Life Expectancy as an Objective Factor of a Subjective Well-Being

Background: Despite having one of the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita levels, United States (US) ranks lower in subjective well-being, including happiness and life satisfaction, compared with European countries. Studies of the impact of happiness and life satisfaction on life expectancy and mortality in the US are limited or non-existent. Using a national longitudinal dataset, we examined the association between levels of happiness/life satisfaction and US life expectancy and all-cause mortality. Methods: We analyzed the 2001 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) prospectively linked to 2001-2014 mortality records in the National Death Index (NDI) (N=30,377). Cox proportional hazards regression was used to model survival time as a function of happiness, life satisfaction, and sociodemographic and behavioral covariates. Results: Life expectancies at age 18 among adults with high levels of happiness and life satisfaction were, respectively, 7.5 and 8.9 years higher compared to those with low levels of happiness and life satisfaction. In Cox models with 14 years of mortality follow-up, all-cause mortality risk was 82% higher (hazard ratio [HR]=1.82; 95% CI=1.59,2.08) in adults with little or no happiness, controlling for age, and 36% higher (HR=1.36; 95% CI=1.17,1.57) in adults with little/no happiness, controlling for sociodemographic, behavioral and health characteristics, when compared with adults reporting happiness all of the time. Mortality risk was 107% higher (HR=2.07; 95% CI=1.80,2.38) in adults who were very dissatisfied with their life, controlling for age, and 39% higher (HR=1.39; 95% CI=1.20,1.60) in adults who were very dissatisfied, controlling for all covariates, when compared with adults who were very satisfied. Conclusions and Global Health Implications: Adults with higher happiness and life satisfaction levels had significantly higher life expectancy and lower all-cause mortality risks than those with lower happiness and satisfaction levels. These findings underscore the significance of addressing subjective well-being in the population as a strategy for reducing all-cause mortality. Key words: • Inequalities • Disparities • Happiness • Life satisfaction • Life expectancy • Mortality • Longitudinal • Social determinants Copyright © 2020 Lee and Singh. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in this journal, is properly cited.

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Becoming a first-time grandparent and subjective well-being. A fixed effects approach.

10.31235/osf.io/29ytg ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Paula Sheppard ◽

Christiaan Willem Simon Monden

Keyword(s):

Life Satisfaction ◽

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Life Expectancy ◽

Employment Status ◽

Fixed Effects ◽

Well Being ◽

Life Transition ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Fixed Effects Models ◽

First Time

Objective: In this study, we examine how individuals are affected by the change in status to grandparenthood for the first time.Background: Being a grandparent, especially an active and involved grandparent, is positively linked to the well-being of individuals with grandchildren, however little is known about how becoming a grandparent affects well-being.Method: We use longitudinal data from fifteen countries in Europe (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe - SHARE) to analyse if becoming a grandparent is associated with three measures of subjective well-being. We use fixed effects models to account for unobserved heterogeneity.Results: We found evidence that becoming a first-time grandparent is associated with fewer depressive symptoms among women, although there was no effect on subjective life expectancy or life satisfaction. For men, we found no evidence for an impact on any outcome tested, although there is an association with increased subjective life expectancy conditional on employment status; only if men were employed when transitioning to grandparenthood. We also found no evidence that actively looking after the grandchild is important for either gender.Conclusion: These results suggest that, at least for women, it is the life transition itself that impacts on well-being, rather than active grandchild-care. More research is needed to verify these findings in other contexts, and over longer periods of time.

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Conflict Avoidance in Old Age

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000168 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 61-70 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Lia Oberhauser ◽

Andreas B. Neubauer ◽

Eva-Marie Kessler

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Perceived Social Support ◽

Well Being ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Conflict Avoidance ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Adult Lifespan ◽

Set Up

Abstract. Conflict avoidance increases across the adult lifespan. This cross-sectional study looks at conflict avoidance as part of a mechanism to regulate belongingness needs ( Sheldon, 2011 ). We assumed that older adults perceive more threats to their belongingness when they contemplate their future, and that they preventively react with avoidance coping. We set up a model predicting conflict avoidance that included perceptions of future nonbelonging, termed anticipated loneliness, and other predictors including sociodemographics, indicators of subjective well-being and perceived social support (N = 331, aged 40–87). Anticipated loneliness predicted conflict avoidance above all other predictors and partially mediated the age-association of conflict avoidance. Results suggest that belongingness regulation accounts may deepen our understanding of conflict avoidance in the second half of life.

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Leisure Activities and the Subjective Well-Being of Older Adults in Croatia

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000179 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 31-39 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ljiljana Kaliterna Lipovčan ◽

Tihana Brkljačić ◽

Zvjezdana Prizmić Larsen ◽

Andreja Brajša-Žganec ◽

Renata Franc

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Leisure Activities ◽

Leisure Activity ◽

Later Life ◽

Perceived Health ◽

Well Being ◽

Hierarchical Regression ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Convenience Sample ◽

Financial Status

Abstract. Research shows that engagement in leisure activities promotes well-being among older adults. The objective of the current study was to examine the relationship between subjective well-being (flourishing) and leisure activities (total number of different activities in the previous year) in a sample of older adults in Croatia, thereby considering the variables of sex, marital status, financial status, and self-perceived health. The differences in the examined variables between the groups of older adults who reported to be engaged in new activities with those who did not were also examined. The sample of N = 169 older adults aged 60 years and above was drawn from a convenience sample of adult internet users in Croatia. Participants reported their self-perceived health and the number of leisure activities they engaged in over the previous year as well as completing the Flourishing Scale. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that older adults who were engaged in more various leisure activities, who perceived better financial status, and who were married reported higher levels of flourishing. A comparison of the two groups of older adults with and without engagement in leisure activities showed that those engaged in at least one leisure activity were more likely to be women, reported higher levels of flourishing, and perceived their own financial status as better. This study indicated that engaging in leisure activities in later life might provide beneficial effects for the well-being of older adults.

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Intraindividual Variability and Stability of Affect and Well-Being

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000094 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 185-199 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Christina Röcke ◽

Annette Brose

Keyword(s):

Age Differences ◽

Well Being ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Emotional Experiences ◽

Short Term ◽

Regulatory Processes ◽

Functional Implications ◽

Methodological Approaches ◽

Underlying Processes

Whereas subjective well-being remains relatively stable across adulthood, emotional experiences show remarkable short-term variability, with younger and older adults differing in both amount and correlates. Repeatedly assessed affect data captures both the dynamics and stability as well as stabilization that may indicate emotion-regulatory processes. The article reviews (1) research approaches to intraindividual affect variability, (2) functional implications of affect variability, and (3) age differences in affect variability. Based on this review, we discuss how the broader literature on emotional aging can be better integrated with theories and concepts of intraindividual affect variability by using appropriate methodological approaches. Finally, we show how a better understanding of affect variability and its underlying processes could contribute to the long-term stabilization of well-being in old age.

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