Community Participation and Subjective Wellbeing: Mediating Roles of Basic Psychological Needs Among Chinese Retirees.

Lanshuang Chen,Zhen Zhang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.743897

Abstract

Objectives: Participation in various social organizations, including community organizations, has become an important part of later year. The current study examined the effects of community participation on subjective wellbeing (SWB) and mediating mechanisms among retired residents. Specifically, this study attempts to explain the link between community participation and SWB from the perspective of basic psychological needs (BPN).Methods: A total of 1,458 community-dwelling retirees aged ≥50years in China participated in this study. A self-developed questionnaire measured the general levels of community participation. BPN were assessed with the BPN Scale. SWB was represented by life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect.Results: Community participation positively predicted one’s SWB. Specifically, retirees with a higher levels of community participation often indicated higher life satisfaction and positive affect, and lower negative affect. Three BPN, which consist of needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, mediated the effect of community participation on SWB, respectively, after controlling for some main demographic and socioeconomic factors.Conclusion: The BPN perspective provides a comprehensive explanation for understanding the link between community participation and SWB. Policymakers should consider the role of community participation when developing measures to improve retirees’ quality of life.

Highlights

Participation, health, and security are regarded as the three core elements of active aging (United Nations, 2002)
The results showed that the variance inflation factor (VIF) indexes of the needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy were 2.209, 2.306, and 2.209, respectively, which indicated that the effect of multicollinearity was small and could be ignored
Using a sample of community-dwelling retired residents in China, we examined the level of community participation, the association between community participation and subjective wellbeing (SWB), and the mediating roles of the three basic basic psychological needs (BPN)

Summary

Introduction

Participation, health, and security are regarded as the three core elements of active aging (United Nations, 2002). Community participation has emerged as a crucial way of remaining socially active after retirement (Tong, 2016; Zhang, 2019). Such community-based organizational participation plays a significant role in providing support and informal care, in addition to services provided by family and governments (United Nations, 2002). The current study aimed to investigate the community participation of Chinese retirees, its effects on SWB, and the related mechanisms, which is expected to provide some references for government managers and policy makers on community governance and coping population aging

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion