Social Support as Predictor of Life Satisfaction in Older Adults

Authors

  • Amarah Qureshi Lecturer, Department of Applied Psychology, School of Professional Psychology, University of Management & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.
  • Shahnila Tariq Associate Professor, Department of Applied Psychology, School of Professional Psychology, University of Management & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8240-1542
  • Beenish Mubeen Lecturer, Department of Applied Psychology, School of Professional Psychology, University of Management & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52053/jpap.v4i1.121

Keywords:

Life Satisfaction, Older Adults, Social Support

Abstract

Social support plays an important role in the satisfaction with life in older adults. The purpose of present research was to find the social support as predictor of life satisfaction in older adults. Main hypothesis of the study was social support (significant others, family and friends) would be positive predictor of life satisfaction in older adults. Two more sub-hypotheses were also formulated. Correlational cross sectional research design was used with convenient sampling technique. Total 100 participants were selected which consisted of 50 couples from both nuclear and joint family system. The Multidimensional Social Support Scale (Zimet et al., 1988) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985) were used. The results revealed social support including, significant others, friends and family, had positive relationship as well as positive predictor of life satisfaction in older adults. Moreover, older adults from joint family system were found to be more satisfied as compared to the older adults from nuclear family. Findings have significant implications in Pakistani culture for the purpose of counselling.

References

Boniwell, I., & Tunariu, A. D. (2019). EBOOK: Positive Psychology: Theory, Research and Applications. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Cao, Q., & Lu, B. (2021). Mediating and moderating effects of loneliness between social support and life satisfaction among empty nesters in China. Current Psychology, 40(2), 973-982. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-0019-0

Chen, M., Fu, Y., & Chang, Q. (2022). Life satisfaction among older adults in urban China: Does gender interact with pensions, social support and self-care ability? Ageing and Society, 42(9), 2026-2045. doi:10.1017/S0144686X20001877 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X20001877

Cherry, K. (2020). How social support contribute to psychological health. https://www.verywellmind.com/social-support-for-psychological-health-4119970

Cohen, S., & McKay, G. (2020). Social support, stress and the buffering hypothesis: A theoretical analysis. In: Handbook of Psychology and Health (Volume IV) (pp. 253-267). Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003044307-10

Diener, E. Emmons, R.A., Larson, R.J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13

Dindo, L., Van Liew, J. R., & Arch, J. J. (2017). Acceptance and commitment therapy: a transdiagnostic behavioral intervention for mental health and medical conditions. Neurotherapeutics, 14(3), 546-553. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13311-017-0521-3

Felton, B. J. (2018). Coping and social support in older people’s experiences of chronic illness. In Stress and coping in later-life families (pp. 153-171). Taylor & Francis. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315803074-9

Gorman, M. (2017). Development and the rights of older people. In The ageing and development report (pp. 3-21). Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315071541-2

Kadambi, S., Soto-Perez-de-Celis, E., Garg, T., Loh, K.P., Krok-Schoen, J.L., Battisti, N. M. L., Moffat, G, T., Gil-Jr, L.A., Mohile, S., Hsu, S. (2020). Social support for older adults with cancer: Young International Society of Geriatric Oncology review paper. Journal of Geriatric Oncology, 11(2):217-224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jgo.2019.09.005. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jgo.2019.09.005

Kong, F., Gong, X., Sajjad, S., Yang, K., & Zhao, J. (2019). How is emotional intelligence linked to life satisfaction? The mediating role of social support, positive affect and negative affect. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20(8), 2733-2745. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-00069-4

Lee, S., Ryu, J., & Heo, J. (2022). Leisure and Social Supports in Relation to Positive Affect Among Older Adults. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 41(2), 551–559. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464821990485 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464821990485

Lee, S., & Waters, S. F. (2020). Asians and Asian Americans’ experiences of racial discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic: Impacts on health outcomes and the buffering role of social support. Stigma and Health, 6(1), 70–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/sah0000275 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/sah0000275

Leigh-Hunt, N., Bagguley, D., Bash, K., Turner, V., Turnbull, S., Valtorta, N., & Caan, W. (2017). An overview of systematic reviews on the public health consequences of social isolation and loneliness. Public Health, 152, 157-171. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2017.07.035

Mahama, F. (2021). Comparing the Impact of Biopsychosocial Factors on the Subjective Well-Being (SWB) of Older Adults 50 Years and Over in the United States (Doctoral dissertation, Southern Connecticut State University).

Odac?, H., & Cikrikci, Ö. (2019). Cognitive flexibility mediates the relationship between Big Five personality traits and life satisfaction. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 14(5), 1229-1246. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-018-9651-y

Peppe, C. I., Altintas, E., Voumbi, E. N., & Guerrien, A. (2018). Personality, relationships with others and psychological well-being: A pilot study on the Gabonese older people. Journal of Happiness Studies, 19(7), 1965-1979. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-017-9900-z

Roh, S. (2010). The impact of religion, spirituality, and social support on depression and life satisfaction among Korean immigrant older adults (Publication No. 3432768). [Doctoral Dissertation, School of Social Work, NY University]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/impact-religion-spirituality-social-support-on/docview/822778370/se-2

Shen, Y., & Yeatts, D. E. (2013). Social Support and Life Satisfaction among Older Adults in China: Family-Based Support versus Community-Based Support. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development. 77(3), 189-209. https://doi.org/10.2190/AG.77.3.b DOI: https://doi.org/10.2190/AG.77.3.b

Spittel, S., Maier, A., & Kraus, E. (2019). Awareness challenges of mental health disorder and dementia facing stigmatisation and discrimination: a systematic literature review from Sub-Sahara Africa. Journal of Global Health, 9(2), 020419. https://doi.org/ 10.7189/jogh.09.020419 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.09.020419

Telepova, N., & Telepov, M. (2021). Correlation between psychological well-being and level of religiosity manifestation at different ages. In society. Integration. Education. Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference (Vol. 7, pp. 181-188). DOI: https://doi.org/10.17770/sie2021vol7.6260

Zempelin, S., Sejunaite, K., Lanza, C., & Riepe, M. W. (2021). Emotion induction in young and old persons on watching movie segments: Facial expressions reflect subjective ratings. Plos One, 16(6), e0253378. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253378

Zhao, X., Zhang, D., Wu, M., Yang, Y., Xie, H., Li, Y., & Su, Y. (2018). Loneliness and depression symptoms among the elderly in nursing homes: A moderated mediation model of resilience and social support. Psychiatry Research, 268, 143-151. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2018.07.011

Zimet, G. D., Dahlem, N. W., Zimet, S. G., & Farley, G. K. (1988). The multidimensional scale of perceived social support. Journal of Personality Assessment, 52(1), 30-41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa5201_2

Downloads

Published

2023-03-04

How to Cite

Qureshi, A., Tariq, S. ., & Mubeen, B. (2023). Social Support as Predictor of Life Satisfaction in Older Adults. Journal of Professional & Applied Psychology, 4(1), 53–60. https://doi.org/10.52053/jpap.v4i1.121

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2023): Journal of Professional & Applied Psychology

Section

Original Articles

Categories

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Amarah Qureshi, Shahnila Tariq, beenish Mubeen

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License (https://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-Commercial use, reproduction
and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the Journal website at (https://iprpk.com/ojs/index.php/jpap)