“Airbags” of residents of Latvia

The paper summarizes and analyses the views of Latvian residents on support systems that they believe can be relied on by a person in financial difficulty in Latvia (for example, because of illness or loss of work). National representative survey of permanent residents of Latvia aged 18-75 in October 2019, N=1012. The results of the study show that the majority of Latvian society, in the event of financial difficulties, sees support from their relatives or relying on personal savings. A significantly smaller proportion of the population relies on the support of national social insurance systems or local governments and public organizations. The survey data shows statistically significant relationships between the population's “airbags” and a series of social demographic factors as well as social values. For example, women, Latvians, workers, people who actively help their relatives rely more on the support of family members. According to Schwartz's value model, these people also are more self-transcendence and openness to change. Meanwhile, more reliance on the state's social-insurance system are seniors, lone people, people with small stockpiles, according to Schwartz's value model — with pronounced conservatism. The results of the study provides new information on people's attitudes to different support systems, highlighting the most problematic and sensitive populations.