Data from: Revisiting the measurement of anomie

Sociologists coined the term "anomie" to describe societies that
are characterized by disintegration and deregulation. Extending beyond
conceptualizations of anomie that conflate the measurements of anomie as
'a state of society' and as a 'state of mind', we
disentangle these conceptualizations and develop an analysis and measure
of this phenomenon focusing on anomie as a perception of the 'state
of society'. We propose that anomie encompasses two dimensions: a
perceived breakdown in social fabric (i.e., disintegration as lack of
trust and erosion of moral standards) and a perceived breakdown in
leadership (i.e., deregulation as lack of legitimacy and effectiveness of
leadership). Across six studies we present evidence for the validity of
the new measure, the Perception of Anomie Scale (PAS). Studies 1a and 1b
provide evidence for the proposed factor structure and internal
consistency of PAS. Studies 2a-c provide evidence of convergent and
discriminant validity. Finally, assessing PAS in 28 countries, we show
that PAS correlates with national indicators of societal functioning and
that PAS predicts national identification and well-being (Studies 3a
& 3b). The broader implications of the anomie construct for the
study of group processes are discussed.