Satisfaction with Social Contacts of Older Europeans

This paper analyses the determinants of an important component of well-being among individuals aged 50 years or older in eleven European countries: satisfaction with social contacts. We use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and anchoring vignettes to correct for potential differences in responses scales across countries and socio-demographic groups. On average, older Europeans report being satisfied with their social contacts, but there exist substantial differences across countries: respondents from Northern countries tend to be more satisfied than individuals from Central or Mediterranean countries. Our analysis shows that correcting for response scale differentials alters the country ranking for of satisfaction with social contacts, while it has much less effect on the estimates of what drives within country determinants.     

Economics and Well-Being of Older Divorced Persons

The purpose of this research was to compare gender differences in postdivorce cconomic factors and in the well-being of older persons who were in long-term marital relationships. Although more women were depressed, overall there were no significant gender differences in postdivorce adjustment. Data suggest present income is the best predictor of well-being for both genders, and reliance on types of gender related income have a negative impact on women. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for structural changes, policy modifications, and direct practice issues.     

Age,Health and Life Satisfaction Among Older Europeans

In this paper we investigate how age affects the self-reported level of life satisfaction among the elderly in Europe. By using a vignette approach, we find evidence that age influences life satisfaction through two counterbalancing channels. On the one hand, controlling for the effects of all other variables, the own perceived level of life satisfaction increases with age. On the other hand, given the same true level of life satisfaction, older respondents are more likely to rank themselves as “dissatisfied” with their life than younger individuals. Detrimental health conditions and physical limitations play a crucial role in explaining scale biases in the reporting style of older individuals.     

Life Satisfaction and Happiness Among Older Europeans: The Role of Active Ageing

Social Indicators Research - The older population is growing globally, and more so in some European countries. Aimed at enhancing the quality of life of older people, active ageing has been on the...     

Exploring Multidimensional Well-Being in Switzerland: Comparing Three Synthesizing Approaches

Well-being is increasingly conceptualized and measured from a multidimensional perspective in order to provide policy makers and the general public with the necessary tools for monitoring social change. Synthetic measures of multidimensional concepts such as well-being are, therefore, needed. This paper provides a systematic comparison of three methodological approaches applicable in a top-down perspective to construct a synthetic multidimensional measure of well-being using the same theoretical framework and the same data. The three methodologies used are the confirmatory factor analysis, the Alkire and Foster counting approach and the posetic approach. The first two methodologies belong to the family of composite indicators, the most common way to synthetize multidimensional information. The third was developed in order to deal with the construction of composite indicators’ two major issues, namely weighting and aggregating. The main contribution of this paper is methodological; it aims at discussing the advantages and drawbacks of the three methodologies, and at identifying their similarities and specificities.     

Well-Being in Older Gays and Lesbians: A Comparison of Predictors

This study aims to examine the predictors of subjective well-being and their variations between older gays and older lesbians. Participants were 143 gays and 66 lesbians aged 56–80 who reside in Israel. Assessments included subjective well-being, hope, health, participation, activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental ADLs, environment and living conditions, and accessibility and availability of community services. In the fully-adjusted models, hope and health were the most potent predictors of subjective well-being, respectively, among gays and lesbians. Additional significant predictors, among gays, were community availability and accessibility and satisfaction with one’s environment and living conditions. Findings suggest that while primary predictors of subjective well-being are similar among gays and lesbians, communal and residential factors are unique significant contributors to the subjective well-being of gays. It may be that among older lesbians, but not among older gays, personal resources are more important contributors to subjective well-being in comparison to community-based resources.     

Time Use and Well-Being in Older Widows: Adaptation and Resilience

Research on widowhood mostly emphasizes negative outcomes, but some studies suggest widows are resilient. This study evaluated the in-depth daily experiences of older widows compared to married women. Participants included 75 widows and 125 married women from the National Study of Daily Experiences II, who completed daily diaries over 8 days. For long-term widows, there were no differences compared to married women in daily and general well-being, and a few differences in time use. Results add to the literature by using daily diary data to illustrate the general resilience of older women many years after the death of a spouse.     

