Abstract
Both the fulfilment of affection, status, and behavioral confirmation needs and their role in happiness may differ along the adult lifespan. We examined age-graded differences in (a) the fulfilment of the need for affection, status, and behavioral confirmation, (b) disharmonious profiles of need fulfillment (e.g., high affection but low status), and (c) the associations between these needs and happiness. Data from 11,406 Dutch respondents (age range 18–87 (M = 44.82, SD = 14.62), 67% female) were collected via hoegekis.nl and categorized over six age groups (early, young, middle-aged and late adults, young-old and oldest-old). Age-graded differences in social need fulfilment and their link to happiness were examined using regression analyses. Need fulfillment profiles were identified with LCA cluster analyses. Age-graded differences in social need fulfilment were virtually absent (Cohen’s d = 0.20 or smaller) and their link with happiness was stable across the age groups. Social need fulfilment profiles were harmonious as people reported either low, middle, or high need fulfilment in general, irrespective of age. The idea that different social needs are more important in different phases of adult life received only weak support in our data. No strategic investment in specific social needs was observed (no substitution-effects).People typically differed in their capacities to fulfil their affection, status, and behavioral confirmation needs in general, regardless of age. The implications of these results for the social production function theory of wellbeing and socioemotional selectivity theory are outlined in the discussion.
Highlights
Social needs are universal and their fulfilment is considered to be a key human motivation and perquisite for happiness (Lindenberg 2013; Maslow 1943; Tay and Diener 2011)
The first multi-group Latent Class Analyses (LCA) revealed that the 4-cluster model fitted best. These 4-cluster solutions were found to be very similar for all age groups, with again only generally lower or higher scores on all social need fulfilments
Our study yielded three key observations: (1) Clusters of specific profiles of social need fulfilment could not be identified, beyond general lower or higher scores; (2) We observed a remarkable stability in average social need fulfilment across age groups; (3) The importance of fulfilling specific social needs for happiness did not differ along the life course
Summary
Social needs are universal and their fulfilment is considered to be a key human motivation and perquisite for happiness (Lindenberg 2013; Maslow 1943; Tay and Diener 2011). Agegraded differences in personality and social resources typically reflect transitions in or out of social roles as partner, parent, and worker (e.g., Klärner et al 2016; Mund et al 2018; Rözer et al 2017; Van den Bogaard et al 2014). Social needs and their fulfilment may, differ over the life course following these normative social role transitions. Previous studies often regarded social need fulfilment as indicator of happiness (e.g., Bos et al 2016; Cramm et al 2012) This approach neglected the role of specific social needs in happiness (e.g., Max-Neef 1992) and how their fulfilment differs across the life course (see for exceptions, Ormel et al 2017; Steverink and Lindenberg 2006)
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