Poverty, social exclusion, and life satisfaction: A study from Turkey

Abstract

Available data for Turkey shows significant poverty, high unemployment rates, and a moderate level of life satisfaction, which suggests a high incidence of social exclusion. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationships among poverty, social exclusion, and life satisfaction by structural equation modelling. This cross-sectional study of 2,493 randomly selected participants showed that approximately 29.0% of the variation in social exclusion could be explained by the effects of age, poverty, and life satisfaction. People who are poor, with lower life satisfaction, and are young feel themselves to be more socially excluded.