Personality traits predicting different aspects of subjective well-being in elderly adults

Mojca Petrič,Maja Zupančič

doi:10.20419/2021.30.528

Abstract

The study examined unique predictive relations of personality traits with three components of subjective well-being (WB) in a normative sample (N = 272; 70% females) of Slovene elderly (M = 71.82 years, SD = 6.03). Investigating the concurrent relationships, we relied on the Big Five personality model and the Keyes’s model of WB, which entails emotional well-being (EWB), psychological well-being (PWB), and social well-being (SoWB). We also considered the participants’ background characteristics (age, gender, marital status and educational level), and their subjective health status in predicting the components of WB. The respondents filled-in a scale of subjective health, constructed for the purpose of the study, the Big Five Inventory and the Mental Health Continuum – Short Form. The demographic characteristics did not significantly contribute to any aspect of WB, whereas self-reported health significantly improved the prediction of EWB and PWB. The Big Five uniquely predicted all of the components of WB, over and above demographics and subjective health. Agreeableness was a significant single predictor across the components of WB. Higher levels of conscientiousness and lower levels of neuroticism contributed to EWB. Conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness predicted PWB, and openness predicted SoWB.

Highlights

IntroductionPri tem smo izhajali iz modela Velikih pet osebnostnih lastnosti ter Keyesovega celostnega modela subjektivnega blagostanja (SB), ki vključuje čustveno (ČB), psihološko (PB) in socialno blagostanje (SoB)
Povzetek: V raziskavi smo proučili sočasno napovedno vrednost osebnostnih potez za tri sestavine subjektivnega blagostanja pri normativnem vzorcu (N = 272; 70 % žensk) starejših odraslih (M = 71,82 let, SD = 6,03) v Sloveniji
Drawing upon the aforementioned conceptualizations and empirical research, we formulated the following hypotheses: (H1) background characteristics of the elderly would contribute very little to the components of their WB; (H2) better self-perceived health would predict higher emotional well-being (EWB) and psychological WB (PWB), over and above the background characteristics; (H3) the Big Five would uniquely predict the components of WB, beyond subjective health; (H4) lower neuroticism would contribute to higher EWB, higher agreeableness and openness would relate to higher eudaimonic WB (PWB and social WB (SoWB)), whereas higher conscientiousness would predict higher PWB; given that we focused on late adulthood, we expected extraversion to positively associate with PWB

Summary

Introduction

Pri tem smo izhajali iz modela Velikih pet osebnostnih lastnosti ter Keyesovega celostnega modela subjektivnega blagostanja (SB), ki vključuje čustveno (ČB), psihološko (PB) in socialno blagostanje (SoB). Sklop petih osebnostnih lastnosti je značilno izboljšal napoved, preko demografskih značilnosti in subjektivne ocene zdravja. 18.9% of the elderly have lately constituted the Slovene population (Statistical Office, 2017), with male-female ratio of 1 : 1.32 (Eurostat, 2019) These demographic trends in population aging present one of the key challenges for the countries involved, as the phenomena has important implications for policy-making in the area of pension, social and health security systems, labour market, etc. Rowe and Kahn’s (1997) model is one of the best known and broadly applied It emphasises an absence of physical illness and related limitations, maintenance of a high level of physical and mental activity, and active engagement in life. We focused on plausible factors (background, subjectively perceived physical health, and personality) in predicting the components of WB among normative (relatively healthy and independent) Slovene elderly

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Results

Conclusion