Table_1_Data Mining Approach: What Determines the Wellbeing of Women in Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia?.DOCX

BackgroundWomen's happiness and life satisfaction, often summarized as subjective wellbeing, are of great value for most individuals and are associated with various determinants. The countries of the Western Balkan are of particular interest after the political changes in the nineties. Are the women satisfied with their lives today?
MethodsWe use the most recent datasets of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) for women 15–49 years old and with comparable data coverage for three countries of the Western Balkan belonging to the former Yugoslavia, namely Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. After sorting out variables of limited relevance or quality (missing values >50%), the remaining 32 variables followed a descriptive analysis. Four potential determinants of subjective wellbeing (SWB), an integration of happiness and satisfaction with life, entered an interactive Classification and Regression Tree (iC&RT) to account for their mostly bivariate format: age, education, region, and wealth.
ResultsThe iC&RT analysis determines the influence of 4 independent variables (age, education, region, and wealth) on overall happiness, satisfaction with life, and subjective wellbeing, resulting in a high overall SWB of 88.9% for Montenegro, 82.1% for North Macedonia, and 83% for Serbia. The high relevance of younger age, higher education, and wealth, as critical determinants of a high SWB, and the lesser role of regions except for Serbia is confirmed. The spread of SWB in defined population subgroups ranges from 80.5–92.6% for Montenegro, 64.2–86.8% for North Macedonia, and 75.8–87.4% for Serbia.
ConclusionsThe three selected South-Eastern European countries of the former Yugoslavia (Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia) represent high levels of subjective wellbeing of women and a narrow range between the lowest and highest population groups. Women in Montenegro take a top position regarding their subjective wellbeing.

研究背景：女性幸福感与生活满意度常被概括为主观幸福感（subjective wellbeing），其对多数个体而言具有重要价值，且与多种影响因素相关。20世纪90年代政治变革后，西巴尔干地区国家成为备受关注的研究对象。当下，该地区女性对自身生活是否满意？
研究方法：本研究使用针对15~49岁女性的最新多指标类集调查（Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, MICS）数据集，覆盖前南斯拉夫旗下的西巴尔干地区三国，即黑山、北马其顿与塞尔维亚，且各数据集的数据覆盖范围具有可比性。在剔除相关性有限或质量欠佳（缺失值占比>50%）的变量后，剩余32项变量用于开展描述性分析。针对主观幸福感（SWB，即幸福感与生活满意度的综合体现）的4项潜在影响因素——年龄、受教育程度、地区与财富水平——由于其数据多为双变量分布形式，本研究采用交互式分类与回归树（interactive Classification and Regression Tree, iC&RT）模型进行分析。
研究结果：通过交互式分类与回归树模型分析，明确了4项自变量（年龄、受教育程度、地区与财富水平）对总体幸福感、生活满意度及主观幸福感的影响。结果显示，黑山女性的总体主观幸福感占比达88.9%，北马其顿为82.1%，塞尔维亚为83%。本研究证实，较年轻的年龄、更高的受教育程度与财富水平是提升主观幸福感的关键影响因素，而地区因素仅在塞尔维亚样本中表现出较强相关性，其余国家中地区的影响相对有限。在划定的人口亚组中，主观幸福感的分布区间为：黑山80.5%~92.6%，北马其顿64.2%~86.8%，塞尔维亚75.8%~87.4%。
研究结论：本次研究选取的前南斯拉夫旗下三个东南欧国家（黑山、北马其顿、塞尔维亚）的女性均拥有较高的主观幸福感水平，且不同人口亚组间的主观幸福感差异较小。其中，黑山女性的主观幸福感位居三国之首。