Geographical life-space and subjective wellbeing in later life

Recent observations that personality traits are related to later–life health and wellbeing have inspired considerable interest in exploring the mechanisms involved. Other factors, such as cognitive ability and education, also show longitudinal influences on health and wellbeing, but it is not yet clear how all these early–life factors together contribute to later–life health and wellbeing. In this preliminary study, we assessed hypothesised relations among these variables across the life course, using structural equation modelling in a sample assessed on dependability (a personality trait related to conscientiousness) in childhood, cognitive ability and social class in childhood and older age, education, and health and subjective wellbeing in older age. Our models indicated that both health and subjective wellbeing in older age were influenced by childhood IQ and social class, via education. Some older–age personality traits mediated the effects of early–life variables, on subjective wellbeing in particular, but childhood dependability did not show significant associations. Our results therefore did not provide evidence that childhood dependability promotes older–age health and wellbeing, but did highlight the importance of other early–life factors, particularly characteristics that contribute to educational attainment. Further, personality in later life may mediate the effects of early–life factors on health and subjective wellbeing. © 2016 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology

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Childlessness, parenthood and subjective wellbeing: The relevance of conceptualizing parenthood and childlessness as a continuum.

10.31235/osf.io/xtfq6 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Marco Albertini ◽

Bruno Arpino

Keyword(s):

Life Satisfaction ◽

Regression Models ◽

Subjective Wellbeing ◽

Later Life ◽

Standard Errors ◽

Intergenerational Solidarity ◽

Older Individuals ◽

Linear Regression Models ◽

Number Of Children ◽

The Continuum

The objective of the paper is to show the theoretical and practical relevance of conceptualizing and operationalizing parenthood and childlessness as a continuum – instead of a dichotomy - when evaluating the consequences of kinless-ness in later life. It is suggested that information on the number of children, structural and associational intergenerational solidarity can be utilized to operationalize the continuum. Subjective wellbeing is utilized as outcome of interest. Data from waves 2, 4, 5 and 6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe are used. The sample includes 183,545 respondents from 21 countries. Linear regression models with clustered standard errors are used. Childless older individuals report lower levels of life satisfaction than parents. However, the largest difference is observed between those with one and two children. Using a measure of associational intergenerational solidarity to weight the degree of parenthood it is shown that parents who have infrequent contact with children report significantly lower levels of life satisfaction than childless individuals.Kinless-ness is not only a demographic but also a social condition. When studying the consequences of ageing alone it is essential to consider not only the presence and “quantity” of kin, but also its “quality”.

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Life skills, wealth, health, and wellbeing in later life

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1616011114 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 114 (17) ◽

pp. 4354-4359 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Andrew Steptoe ◽

Jane Wardle

Keyword(s):

Daily Living ◽

Life Skills ◽

Subjective Wellbeing ◽

Density Lipoprotein ◽

Later Life ◽

Socioeconomic Background ◽

C Reactive Protein ◽

Occupational Success ◽

Reactive Protein ◽

Health And Wellbeing

Life skills play a key role in promoting educational and occupational success in early life, but their relevance at older ages is uncertain. Here we measured five life skills—conscientiousness, emotional stability, determination, control, and optimism—in 8,119 men and women aged 52 and older (mean 66.7 y). We show that the number of skills is associated with wealth, income, subjective wellbeing, less depression, low social isolation and loneliness, more close relationships, better self-rated health, fewer chronic diseases and impaired activities of daily living, faster walking speed, and favorable objective biomarkers (concentration of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, vitamin D and C-reactive protein, and less central obesity). Life skills also predicted sustained psychological wellbeing, less loneliness, and a lower incidence of new chronic disease and physical impairment over a 4-y period. These analyses took account of age, sex, parental socioeconomic background, education, and cognitive function. No single life skill was responsible for the associations we observed, nor were they driven by factors such as socioeconomic status or health. Despite the vicissitudes of later life, life skills impact a range of outcomes, and the maintenance of these attributes may benefit the older population.

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Intergenerational social mobility and subjective wellbeing in later life

Social Science & Medicine ◽

10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.06.038 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 188 ◽

pp. 11-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Matthew H. Iveson ◽

Ian J. Deary

Keyword(s):

Social Mobility ◽

Subjective Wellbeing ◽

Later Life

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Ageing creatively

Metaphor and the Social World ◽

10.1075/msw.4.2.04tho ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 225-244 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Helen Thomas ◽

Viccy Adams

Keyword(s):

