Social Well-being and its functions in urban areas(Case of study: metropolis of Esfahan)

Social well-being refers to how a person assesses his/her functions in society. According to Keyes, one possesses social well-being if he/she sees the society as a meaningful, understandable and potentially useful medium for growth and feels a sense of belonging to society and is also accepted in and is involved in the progress and development of the society. Social well-being is a kind of mental, physical and individual well-being that can potentially make residents to be highly motivated and happy which can, in turn make the society to be safe. The present paper aimed to investigate the functions of social well-being in the city of Esfahan which is located in central parts of Iran. The theoretical framework of the paper was based on the views of Keyes, Durkheim, Fromm, and Freud. Research population consisted of all educated Esfahani residents who were 15-64 years old, of which 385 individuals were selected as the sample through a clustering method. Needed data were collected using a questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the Spss and Amos softwares. The results showed that relationship between social well-being, as the independent variable, and psychological well-being, social normality and social responsibility, as dependent variables, were significant. The relationship between social normality and social responsibility also was significant.