Bringing Affect Back in: Measuring and Comparing Subjective Well-Being Across Countries

In recent years, researchers and policymakers have paid increasing attention to cross-country comparisons of subjective well-being. Whereas classical theories of quality of life emphasize the central role of affective well-being (i.e., whether a person feels good or bad), previous comparative studies have focused almost exclusively on life satisfaction (i.e., cognitive evaluations of life). This study brings affect into the comparative study of subjective well-being, constructing a new measurement instrument that captures both the affective and cognitive dimensions of subjective well-being. Using European Social Survey data and multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, we estimate latent country means for the two dimensions and compare country rankings across the two measures. The results reveal important differences in country rankings depending on whether one focuses on affective well-being or life satisfaction. We identify crucial differences among top-ranking countries and, perhaps even more importantly, considerable differences in rankings among more moderately ranking countries. In a second step, we compare and evaluate the single-item measures commonly used in previous research with the results based on our new measures. We conclude by discussing our results in relation to previous studies, and in terms of their possible implications for future research and for policymakers bent on improving national levels of subjective well-being.     

Gender Differences in Subjective Well-Being: Comparing Societies with Respect to Gender Equality

These analyses explore the relationship between gender inequality and subjective well-being. The hypothesis was tested as to whether societal gender inequality is related to the size of gender differences in subjective well-being in various societies. Results come from comparative data sets (World Values Survey, involving 57 countries; OASIS project, involving Norway, England, Germany, Spain and Israel). The size of gender differences varied with the extent of societal gender inequality and the cultural attitudes regarding gender equality in different countries. Including individual resources like education and income in the analyses reduced the size of gender and country differences. Gender differences in subjective well-being could therefore be related to gender specific access to goal relevant resources.     

Food Well-Being in Older Adults: Effects of a Universal Non-contributory Pension in Mexico

Social Indicators Research - One of the few universal programs in Latin America is the Food Pension for Adults Older than 68 (PAAM) of Mexico City, which aims to reduce food insecurity while...     

The Subjective Well-Being of Immigrants Aged 50 and Older in Israel

The present study evaluated the integration of elderly people who migrated to Israel during their lifetimes. Subjective well-being, as measured by the immigrants’ perception of quality of life, satisfaction with life and emotional state, served as a general indicator of integration. The integration of elderly immigrants has not received adequate attention in the literature. A unique database (SHARE-Israel) that was recently released has made study of this topic possible. The current study sample was composed of former migrants aged 50 and older (n = 930). The analytic model examined ethnic origin and migration variables in relation to the respective subjective outcomes, controlling for sociodemographic background, human and social capital and health. The findings show that in general, ethnic origin seems to matter less for the evaluation of immigrants’ subjective well-being than other socio economic factors such as economic status, social capital and health status. However, recent arrivals from the Former Soviet Union do differ from all other immigrant groups in their lower levels of well-being. In addition, the study points to the importance of language proficiency as a central means for integration in the destination country.     

The Construction of a Synthetic Index Comparing Multidimensional Well-Being in the European Union

For many years, the quantification and measurement of level of well-being in a society has become an object of study by researchers, economists, international organizations and institutions. The purpose of these researches and applications is mainly the collection of data as accurate and complete as possible, dictating the paths of economic and social development policies, in order to help the economic problem of allocating scarce resources within a community, where not all individual needs can be fully met. The present work is intended as a part of that field. It will undertake the construction of a composite index of multidimensional well-being, through an aggregation of data, able to balance the trade-off between immediacy and completeness of information and to trespass the limits that characterize the commonly used income related measures. The method of factor analysis, which aims at detecting a statistically sufficient number of variables, is used to represent most of the explained variance of the phenomenon. Results are tested with different aggregative processes. This analysis is applied to the reality of the European Union, characterized by deep transformation and cultural, economic and social inequalities.     

Subjective Well-Being in Mental Health and Human Development Research Worldwide: An Introduction

In this introduction to a special issue, the author suggests that a third generation of research on subjective well-being has emerged that is focused on health and human development as the presence of well-being (i.e., health) and not merely the absence of illness, disease, and developmental deficiencies. In turn, this article describes the construct of subjective well-being, its historical ties to the aftermath of World War II and the creation of the National Institute of Mental Health, its conceptual foundations, and empirical evidence supporting the view that it consists of two theoretical traditions – hedonia and eudaimonia. The nearly 50 years of research on subjective well-being has yielded as many as 13 distinct dimensions of subjective well-being in the United States. Consequently, new directions in subjective well-being are emerging such as the study of mental health as a complete state, which suggest the need for greater scientific attention to the integration of hedonic and eudaimonic measures and theory.     

The Buffering Effects of Social Capital on Inequalities in Subjective Well-Being Among Older People

Social Indicators Research - Empirical evidence regarding the buffering effects of community social capital on health inequality is limited. This study aims to examine the moderating effects of a...     