Subjective Wellbeing ◽

Later Life ◽

Creative Arts ◽

Metaphor Analysis ◽

Double Blind ◽

Creative Processes ◽

Beneficial Effects ◽

Image Schema ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship

The beneficial effect of creative activities on individuals’ subjective wellbeing has become a popular and academic given in recent years. Yet the creative processes occurring in a complex, non-drug intervention and their relationship with perceived beneficial effects on wellbeing are difficult to define. Health professionals, arts practitioners and commentators alike identify the need for the development of a multi-disciplinary vocabulary that reflects the interests and values inherent in this rapidly developing discipline. Newcastle University’s “Ageing Creatively” project was an 18-month pilot study to explore the relationship of creative arts interventions to wellbeing in later life (Adams, Thomas & Thomson, 2014). This paper presents the results of metaphor analysis in a series of exit interviews with 31 participants. One-to-one interviews were administered by telephone or in person by specialist, creative arts researchers and each interview was semi-structured using the CASP-12 questionnaire, which aims to measure quality of life in the third age (Sim et al., 2011). The Metaphor Identification Procedure was applied (double-blind) by hand to the transcribed corpus of c.93,000 words, inputted into MS Excel and then discursively coded with vehicles by the researchers. Two dominant vehicle groupings emerged that suggest subjective wellbeing amongst the participant group is conceptualized using the container image schema and the source-path-goal image schema. We therefore propose two systematic, novel metaphors — wellbeing is a container and wellbeing is a journey — as meaningful alternatives to Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptual metaphor wellbeing is wealth, especially in the search to better understand the relationship between creative activities and subjective wellbeing. Our findings suggest that systematic metaphor analysis may be usefully incorporated into the range of social science methodologies available for the measurement of subjective wellbeing.

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Adult Children’s Education Attainment and Parents’ Subjective Well-Being in China

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1104 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 344-344

Author(s):

Dan Chen ◽

Yuying Tong

Keyword(s):

Life Satisfaction ◽

Subjective Wellbeing ◽

Causal Effect ◽

Early Period ◽

Later Life ◽

Well Being ◽

Education Attainment ◽

Children's Education ◽

Children’S Education ◽

Children's Schooling

Abstract Parent-child tie is important for parental later life due to insufficient old-age support in developing contexts. Parents often anticipate they would share the returns of children’s education for their early period investment. Previous studies show that adult children’s education is positively associated with parents’ survival and physical health in both low- and middle-income countries. What’s less discussed in literatures is the effect of adult children’s education on parental subjective wellbeing. Drawing the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this study intends to explore the effect of adult children’s education attainment on parents’ life satisfaction. This study uses information from baseline wave in 2011 and latest wave in 2015 of CHARLS. The analytic sample restricts to adult children aged between 25 and 49 with the highest education among all children of a parent who are aged between 50 and 84. To handle the reversed causality, this study adopts lagged effect model and controls for baseline subjective wellbeing. Instrumental variables (IV) are also used to handle the endogeneity issue existing between children’s education and parental wellbeing to conclude a causal effect. The preliminary results without IV reveal that association between children’s schooling years and parents’ life satisfaction is non-linear. However, results with IV show that adult children’s schooling years are negative associated with parents’ life satisfaction. This study firstly draws attention on negative sides of children’s education attainment on parental subjective wellbeing which implies more studies to unfold the mechanisms underlying the association.

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Physical and Cognitive Correlates of GPS-Derived Life-Space Characteristics in Older Adults

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igab046.095 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 27-27

Author(s):

Kyle Moored ◽

Breanna Crane ◽

Michelle Carlson ◽

Andrea Rosso

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Later Life ◽

Functional Independence ◽

Living Environment ◽

Community Dwelling ◽

Convex Polygons ◽

Life Space ◽

Mobility Performance ◽

Cognitive Limitations ◽

Percent Time

Abstract Life-space mobility, movement within one’s living environment, is important for functional independence in later life. It is unclear which life-space characteristics (i.e., space, duration, shape) are most affected by physical and cognitive limitations. GPS-derived measures mitigate recall bias and offer novel ways to characterize life-space. We examined associations between physical and cognitive performance and GPS-derived life-space characteristics. Participants were 164 community-dwelling adults (Age: M=77.3±6.5) from baseline data of a clinical trial to improve walking in older adults. Participants carried a portable GPS for 7 days, which passively collected real-time location. Standard deviational ellipses (SDEs) and minimum convex polygons (MCPs) were derived for each day. Area and compactness of these measures quantified activity space and shape, respectively. For each measure, 7-day medians and median absolute deviations (MAD) were computed to capture both central tendency and variability of weekly activity. Activity duration was quantified as percentage of time outside home. Adjusting for age and sex, percent time outside home was associated with lower mobility performance (i.e., 6-minute walk (6MWT), figure 8 walk, ρ’s=.17-.18, p’s<.05) and executive functioning (i.e., Trail Making Test, Part A: ρ=.16, p=.04, Part B: ρ=.19, p=.01). Median MCP and SDE areas, but not compactness, were associated with 6MWT performance (ρ’s=.18-.20, p’s<.05). MCP area MAD was associated with greater global cognition (3MSE, ρ=.15, p=.05). Life-space characteristics were differentially associated with performance measures, suggesting physical and cognitive limitations may constrain life-space mobility via different mechanisms. Variation in these associations by neighborhood walkability and active versus passive travel will also be examined.

