IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v14y2013i4p1127-1144.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ongoing Cumulative Chronic Stressors as Predictors of Well-Being in the Second Half of Life

Author

Listed:
  • Yuval Palgi

Abstract

The main aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between ongoing cumulative chronic stressors (OCCS) and well-being during the second half of life. The sample comprised 7,268 participants who had completed the Health and Retirement Study 2006 psychosocial questionnaire and the full OCCS questionnaire. OCCS were evaluated as a predictor of Subjective Well-Being and Psychological Well-Being (PWB) using two measures: the number of events and the subjective evaluation attributed to the events by the participant. Additionally, the association between OCCS and well-being was evaluated in midlife (50–64), young-old (65–79), and old-old (80–104) participants. The results showed that the participant’s age as well as the number of OCCS perceived as “very upsetting” were strong predictors of well-being. The relationship between OCCS and PWB was weaker among old-old participants than among midlife and young-old participants. Although well-being is considered a stable trait-like personality dimension in the second half of life, the study’s findings suggest that as the number of OCCS was higher, and especially as the subjective evaluations attributed to an event are more upsetting, well-being was lower. Nevertheless, this lower level of well-being is partially moderated in the PWB measures by age. Old-old participants maintain a higher general positive sense of PWB than midlife and young-old participants in what was previously termed the “well-being paradox.” Implications of the results are discussed. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Yuval Palgi, 2013. "Ongoing Cumulative Chronic Stressors as Predictors of Well-Being in the Second Half of Life," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 1127-1144, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:14:y:2013:i:4:p:1127-1144
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-012-9371-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10902-012-9371-1
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-012-9371-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amit Shrira & Yuval Palgi & Menachem Ben-Ezra & Tal Spalter & Gitit Kavé & Dov Shmotkin, 2011. "For Better and for Worse: The Relationship between Future Expectations and Functioning in the Second Half of Life," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 66(2), pages 195-203.
    2. Linda K. George, 2010. "Still Happy After All These Years: Research Frontiers on Subjective Well-being in Later Life," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 65(3), pages 331-339.
    3. Thomas DeLeire & Ariel Kalil, 2010. "Does consumption buy happiness? Evidence from the United States," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 57(2), pages 163-176, June.
    4. Jennifer R. Piazza & Susan T. Charles & David M. Almeida, 2007. "Living With Chronic Health Conditions: Age Differences in Affective Well-Being," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 62(6), pages 313-321.
    5. Edward Deci & Richard Ryan, 2008. "Hedonia, eudaimonia, and well-being: an introduction," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, January.
    6. Nele De Cuyper & Hans De Witte & Ulla Kinnunen & Jouko Nätti, 2010. "The Relationship Between Job Insecurity and Employability and Well-Being Among Finnish Temporary and Permanent Employees," International Studies of Management & Organization, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 57-73, January.
    7. Brendan Baird & Richard Lucas & M. Donnellan, 2010. "Life Satisfaction Across the Lifespan: Findings from Two Nationally Representative Panel Studies," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 99(2), pages 183-203, November.
    8. Susan Turk Charles & Gloria Luong & David M. Almeida & Carol Ryff & Maggie Sturm & Gayle Love, 2010. "Fewer Ups and Downs: Daily Stressors Mediate Age Differences in Negative Affect," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 65(3), pages 279-286.
    9. Carol Ryff & Burton Singer, 2008. "Know Thyself and Become What You Are: A Eudaimonic Approach to Psychological Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 13-39, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marina Näsman & Fredrica Nyqvist & Mikael Nygård, 2022. "Disentangling the Concept of Well-Being in Very Old Age Using Rodgers’ Evolutionary Concept Analysis," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 3101-3126, August.
