THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEALTH AND TRUST AS INDIVIDUAL VALUES
Keywords:
values theory, health, trust, dynamic relationship,Abstract
The theory of basic human values measures universal values that are recognized
throughout all major cultures. Schwartz's theory has refined the set of 19 basic
individual values that serve as guiding principles in the life of a person or group,
further describing the dynamic relationships among them. The present study presents
practical evidence of the dynamics between individual values. We have developed an
online questionnaire of 46 items with response options on a Lickert scale from 1 to 6,
where 1 represents less important and 6 represent very important. 220 young people
from Western Romania voluntarily responded. By testing the hypothesis assuming the
dynamic relationship between the two values through multiple regression analysis,
the results demonstrate that in Model 1, which involves a linear relationship, health
explains 12% of the variance in trust with a F =161,215 significant at p <.01. In
Model 2, which involves a curvilinear relationship, health explains 13% of the
variance in trust with a F = 35,336 significant at p <.01. The incremental prediction
capacity of 1% added by including the squared trust variable accounts for the band in
the regression line, indicating the existence of a curvilinear relationship between trust
and health. This curvilinear relationship demonstrates that extreme aspects,
extremely low and extremely high levels of trust, significantly influence the health
value in a negative way. Normal levels of trust trigger a high level of prioritization of
health value. The implications of this type of relationship are discussed in explaining
the value phenomenon at individual level. The study shows limits due to the selected
sample, focusing exclusively on young people with higher education from the Western
region of Romania. This sample was the target group of "The National Identity of
Romanian Youth" project which funded this research.
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