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Mohammadi Gharehghani M A, Ghaedamini Harouni G, Talebi S, Moosavi Khatat S M. (2024). Meta-analysis of Social Welfare Studies in Iran. refahj. 23(91), : 1 doi:10.32598/refahj.23.91.1737.7
URL: http://refahj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-4225-en.html
URL: http://refahj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-4225-en.html
Mohammad Ali Mohammadi Gharehghani 
, Gholamreza Ghaedamini Harouni * , Sahar Talebi , Syed Mohammad Moosavi Khatat
, Gholamreza Ghaedamini Harouni * , Sahar Talebi , Syed Mohammad Moosavi Khatat
Keywords: Meta-analysis, social welfare, Quality of life, Well-being, Life satisfaction, Legatum index, Iran
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Introduction: Considering what has been pointed out about the place and importance of social welfare in today's society and various research studies that have been done in this area, it was necessary to align these research studies in order to reach harmonized and usable results, which meta-analysis as a solid method was chosen to do this task. For this purpose, the separate findings of research conducted in the field of social welfare in four specialized quarterly journals in the field of social welfare from 2005 to 2017 were combined and compared.
Although the discussion about welfare and social justice in Iran has attracted the attention of specialists in this field to some extent, unfortunately, both in terms of the scientific and specialized standards of this field and in terms of the basics of social policy analysis, there is insufficiency and sometimes contradiction among thinkers and researchers. If we pay attention to the discussions that are usually raised by thinkers in the field of social welfare, most of them emphasize the relationship between material and non-material aspects of social welfare (Rabbani et al., 2018) and concepts such as justice, equality, freedom, poverty, distribution of resources , etc. The scholars point out that in measuring and evaluating these dimensions, anxiety, and contradiction are sometimes observed. Considering the existing dispersion in social welfare studies, each of which has different variables, methods, and samples, and in this situation, knowing the strengths and weaknesses, and the shortcomings and possibilities of welfare policy and research in the future is impossible except by examining what has been done so far in this field.
The present meta-analysis focuses on social welfare studies on factors affecting social welfare. In other words, considering social welfare as a dependent variable, the current research seeks to identify independent variables that have been identified in the research conducted during the twelve-year period as variables affecting the state of social welfare. On this occasion, attempts are made to assess the effect size of variables affecting social welfare implemented in Iran with a comprehensive and systematic review and meta-analysis method. In this regard, the results are calculated, compared, and combined in the form of "effect size" statistics, which is an objective, uniform, and comparable indicator and it is also an estimate of the intensity of the impact of the effective variables. Also, by coding and summarizing the characteristics and methodological-theoretical components and other characteristics of the conducted research, in addition to providing a comprehensive description of these characteristics, the impact of these characteristics on the research results will also be discussed. It should be mentioned that the Legatum Institute's social welfare index was used in this meta-analysis to unify the social welfare components or indicators.
Methodology: The present study is a systematic review with meta-analysis. The materials included all the articles during the years 2005 to 2017 in specialized social welfare journals. Social Welfare Quarterly, Journal of Welfare and Social Development Planning, Social Science Quarterly, Social Studies and Research Quarterly in Iran, Journal of Social Studies in Iran, and Social Security Quarterly were examined as sources for searching articles. Articles with the keyword of well-being or one of the well-being indicators based on the Legatum Institute were searched in the mentioned journals. Based on the entry and exit criteria, the articles were screened in several stages and finally 46 articles from among all the articles were selected to ne examined for systematic review and meta-analysis. The data were analyzed using Excel and Stata software by performing meta-analysis (fixed model and random model) and also examining the heterogeneity of studies.
Results: Nearly 84% of the research studies made the individual the unit of analysis, which indicates that the holistic approach is neglected in the sociological studies of social welfare. Among the examined indicators, the most common frequency (10 studies) was related to security. The second index of Legatum's social well-being indicators that attracted the attention of researchers was the "health" index. 19% of the researchstudies had measured the factors affecting health. The third component that was taken into account by the researchers was "quality of life" with a frequency of 17%. Finally, the concept of “social capital” as the most frequent variable in the factors affecting social well-being had the highest frequency.
