Some psychosocial determinants of subjective well-being in late adulthood

Konstrukt subjektivne dobrobiti uključuje zadovoljstvo životom, pozitivne afekte i negativne afekte (Diener, 1994) i jedan je od glavnih područja interesa pozitivne psihologije. Kasna odrasla dob popraćena je mnogim fizičkim i psihološkim promjenama koje, između ostalog, potencijalno mogu biti povezane i doprinositi objašnjenju koncepta subjektivne dobrobiti. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati odnos socijalne podrške, usamljenosti, religioznosti, straha od smrti, zdravlja i sociodemografskih čimbenika subjektivnoj dobrobiti kod osoba kasne odrasle dobi. Istraživanje je provedeno na 83 sudionika kasne odrasle dobi (73% su žene) od kojih dio živi u domu za starije. U istraživanju je korištena Skala zadovoljstva životom (Diener, Emmons, Larsen i Griffin, 1985), Skala pozitivnih i negativnih afekata (Watson, Clark i Tellegen, 1988), Upitnik religioznosti (Ljubotina, 2004), Multidimenzionalna skala percipirane socijalne podrške (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet i Farley, 1988), Skala straha od smrti (Templer, 1970), UCLA Skala usamljenosti (Russell, 1996), Kratka verzija upitnika samo-procjene fizičkog zdravlja (Marsh, Martin i Jackson, 2010) te pitanja o sociodemografskim obilježjima sudionika. Dobivena je pozitivna povezanost zadovoljstva životom sa zdravljem i socijalnom podrškom te negativna povezanost zadovoljstva životom s usamljenošću i dobi. Pozitivni afekti nisu se pokazali povezanima ni sa jednom od prediktorskih varijabli, dok su negativni afekti pozitivno povezani s usamljenošću i strahom od smrti, a negativno su povezani sa socijalnom podrškom. Rezultati višestruke regresijske analize pokazali su da socijalna podrška, zdravlje i usamljenost značajno pridonose objašnjenju zadovoljstva životom. Objašnjenju pozitivnih afekata značajno ne doprinosi niti jedan konstrukt te objašnjenju negativnih afekata doprinose socijalna podrška, strah od smrti i spol.The construct of well-being includes life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect (Diener, 1994), and represents one of the most important constructs of interest in the field of positive psychology. People at the age over 65 experience different physical and psychological changes, which could be connected and help us to explain well-being amongst the population. The main aim of this research was to examine association of social support, loneliness, religiosity, death anxiety, health, some sociodemographic factors with psychological well-being among late adults. The study sample included 83 people over 65 years of age (73% of them were woman) and some of them were living in nursing home for elderly. In the study, we uses the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985), the Positive affects negative affects schedule (Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988), the Religiosity questionnaire (Ljubotina, 2004), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, 1988), the Death Anxiety Scale (Templer, 1970), the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, 1996), the Short Version of Physical Self Description Questionnaire (Marsh, Martin & Jackson, 2010) and sociodemographic questions designed for the study . The results show positive association of life satisfaction with health and social support as well as negative association of life satisfaction with loneliness and age. Positive affects were not associated with any predictor and negative affects were positive associated with loneliness, death anxiety and negative associated with social support. A multiple regression has shown that social support, health, and loneliness significantly contribute to the explanation of life satisfaction. Not any predictor significantly contributes to the explanation of positive affects. Social support and death anxiety along with gender contribute to the explanation of negative affects