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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Living status and psychological well-being
— social comparison as a moderator in later life | | Author(s) | Sheung-Tak Cheng, Helene H Fung, Alfred C M Chan |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 12, no 5, September 2008 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis, September 2008 |
| Pages | pp 654-661 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Well being ; Depression ; Evaluation ; Attitude ; Living alone ; Living patterns ; Comparison ; Hong Kong. |
| Annotation | Older people who live alone have been found to have lower psychological well-being than their age peers who live with someone. 205 Chinese people aged 65+ in Hong Kong were recruited to this study which examined whether downward social comparison (i.e. perceiving oneself as better than others) would moderate this relationship. Participants rated themselves and "someone their age" on a list of personal descriptions. Downward social comparison was defined as the extent to which their ratings of self were better than ratings of age peers. Life satisfaction and depression were measured by the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the CFS-D Scale respectively. Those living alone were more depressed than those living with someone, yet this difference was larger among those with lower levels than those with higher levels of downward social comparison. The interaction effect was not found for life satisfaction. Findings suggest that, although living alone is a risk factor for depression in old age, its negative effect can be reduced or even eliminated when downward social comparison is practised. These findings highlight the importance and effectiveness of psychological adaptation in the face of relatively more objective challenges in old age. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-081124243 A |
| Classmark | D:F:5HH: ENR: 4C: DP: K8: K7: 48: 7DR |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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