Centre for Policy on Ageing



The interpretation of social comparison and its relation to life satisfaction among elderly people — does frailty make a difference?
Author(s)	Nynke Frieswijk, Bram P Buunk, Nardi Steverink
Journal title	Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 59B, no 5, September 2004
Pages	pp P250-256
Source	http://www.geron.org
Keywords	Life satisfaction ; Mobility ; Self care capacity ; Living in the community ; Evaluation ; Netherlands.
Annotation	A questionnaire study in the north Netherlands of 444 community-dwelling older people with different levels of frailty was used to examine the interpretation of upward and downward social comparison and its effects on their life satisfaction. As expected, older people with higher levels of frailty were less inclined to identify themselves with a downward comparison target. Furthermore, they were inclined to contrast themselves with an upward comparison target, but contrary to expectations, they were also more inclined to identify with this target. Upward identification and downward contrast related positively, whereas upward contrast and downward identification related negatively to life satisfaction. These effects existed independently of the negative effect of frailty on life satisfaction. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-051124203 A
Classmark	F:5HH: C4: CA: K4: 4C: 76H
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.