Positive Affectivity, Self-Mastery, and a Sense of Failure as Predictors of Self-Assessed Health

Abstract

The study was part of the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development. The participants (145 females and 147 males) were mailed a Life Situation Questionnaire at ages 27 and 36. This included a Personal Control Inventory as well as questions about their satisfaction with intimate relationships, leisure time, housing, occupation, work situation, and livelihood as well as about their sense of control over life events. Three groups of variables emerged from their responses: positive affectivity (satisfaction with life, contentment with one's achievements), a sense of failure (low self-worth, accusation of others), and self-mastery (self-confidence, social support, control over life events). A single-item self-assessment of health was elicited at ages 27 and 36, and the 12-item General Health Questionnaire was administered at age 36 to study psychological distress. The results (tested by LISREL 7.2) showed that long-term positive affectivity was directly related to good self-assessed he...