According to the obtained results, 4.3% of the investigated research studies were conducted by one researcher, 50% by two researchers, 32% by three researchers, 10% by four people and 2.17% by five researchers. As the results show, researchers in the field of welfare studies have cooperated well with each other, and 50% of the researches have been done with at least by two researchers and only two of the research studies were found that havebeen conducted by one researcher. The collaboration of researchers is considered a positive point in that it provides the possibility of viewing different perspectives
Considering that one of the screening criteria of the current research was the quantitative research method, it can be expected that most of the researchstudies were conducted with the survey method. Nearly 90% of the reviewed research studies, i.e. 41 cases, were conducted with the survey method. The remaining five studies also used other quantitative methods, such as correlation analysis, econometrics, descriptive-analytical analysis, ecological correlation type analysis, and quantitative secondary analysis method.
According to the dimensions of well-being in the Legatum index, which was one of the research screening criteria, different dimensions of social well-being were considered. Among them, "security" with 21% has the highest amount. Another dimension that the researchers were interested in was the "health" dimension. 19% of the research studies have evaluated the factors affecting health. Another component that has attracted the attention of researchers is "quality of life" with 17% and the concept of social capital, which is the most frequent variable in the factors affecting social well-being, ranks fourth in the independent variables or welfare index with 10%, which shows the importance of social capital in welfare studies. The next variable "life satisfaction" was measured in 8.6 percent of the studies as an index of social well-being. The independent variables that have been investigated as influencing variables on social well-being were also reviewed. According to the multiplicity of variables used in the research studies and to order them, the independent variables were classified into four categories and for this purpose, first the variables were classified based on the possibility of meta-analysis.
Table 2: Combined index values and homogeneity of studies
Ethical considerations:
Authors Contribution: All authors contributed to this article.
Funding: This research was done with the financial support of the Research and Technology Vice-Chancellor of the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences.
Conflict of interest: This article does not overlap with other published works of the authors. Following the ethical principles of research: This research has a code of ethics approved by the ethics committee with number IR.USWR.REC.1399.001 and all rights related to research ethics are respected.
Although the discussion about welfare and social justice in Iran has attracted the attention of specialists in this field to some extent, unfortunately, both in terms of the scientific and specialized standards of this field and in terms of the basics of social policy analysis, there is insufficiency and sometimes contradiction among thinkers and researchers. If we pay attention to the discussions that are usually raised by thinkers in the field of social welfare, most of them emphasize the relationship between material and non-material aspects of social welfare (Rabbani et al., 2018) and concepts such as justice, equality, freedom, poverty, distribution of resources , etc. The scholars point out that in measuring and evaluating these dimensions, anxiety, and contradiction are sometimes observed. Considering the existing dispersion in social welfare studies, each of which has different variables, methods, and samples, and in this situation, knowing the strengths and weaknesses, and the shortcomings and possibilities of welfare policy and research in the future is impossible except by examining what has been done so far in this field.
The present meta-analysis focuses on social welfare studies on factors affecting social welfare. In other words, considering social welfare as a dependent variable, the current research seeks to identify independent variables that have been identified in the research conducted during the twelve-year period as variables affecting the state of social welfare. On this occasion, attempts are made to assess the effect size of variables affecting social welfare implemented in Iran with a comprehensive and systematic review and meta-analysis method. In this regard, the results are calculated, compared, and combined in the form of "effect size" statistics, which is an objective, uniform, and comparable indicator and it is also an estimate of the intensity of the impact of the effective variables. Also, by coding and summarizing the characteristics and methodological-theoretical components and other characteristics of the conducted research, in addition to providing a comprehensive description of these characteristics, the impact of these characteristics on the research results will also be discussed. It should be mentioned that the Legatum Institute's social welfare index was used in this meta-analysis to unify the social welfare components or indicators.
Methodology: The present study is a systematic review with meta-analysis. The materials included all the articles during the years 2005 to 2017 in specialized social welfare journals. Social Welfare Quarterly, Journal of Welfare and Social Development Planning, Social Science Quarterly, Social Studies and Research Quarterly in Iran, Journal of Social Studies in Iran, and Social Security Quarterly were examined as sources for searching articles. Articles with the keyword of well-being or one of the well-being indicators based on the Legatum Institute were searched in the mentioned journals. Based on the entry and exit criteria, the articles were screened in several stages and finally 46 articles from among all the articles were selected to ne examined for systematic review and meta-analysis. The data were analyzed using Excel and Stata software by performing meta-analysis (fixed model and random model) and also examining the heterogeneity of studies.
