The Structure of Well-Being and Its Stability Across the Lifespan.

The evolutionary underpinnings of human experiential life served as the backdrop for an analysis of the structure of well-being across the lifespan. The investigation represents a reanalysis of a study by Bryant and Veroff in which indices of well-being were factor analyzed on a national probability sample of 2264 adults. The indices included reports of affect, life satisfaction, morale, and perceptions of efficacy. Bryant and Veroff settled on a six factor model labeled in the present study: (1) General Happiness/Unhappiness, (2) General Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction, (3) Quality of the Self Experience, (4) Feelings of Copefulness/Copelessness, (5) Experiential Strain, and (6) General Worrying. The investigation focuses on the structural stability of this model across four age groups: 21-29, 30-49, 50-64, 65-85+. A secondary focus compared the mean scores of these six factors across the age groups. For each age group (separately for men and women), twenty-five indices of experiential life were factor analyzed. To estimate structural consistency, a program was employed which tested the fit of the Bryant and Veroff model to each of the eight group's data. Five of the six factors were replicated in practically every group. 21-29 year-old-men, 65-85+ year-old-women were the most structurally divergent. For 20-29 year-old-men, 50-64 year-old-men and 30-49 year-old-women General Happiness/Unhappiness split into two factors. General Worrying did not appear in seven out of eight separate analyses; this factor might not be a reliable dimension of experiential life. With regards to mean differences in factor scores, there was a small, significant decline in General Happiness associated with aging for men and women. While older persons registered significant declines in aspects experiential life, they registered two significant gains. There was an increase in feeling oneself capable of coping with strong affective states and a reduction in General Worrying. With imposition of controls for health, income, and education experiential life generally improved across the lifespan. The decline in General Happiness/Unhappiness disappeared for men and was greatly reduced for women. Men registered significant improvements in five out of six dimensions. Women registered one decline and four improvements.Ph.D.Clinical psychologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158471/1/8125140.pd