceatthejobmarketandageandsex.Itturnsoutfromadeeper analysisthatbeingawomanmeansonaverageloweringtheprobabilityofpredicting performancebetterthanaveragebyalmost14percentagepoints,whileincreasing agerelatestoincreasingself-confidenceinpredictingownperformanceatthejob market. Asforfairnetpay,againonlyageandsexofallourvariablesturnedouttobe significant,namely: Table 3. Partialcorrelationsoffairnet-pay

Age 0.24 2.95 0.0037 Sex −0.22 −2.73 0.0072 City 0.02 0.28 0.7837 Typeofstudies 0.14 1.69 0.0929 Predictedperformance 0.07 0.81 0.4190 Source:owncalculations. 4.2. The fears Letusproceednowtotheimpactofjobperspectivesonthequalityoflife,thatis, fearsaboutfuture.Theaverageleveloffearsaboutfuturejobwasabout5.5(at0to 10scale),andaverageleveloffearsaboutfuturefinancialstatuswas5.7(at0to10 scale).Noticingthattheoptimalpoint(nofearsatall)is0,thatseemsaquitehigh leveloffears,especiallythatitconcernsthepersonsofpotentiallybeneficialhigh educationallevel.Again,theassumptionsforthetestsusedherearenotfullysatisfied hereandp-valuesarenottobetreatedtooconclusive.

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Table 4. Averagesoflevelsoffearsbydifferentgroupsofsurveyandthesignificance

oftheirdifferences.

Fearsabout

job p-value Fearsaboutfinances p-value Sex women 6.05 0.0002 6.24 0.0003 men 4.67 4.85 Typeofstudents full-time 5.55 0.6026 5.58 0.4754 part-time 5.34 5.87 Age ≤20 5.66 0.46001 5.94 0.2960 >20 5.39 5.54 Predictedfuture performanceat thejobmarket averageorbelow 6.42 4*10−5 _6.21 _0.0287 above average 4.96 5.37 Source:owncalculations. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

worries (job) worries (finances) women men 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

worries (job) worries (finances) full-time part-time 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

worries (job) worries (finances) age ≤ 20 age > 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

worries (job) worries (finances)

average or below above average Figure 3. Averagesoflevelsoffearsbydifferentgroupsofsurvey Source:ownconstruction. Deepeningtheanalysis,weinvestigatetherelationshipsofleveloffearswith somechosensetofpersonalcharacteristicsandotherfactors.Toextractthesole relationship with a single one of these characteristics we calculate the partial correlation,whilecontrollingfortherestofthem..Forthefearsofworkperspectives wecanobservewhatfollows.

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Table 5. Partialcorrelationsofthefearsofworkperspectives

Age 0.07 0.87 0.3856 Sex 0.26 3.27 0.0013 City 0.08 0.97 0.3361 Typeofstudies 0.07 0.88 0.3805 Predictedperformance −0.38 −4.88 3*10−6 Basicmaterialneeds 0.24 2.97 0.0034 Believeinthepoten-tialhelpfromothers 0.07 0.85 0.3979 Leveloftrustin peopleasawhole 0.08 0.94 0.3508 Source:owncalculations. Thusitturnsoutthatwomenaresignificantlymorefearedoffuturejob,and themoreself-confidentaboutownperformanceinvestigatedpersonsaretheless fearedtheyare(asalwayswithpartialcorrelations,excludingtheinfluenceofother features).Thosewhodeclarethatsatisfactionofthebasicmaterialneedsplaysmore importantrolesintheirlivesalsofearmore.Itisalsostriking,thatneitherbeliefin thepotentialhelpfromothersnortheleveloftrustinpeopleasawholecorrelate significantlywiththeleveloffearsaboutfuturejob. Sex,self-confidenceaboutownperformanceandthedeclaredlevelofimportance ofsatisfyingthebasicmaterialneedsagainturnouttocorrelatesignificantlywith the levels of fears about financial status, and the effects are quite similar. (The correlationbetweentheleveloffearsaboutjobandtheleveloffearsaboutfinances isalmost0.73).

