The main purpose of our study was to examine gender differences in subjective health and well-being, political and cultural participation, to test whether gender moderates the link between health and participation and whether there is regional variation in this link. A representative survey sample of Slovenian Youth 2010 Study was analysed. At the total sample levels, men reported better health, there were no gender differences in voter turnout, while cultural participation was higher among women. In addition, gender moderated the voter turnout-health link – in contrast to expectations, turnout was significantly negatively related to health among men, but unrelated among women – but not the cultural participation-health link. Regional variations were not detected, as associations within regions were largely insignificant.
Past research has shown that the economic and cultural capital of the family in general, and the cultural participation of youth, in particular, play an important role in bettering school outcomes. The purpose of our research was to analyse the determinants of cultural participation and to compare its impact with other determinants of secondary school performance, controlling for the relevant sociodemographic variables. We conducted a multivariate analysis of nationally representative survey data for Slovenian youth (Mladina 2010 study), where the target population were permanent residents living in the Republic of Slovenia and between the ages of 15 and 29 years. The results of regression analyses showed that 1) women and young people with better educated fathers (but not mothers) have higher academic achievement; 2) younger respondents, women, young people with better educated mothers (but not fathers), and young people from urban environments and with higher social capital are more often involved in cultural activities; 3) controlling for other variables, cultural participation is positively associated with secondary school success. The results indicate that cultural activity is becoming one of the most important determinants of school performance among Slovenian youth. We conclude our paper with some proposals for cultural and educational policy, including in terms of promoting and improving accessibility to cultural participation, especially for young people from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.
One of the more important everyday experiences in people’s lives is how fairly/unfairly they are (or perceived to be) treated within their social environment, i.e. the extent of discrimination they perceive to experience. It has previously been found that experiences of discrimination and prejudice are unevenly distributed across countries. In addition, perceived discrimination has previously been linked with numerous negative health outcomes. Finally, certain resources have been found to buffer the negative effects of discrimination on health. Few previous studies examined perceived discrimination in groups other than ethnic minorities, few examined youth population and there are no cross-national comparative analyses of youth from the post-Yugoslav states. The aim of the present study was to 1) examine the extent of perceived discrimination in four post-Yugoslav countries, 2) examine the impact of discrimination on health among Slovenian youth; 3) test whether cultural and political activities buffer the impact of discrimination on health among Slovenian youth. We employed representative national youth samples (16-27 year-olds) from Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung studies carried out in 2012–2014 period in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, and Slovenia. The frequency of perceived discrimination (1 = never; 5 = frequently) was examined based on the following seven perceived reasons of discrimination: gender, economic status, religious affiliation, ethnicity/nationality, educational level, political party affiliation and regional origin. Results indicated cross-national differences in perceived discrimination, with highest perceived discrimination being detected in Kosovo and Slovenia, and lowest in Croatia and BIH. Analysing Slovenia, perceived discrimination had a negative impact on health outcomes. Finally, cultural activities buffered the impact of perceived discrimination on health. The protective role of cultural capital thus mirrors the results of previous studies on the buffering effect of social capital on health. The implications of the results are discussed in terms of importance of cultural resources for dampening the effect of health-damaging stressors in the lives of youth in post-communist countries.