Decoupling the Effects of Wayfinding Competence, Trait-Anxiety and Subjective Well-Being from a GESIS German Sample

Abstract

The study examines how wayfinding competence coupled with predisposed trait-anxiety can produce negative daily experience in individuals’ subjective well-being. The GESIS granted the permission to test this hypothesis using a sample of 7599 residents in Germany. A measure of wayfinding competence is based on the German Questionnaire of Spatial Strategies (GQSS). Trait-Anxiety is measured by a sub-domain of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Subjective well-being is an operationalization of the construct devised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In a hierarchical regression model, where demographic and other socio-economic variables are held constant, a mediating model linking the effect of wayfinding competence, trait-anxiety and subjective well-being were assessed. The data supports a direct and a mediated effect of wayfinding competence on subjective well-being via trait-anxiety. The mediating effect for the older age group was prominent.