Table 6. Partialcorrelationsofthefearsoffinancialperspectives

Age 0.03 0.39 0.6999 Sex 0.29 3.65 0.0004 City 0.11 1.34 0.1835 Typeofstudies −0.01 −0.17 0.8640 Predictedperformance −0.22 −2.75 0.0068 Basicmaterialneeds 0.29 3.67 0.0003 Beliefinthepotential helpfromothers −0.03 −0.36 0.7178 Leveloftrustin peopleasawhole 0.12 1.47 0.1442 Source:owncalculations. Asformorespecificfears–abouttheformsofcontracts–thedegreeoffearofso-called“junkcontract”increasessignificantlywithage,andwomenaresignificantly

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morefearfulthanmen.Themeanlevelofthisfearisequalto6.2.Thereverseofthis fearisthedegreeofcareforthecontractforanindefiniteperiod.Asimilareffectcan beseenhereincaseofageincrease.However,sexdoesnotrevealtobesignificant in this case, instead; the degree of fears of future job status is significantly and positivelyrelatedtothedegreeofcaringaboutthisformofcontract.Themeanlevel ofthiscareisalmostequalto8.

4.3. Other features

Asforothervariables,thereadinessforworkingtemporarilyabroadrisessignificantly withtheleveloffather’seducation(theeffectofmother’seducationisinsignificant), with the declared importance of satisfying basic material needs, with expected performanceonthejobmarket,butalsowiththedegreeoffearsaboutfuturejob. Theselasttwoeffectsmightbeinterpretedthatforadecisionofgoingabroadone needs some degree of self-confidence together with low expectations about the possibilityofacareerinPoland. Thereadinessforpermanentemigrationincreaseswithexpectedperformance onthejobmarketandwiththedegreeoffearsaboutfuturejob–justlikeinthecase oftemporalworkabroad.Thedifferenceisthatitdoesnotrelatesignificantlytothe declaredimportanceofsatisfyingbasicmaterialneeds,but,instead,itdecreases significantlywiththedeclaredimportanceoftheroleofpatriotisminone’slife. Themeandegreeofimpactofthefinancialstatusonthedecisionofhaving children is equal to 6.7 and increases significantly with the fears of the future financial status. What is interesting, it significantly decreases with the declared importanceofreligioninone’slife,whilethedeclaredimportanceofthefamily doesnotrevealtobesignificant.Thefearsofthefuturefinancialstatushavethe influenceabouttwiceasstrongastheimportanceofthereligion.

5. Conclusions

Letusmakehereafewobservationsaboutthegainedresults.

The first striking conclusion is the overall high level of fears about job and financialstatus(5.5and5.7onaverage,respectively)amongyoungpersonswho are potentially in the best situation of all participants on the job market. If we regardanswers0-4ascorrespondingto“notatall”/“notmuch”andanswers6-19 ascorrespondingto“agreatdeal”/“verymuch”while5to“don’tknow”,therates offearwouldrevealhigherforstudentsthanforthewholepopulation(asreported by[WVS,2015])–fearingmuchismorethan1.7timesasmanyasfearinglittle amongstudents,whileforthewholepopulationtheirfractionsarealmostthesame. Moreover,wecanobservethatthesefearswouldbeprobablymuchhigherifthe students realistically viewed their predicted performance at the job market. It is obviouslynotpossiblethat64%ofstudentswillperformbetterthanothers(while 31%liketheothers,andonly5%worsethanothers),asitisaccordingtotheirown

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expectations. This is a well-known effect, so-called “illusory superiority” (e.g. [Hoorens1993])or,morepopular,“LakeWobegoneffect”(inthisfictionaltown created by a humorist and writer Garrison Keillor “all the children were above average”).Accordingtothemodel,womenwhowouldpredictownperformanceas significantlybelowaveragewouldfearonaverageatthelevelofabove8.7whilemen above7.5.Forthosewhowouldpredictownperformanceasbelowaveragethatwould be7.7and6.5,respectively.Itisworthstressing,thatthequestionofcomparisons concernedonlythestudent-colleagues,notallthejobmarketparticipants.Noticing thattheleveloffearalmostapproachingthemaximumpossiblelevelwouldsurely significantlydecreasetheperson’squalityoflife,ourobservationisinaccordance withtheconceptionthatpositiveillusionspromotementalhealth(seee.g.[Taylor, Brown1994]).Namely,ithasbeenobservedthatpeoplesufferingclinicaldepression evaluatethemselvesaccuratelyratherthanunderestimate,whileso-calledhealthy peopleratheroverestimatethemselves(so-called“depressiverealism”)(e.g.[Alloy, Abramson1988]).

The second important observation is the statistically significant difference betweensexes.Itturnsoutthatwomenarealmost30%morefearedbothaboutjob andfinances,estimatingownchancesatthejobmarketlowerthanmendo(57% of women compared to 73% of men predict own performance at the job market aboveorsignificantlyabovetheaverage).Thatisaprobableexplanationofthefact thatwomenarewillingtoaccept22%lessnetincomethanmendo.Thatmightbe viewedasrealistic,asitisindeedthefactthatwomeninPolandhaveonaverage lowerincomes,evenoccupyingthesamejob.AccordingtoCentralStatisticalOffice ofPoland(datafor2012year)[GUS2015]ineachmaingroupofoccupationswomen arepaidless.Forthegroupofmanagersitisonaverage27%less,forthegroupof professionalsitis24%less,forthegroupoftechniciansandassociateprofessionals itis23%lesswhilefortheclericalsupportworkersitisonly2%less.Thatis,the higherthepositionis,thegreaterthegapbetweentheincomesofwomenandmen. Atthesametime,personswiththehigherdegreeofeducationareassumedtoaspire forthehighestpositionsatthejobmarket.Thus,lowerexpectationofwomenmight beregardedasrealistic.However,womenseemnottotreatthesituationasunjust,as theyalsoregard23%lowerpaymentsasfair.Thequestionis,whetherthewomen’s conceptofwhatisfairisreallydifferentfrommen’sorthatisakindofpsychological adaptationtothegivensituation.Thatleadstoanotherinterestingobservation:the coefficientsofvariationfortheacceptedpay,fairpayandthefraction:(accepted pay)/(fairpay)areequalto0.45,0.56and0.22respectively.Thelastone,forthe fractionoffairpaythatwouldbeaccepted,issignificantlydifferent(withforboth cases) both from the coefficient of variation for the accepted pay and from the coefficientofvariationforthefairpay.Themeaningofthisresultremainstobe explained.

Anotherinterestingobservationisthegapbetweentheaveragebeliefinthehelp ofthefamily/closefriends(89%treatinganswerswithscore≥5asadeclarationof

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110 KatarzynaOstasiewicz,AdamZawadzki belief)andthetrustinothersingeneral(33%).Theformerrevealstobealmost2.7 asstrongasthelatter.Itisinaccordancewiththeobservationsofthetemporary Polishsociologists(e.g.[Czapiński2008])aboutso-called“societyofmolecules”. Thatconceptcorrespondstohighlevelandsmallradiusoftrust,accordingtothe conceptionofDelheyetal.[Delheyetal.2011].Theissueofthelevelofthetrust amongthestudentswouldbeworthfurtherinvestigations,especiallyinthecontext ofthelatestWorldValuesSurvey[WVS2015],whichamountedto47%forPoland (comparedwithDenmark–89%,atthetopoftherankand13%forChile,atthe bottomoftherank).Isthediscrepancybetween47%fromWVSand33%fromour surveyduetothesmallsizeofoursampleortothespecificcharacterofstudents’ population?However,thatproblemisbeyondthescopeofourinvestigations. Summarizing,ourinvestigationshowsthehighleveloffearcausedbyjoband financial perspectives, which not only decreases the subjective quality of life of students,butalsoanimpactoftheirimportantlifedecisionsofstartingafamilyor emigration.

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