Sociodemographic Factors’ Association with Community-Dwelling Older Adults’ Psychosocial Wellbeing: The Greek Context

Dimitrios Papadopoulos

doi:10.4236/psych.2020.112022

Abstract

This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the associations of sex, age, marital status, education attainment, religious involvement, perceived health, and income with psychosocial domains of wellbeing assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS), and Spiritual Wellbeing Scale (SWBS). In total, 356 community-dwelling older adults from Greece, aged 65 years and above, completed a sociodemographic survey and psychosocial self-reported questionnaires. Bivariate and stepwise regression analyses helped to determine the sociodemographic factors’ associations with their wellbeing. These background predictors together explained a significant part of the variance in scores on all psychosocial domains: 31% for GDS-15, 44% for SHS, 63% for SWLS, and 58% for SWBS. After controlling for other sociodemographic factors, both being healthy and attending church were related to better outcomes in the domains of happiness, life satisfaction, and spiritual wellbeing. Higher income was related to better outcomes on all domains of wellbeing, while higher educational attainment was related to worse outcomes on all domains of wellbeing. Marital status was positively related to depression only. Thus, successful aging approaches may benefit from a deeper understanding of wellbeing and its predictors, which are essential to improve older adults’ psychosocial wellness.

Highlights

IntroductionDealing with the challenges posed by an aging population is difficult in many European societies, where a growing population of older adults is coupled with a shrinking pool of working-age adults, placing increasing strain on health care resources and other social services (Lutz, O’Neill, & Scherbov, 2003)
This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the associations of sex, age, marital status, education attainment, religious involvement, perceived health, and income with psychosocial domains of wellbeing assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS), and Spiritual Wellbeing Scale (SWBS)
The findings of this study suggest that the respondents were fairly satisfied with their lives, had above average emotional state and spiritual wellbeing, and enjoy their lives, they had lower income compared to the general older population in the EU (Hellenic Statistical Authority, 2019b)

Summary

Introduction

Dealing with the challenges posed by an aging population is difficult in many European societies, where a growing population of older adults is coupled with a shrinking pool of working-age adults, placing increasing strain on health care resources and other social services (Lutz, O’Neill, & Scherbov, 2003). These challenges are reflected in European public policy, which has begun to prioritize the goals of encouraging healthy and successful aging (European Commission, Economic and Financial Affairs, 2018). Some studies suggest that wellbeing tends to improve as people age, compared to middle life (Carstensen, Fung, & Charles, 2003), while other studies suggest that such a U-curve of life satisfaction cannot be accepted worldwide, especially not in low-income countries (Frijters & Beaton, 2008)

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