Psychological and Social Vulnerability in Spaniards' Quality of Life in the Face of COVID-19: Age and Gender Results.

Following the serious health situation in Spain and around the world in 2020 and 2021 stemming from COVID-19, this paper examines how the most vulnerable groups (in social and health terms) in Spanish society suffered the worst impacts on their quality of life during the pandemic. The review of the literature and publications released by the health authorities highlight the high number of cases of illness and death due to COVID-19; however, there are no studies about how it has affected aspects of citizens' daily lives, considering some of their sociodemographic characteristics such as age and gender. A key issue when measuring citizens' quality of life is that we typically see a U-shaped curve by age group, where young people register the highest shares along with the elderly; nevertheless, the pandemic has clearly brought about a change in this regard. In this study, we corroborate this finding, along with the psychological issues underlying this fact in young people and the physical ones in the elderly. To do so, we use an ANOVA and regression analysis with data from a sample of 908 Spanish citizens belonging to different age groups. These data were collected through an online survey distributed throughout Spain, mostly by email and social media, between 15 February and 15 April 2021 with a margin of error of 3.25% and a confidence level of 95%. Furthermore, the analysis allowed us to determine how aspects of daily life-family situation, living conditions, social environment, employment and financial situation-have been negatively affected during the pandemic, clearly depending on the age of the people surveyed, pushing them towards social and health vulnerability.

The relationship between happiness and quality of life: A model for Spanish society.

A key goal for society as a whole is the pursuit of well-being, which leads to the happiness of its individual members; as such, it is of critical socioeconomic relevance. In this regard, it is important to study which factors primarily affect the happiness of the population. In principle, these factors are associated with income level and residential and job stability, or more specifically, citizens' quality of life. This research, which is based on a multidimensional concept of quality of life, uses a regression model to explain the dependence of Spaniards' happiness on the well-being or quality of life provided by their work, their family situation, their income level and aspects of their place of residence, among other factors. The data were collected through an anonymous survey administered to a representative sample of Spanish citizens. The methodology used approaches the intangible concept of happiness as resulting from different individual and social causes selected from dimensions addressed in the literature, and calculates their effects or importance through regression coefficients. One of the findings is that people with the highest level of well-being or quality of life in the most important dimensions mostly claim to be happy. With respect to gender, it has a significant influence on the dimensions included in the model of citizen happiness and on personal issues. It is also shown that the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic negatively influenced the quality of life of Spanish citizens and therefore their happiness.