Results: Nearly 84% of the research studies made the individual the unit of analysis, which indicates that the holistic approach is neglected in the sociological studies of social welfare. Among the examined indicators, the most common frequency (10 studies) was related to security. The second index of Legatum's social well-being indicators that attracted the attention of researchers was the "health" index. 19% of the researchstudies had measured the factors affecting health. The third component that was taken into account by the researchers was "quality of life" with a frequency of 17%. Finally, the concept of “social capital” as the most frequent variable in the factors affecting social well-being had the highest frequency.
According to the obtained results, 4.3% of the investigated research studies were conducted by one researcher, 50% by two researchers, 32% by three researchers, 10% by four people and 2.17% by five researchers. As the results show, researchers in the field of welfare studies have cooperated well with each other, and 50% of the researches have been done with at least by two researchers and only two of the research studies were found that havebeen conducted by one researcher. The collaboration of researchers is considered a positive point in that it provides the possibility of viewing different perspectives
Considering that one of the screening criteria of the current research was the quantitative research method, it can be expected that most of the researchstudies were conducted with the survey method. Nearly 90% of the reviewed research studies, i.e. 41 cases, were conducted with the survey method. The remaining five studies also used other quantitative methods, such as correlation analysis, econometrics, descriptive-analytical analysis, ecological correlation type analysis, and quantitative secondary analysis method.
According to the dimensions of well-being in the Legatum index, which was one of the research screening criteria, different dimensions of social well-being were considered. Among them, "security" with 21% has the highest amount. Another dimension that the researchers were interested in was the "health" dimension. 19% of the research studies have evaluated the factors affecting health. Another component that has attracted the attention of researchers is "quality of life" with 17% and the concept of social capital, which is the most frequent variable in the factors affecting social well-being, ranks fourth in the independent variables or welfare index with 10%, which shows the importance of social capital in welfare studies. The next variable "life satisfaction" was measured in 8.6 percent of the studies as an index of social well-being. The independent variables that have been investigated as influencing variables on social well-being were also reviewed. According to the multiplicity of variables used in the research studies and to order them, the independent variables were classified into four categories and for this purpose, first the variables were classified based on the possibility of meta-analysis.
Table 2: Combined index values and homogeneity of studies
| variables | statistics | |||||||
| Number of studies | Sample size | Fixed combination effects | Random mixed effects | Fixed effects 95% confidence intervals | Random effects 95% confidence interval | Homogeneity test (%) |
Degrees of freedom | |
| security | 7 | 2546 | 0.400 | 0.405 | 0.367 - 0.432 | 0.203 - 0.574 | 96.94 | 6 |
| social trust | 8 | 2563 | 0.398 | 0.405 | 0.364 - 0.430 | 0.262 - 0.530 | 94.05 | 7 |
| Social capital | 14 | 4823 | 0.378 |
0.403 | 0.353 - 0.402 | 0.306 - 0.493 | 93.42 | 13 |
| religiosity | 4 | 1236 | 0.304 | 0.291 | 0.252 - 0.354 | 0.156 - 0.415 | 84.28 | 3 |
| Socio-economic class | 5 | 1836 | 0.215 | 0.207 | 0.171 - 0.258 | 0.111 - 0.300 | 78.08 | 4 |
Discussion and conclusion: According to the obtained results, one of the weaknesses of welfare studies is the lack of research studies with composite indices of welfare. By integrating different aspects of social welfare, composite indicators provide the possibility of more comprehensive and integrated analyzes and are less likely to fall into the trap of reductionism. Composite indicators by integrating different types of well-being provide more possibility to draw the current state of social well-being. Based on what was mentioned, social capital was the most frequent variable, but in the discussion of the use of theory, social capital is the most used theory in relation to social well-being and the indicators and factors affecting it in the reviewed studies, with 46% of the total sample so that 14 studies directly used social capital theories to explain. To this number, we should add five studies that used the theory of social trust and two studies that used the role of formal and informal support as explanatory factors.
Ethical considerations:
Authors Contribution: All authors contributed to this article.
Funding: This research was done with the financial support of the Research and Technology Vice-Chancellor of the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences.
Conflict of interest: This article does not overlap with other published works of the authors. Following the ethical principles of research: This research has a code of ethics approved by the ethics committee with number IR.USWR.REC.1399.001 and all rights related to research ethics are respected.
Type of Study: review |
Received: 2023/07/2 | Accepted: 2023/09/26 | Published: 2024/02/14
Received: 2023/07/2 | Accepted: 2023/09/26 | Published: 2024/02/14
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