SATISFACTION WITH LIFE AND INFORMAL AND FORMAL SOURCES OF SUPPORT AMONG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Abstract

This study shows the results of the research on satisfactionwith life and informal and formal sources of supportamong people with disabilities in the Republic of Croatia.The purpose of this study is to contribute to a betterunderstanding of differences in life and social supportsatisfaction among people with disabilities accordingto their specific social-demographic characteristics.The research was conducted by means of an interview of689 people with disabilities. The data, obtained from aweighted sample of 391 people, were analyzed bymethods of descriptive statistics, variance analysis, t-testand correlation analysis. The results show that peoplewith disabilities are the most satisfied with informalsources of support (immediate family, friends) and the leastsatisfied with the support of non-profit organizations andlocal and national authorities. It was determined that thereare significant differences in the life satisfaction amongpeople with disabilities in terms of all the observedcharacteristics, except for the sex and the size of theplace of residence. Moreover, the level of their lifesatisfaction is closely related to almost every sourceof social support.