    2. Taylor, Adele M. & Ritchie, Stuart J. & Deary, Ian J., 2017. "Associations of intelligence across the life course with optimism and pessimism in older age," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 79-88.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lisa A. Newland & Daniel Mourlam & Gabrielle Strouse, 2018. "A Phenomenological Exploration of the Role of Digital Technology and Media in Children’s Subjective Well-Being," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(5), pages 1563-1583, October.
    2. Pilar Sanjuán, 2011. "Affect Balance as Mediating Variable Between Effective Psychological Functioning and Satisfaction with Life," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 373-384, June.
    3. Yew-Kwang Ng, 2011. "Happiness Is Absolute, Universal, Ultimate, Unidimensional, Cardinally Measurable and Interpersonally Comparable: A Basis for the Environmentally Responsible Happy Nation Index," Monash Economics Working Papers 16-11, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    4. Yew-Kwang Ng, 2015. "Some Conceptual And Methodological Issues On Happiness: Lessons From Evolutionary Biology," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 60(04), pages 1-17.
    5. Ethan McMahan & Seungah Ryu & Incheol Choi, 2014. "Lay Conceptions of Well-Being Among Undergraduate Students from the United States and South Korea: Culture-Level Differences and Correlates," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 119(1), pages 321-339, October.
    6. Veselina P. Vracheva & Robert Moussetis & Ali Abu-Rahma, 2020. "The Mediational Role of Engagement in the Relationship Between Curiosity and Student Development: A Preliminary Study," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1529-1547, April.
    7. Baumeister, Roy F. & Vohs, Kathleen D. & Aaker, Jennifer L. & Garbinsky, Emily N., 2012. "Some Key Differences between a Happy Life and a Meaningful Life," Research Papers 2119, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    8. Nadine Richter & Marcel Hunecke, 2021. "The Mindful Hedonist? Relationships between Well-Being Orientations, Mindfulness and Well-Being Experiences," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(7), pages 3111-3135, October.
    9. Bastos, Wilson & Barsade, Sigal G., 2020. "A new look at employee happiness: How employees’ perceptions of a job as offering experiences versus objects to customers influence job-related happiness," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 176-187.
    10. Mohsen Joshanloo, 2011. "Investigation of the Contribution of Spirituality and Religiousness to Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being in Iranian Young Adults," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 12(6), pages 915-930, December.
    11. Katsunori Sumi, 2014. "Reliability and Validity of Japanese Versions of the Flourishing Scale and the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 601-615, September.
    12. Edith Pollet & Tatjana Schnell, 2017. "Brilliant: But What For? Meaning and Subjective Well-Being in the Lives of Intellectually Gifted and Academically High-Achieving Adults," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 1459-1484, October.
    13. Anthony Bardo & Takashi Yamashita, 2014. "Validity of Domain Satisfaction Across Cohorts in the US," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 367-385, June.
    14. Bibing Dai & Baoshan Zhang & Juan Li, 2013. "Protective Factors for Subjective Well-being in Chinese Older Adults: The Roles of Resources and Activity," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 1225-1239, August.
    15. Joar Vittersø & Yngvil Søholt & Audun Hetland & Irina Thoresen & Espen Røysamb, 2010. "Was Hercules Happy? Some Answers from a Functional Model of Human Well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 95(1), pages 1-18, January.
    16. Isabel Albuquerque & Margarida Lima & Marcela Matos & Cláudia Figueiredo, 2014. "Work Matters: Work Personal Projects and the Idiosyncratic Linkages Between Traits, Eudaimonic and Hedonic Well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(3), pages 885-906, February.
    17. Ethan McMahan & David Estes, 2011. "Hedonic Versus Eudaimonic Conceptions of Well-being: Evidence of Differential Associations With Self-reported Well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 93-108, August.
    18. Yi Wang & Ronnel King & Shing On Leung, 2023. "Understanding Chinese Students' Well-Being: A Machine Learning Study," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(2), pages 581-616, April.
    19. Masahiro Toyama, 2022. "Longitudinal and Age-Related Implications of Primary and Secondary Control for Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 2313-2336, June.
    20. Mercedes Gómez-López & Carmen Viejo & Eva M. Romera & Rosario Ortega-Ruiz, 2022. "Psychological Well-Being and Social Competence During Adolescence: Longitudinal Association Between the Two Phenomena," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(3), pages 1043-1061, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:14:y:2013:i:4:p:1127-1144. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.