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Living arrangement preferences and realities for elderly Chinese: implications for subjective wellbeing

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x18000041 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 39 (8) ◽

pp. 1557-1581 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

TAICHANG CHEN

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Living Arrangements ◽

Subjective Wellbeing ◽

Living Arrangement ◽

Later Life ◽

Point Of View ◽

Cultural Norms ◽

Older Parents ◽

Elderly Chinese ◽

Older Chinese

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the determinants of preference for intergenerational co-residence and examines the effects of living arrangement concordance (i.e.having a match between preference and reality) on the subjective wellbeing (SWB) of older Chinese. Data were derived from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) national baseline conducted in 2011. This allows for two different measures of the affective approach to SWB: depression and happiness. This article found living arrangement preference is indicative of need, cultural norms and current living arrangement experiences. The results support the hypothesis of discrepancy theories that having living arrangement concordance improves older parents’ SWB (i.e.depressive symptoms and happiness). In addition, the previously predictive effects of the actual living arrangement on SWB lost significance when actual living arrangement and concordance were added simultaneously. Living in a preferred arrangement appears to be more important than living in a traditional arrangement from the point of view of older adults’ SWB. Programmes designed to improve wellbeing in later life should not assume that there is a one-size-fits-all model for all; instead, older people should be given more choices of living arrangements.

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A Systematic Review on Psychosocial Determinants of Elderly Subjective Wellbeing

Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences ◽

10.2478/mjss-2018-0166 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 107-120

Author(s):

Tengku Aizan Hamid ◽

Sumara Masood Ul Hassan ◽

Sharifah Azizah Haron ◽

Rahimah Ibrahim

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Relationship Quality ◽

Emotional Regulation ◽

Subjective Wellbeing ◽

Adult Child ◽

Later Life ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Filial Responsibility ◽

Psychosocial Determinants ◽

Child Relationship

Abstract The persistent increase in longevity has impelled social scientists to concentrate on the factors that can improve later life health and wellbeing. Extant literature indicates that filial responsibility, self-esteem, emotional regulation, attachment, parent-adult child relationship quality and religiosity are among those contributing factors for elderly subjective wellbeing. A systematic review was conducted to synthesize available evidence regarding the psychosocial determinants of elderly subjective wellbeing. Google Scholar, Science Direct and PubMed were searched for potentially relevant articles published from 2011 to 2017. Eighteen out of 216 full-text papers met the inclusion criteria and were critically appraised. The internal validity and quality of selected studies were assessed using STROBE and SIGN checklists. The findings of the current review suggest that filial responsibility, emotional regulation, self-esteem, attachment, and parent-adult child relationship quality were consistent determinants of elderly wellbeing; whereas findings on religiosity were equivocal. Further, self-esteem and emotional regulation emerged as significant cognitive-emotional underlying factors for the association between family relations and elderly wellbeing. In conclusion, despite methodological limitations of selected studies, this review was able to identify a number of psychosocial determinants of elderly subjective wellbeing. A comprehensive knowledge of these determining factors can contribute to a better understanding of empirical connections and identification of gaps in literature as well as directions for future studies.

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Lifestyle differentiation among older adults: exploring the links between individuals’ behaviours, socio-demographic characteristics, health and wellbeing in later life

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x21001586 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-16

Author(s):

Ewa Jarosz

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Subjective Wellbeing ◽

Emotional Health ◽

Nottingham Health Profile ◽

Energy Levels ◽

Later Life ◽

Subjective Assessment ◽

Class Membership ◽

Activity Data

Abstract The association between everyday activities, health and subjective wellbeing in older adults has mostly been examined using different activities as separate variables. Which activities are likely to come together in individuals’ daily time-use patterns, or in what context, has not yet been analysed. This study looks at a broad range of spontaneously reported activities, their location and social context to identify latent behavioural classes. The data used in the study came from a sample of 200 non-institutionalised adults aged 65 and above. Activity data were collected using the Experience Sampling Method. Generalised structural equation modelling was used to identify the classes. Three distinctive behavioural classes, representing different lifestyles, emerged: passive domiciliary, active functional and social recreational. They constituted 30, 53 and 17 per cent of the sample, respectively. Class membership was related to individuals’ age, education and selected dimensions of health measured using the Nottingham Health Profile: energy levels and emotional response. There was consistency between the objectively measured class and an individual's subjective assessment of their physical and emotional health. While both class membership and subjective wellbeing were associated with health, the relationship between class and wellbeing was weak and fully explained by socio-demographic and health-related variables.

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