Productive Activities And Subjective Well-Being Among Older Adults: The Influence Of Number Of Activities And Time Commitment

This study examines relationships among three measures of subjective well-being (life satisfaction, happiness and depressive symptoms), and two global measures of productive activity (number of activities and time commitment). We argue that participation in multiple productive activities should increase subjective well-being because these behaviors increase social integration and provide meaningful social roles. Using the first two waves of the Americans’ Changing Lives survey, we estimate a series of OLS and ordered logistic regression models to examine this issue among a sample of respondents 60 years old and older. Our multivariate regression results show that as time committed to productive activities increases, life satisfaction increases. Both increasing numbers of productive activities and increasing time commitment predict higher levels of happiness. Also, we find only modest support for a relationship between productive activities and the number of and changes in depressive symptoms. Our results provide support for the idea that engaging in productive activities is beneficial to older persons’ well-being, implying confirmation of the role enhancement hypothesis and demonstrating the importance of social integration.This research was partially supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging (R03 AG018910). We thank Jan Mutchler for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

The Relationship Between Serious Leisure Characteristics and Subjective Well-Being of Older Adult Volunteers: The Moderating Effect of Spousal Support

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between serious leisure characteristics and subjective well-being as well as clarify the moderating effect of spousal support in their relationships. A total of 264 valid questionnaires were collected from a sample of older adult volunteers in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate a model linking serious leisure, spousal support to subjective wellbeing. As expected, the results show that older adult volunteers having greater serious leisure characteristics lead to a high level of subjective well-being. The findings further revealed that spousal support moderated the effect of serious leisure characteristics on subjective well-being. This indicates that the higher the level of spousal support, the larger is the likelihood that serious leisure will lead to greater subjective well-being. The results are suggested to be useful references for the older adult volunteers while improving spousal support, in order to increase the level of well-being.     

Deconstructing Gender Differences in Experienced Well-Being Among Older Adults in the Developing World: The Roles of Time Use and Activity-Specific Affective Experiences

Social Indicators Research - Due to declining fertility rates and increasing longevity, the world is growing older. Improving the quality of life of older adults, and not merely preventing deaths,...     

Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Associations of Categories of Physical Activities with Dimensions of Subjective Well-Being in Taiwanese Older Adults

Physical activity takes place in different social contexts such as leisure, home, and work. However, the differential associations of these distinct categories of activity with aspects of well-being have rarely been investigated. This study was designed to estimate independent associations of (a) leisure-time, (b) domestic and (c) work-related physical activities with subjective well-being in older adults. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2009 with 2,295 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 or older in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Among them, 307 participants were selected for a 3-year follow-up study in 2012. The results based on cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses demonstrated that leisure-time physical activity, after multivariate adjustment, was positively associated with five dimensions of well-being, including ‘physical’, ‘psychological’, ‘independence’, ‘learning and growth’, and ‘social’ well-being. Household physical activity was positively associated only with ‘social’ well-being. Occupational physical activity was not related to any dimension of well-being. The study suggests that associations between physical activity and dimensions of subjective well-being during later life are dependent on the social context in which the activity takes place. This study indicates that physical activity taken as leisure has greatest potential to enhance the quality of life of older adults.     

The Cost of Well-Being

It is by now common knowledge that in switching from GDP to alternative, multidimensional, measures of collective well-being one can provide a better account of a country’s socio-economic conditions. Such a gain, however, comes at the price of losing output-to-input type of link between well-being and the resources necessary to make it available. Since well-being measures are not meant to be only an exercise in documentation, but also to inform policies and priorities, we propose a method to build a measure of well-being in the form of a single index, as for GDP, which takes into account: (1) the social and environmental costs, not considered in the GDP, and (2) the use of conventional resources (capital and labour), not considered in the currently available multidimensional measures of well-being. We use a Data Envelopment Analysis type of model, integrated with Principal Component Analysis, to evaluate OECD countries’ relative efficiency in providing well-being. Our results show that the costs of producing well-being have a large and significant impact on the resulting index of well-being. Therefore, high efficiency in providing well-being and high income cannot be considered a proxy to each other. In addition, it is shown that countries react differently to the different costs of well-being: poor countries are, on average, more efficient in terms of conventional inputs (labour and capital), while rich countries have higher efficiency indices relative to social and environmental costs. The close to zero correlation between GDP and well-being indices for rich countries provides new support to the “Easterlin paradox”.