IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v15y2014i2p339-355.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Salutogenic Analysis of the Well-Being Paradox in Older Age

Author

Listed:
  • Ulrich Wiesmann
  • Hans-Joachim Hannich

Abstract

Following Antonovsky’s salutogenic perspective, we investigate to what extent the sense of coherence and psychological resources mediate the physical health-mental health relationship, assuming that these resilience factors mutually influence each other. In our questionnaire study, 387 older persons at the mean age of 73.8 years volunteered. We assessed physical health appraisals, sense of coherence components (comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness), psychological resources (self-efficacy and self-esteem) and mental health (subjective well-being, depressive mood, and psychological health). We used structural equation modeling with latent variables and a bootstrapping method to test hypothesized mediation chains. We found (a) a significant direct effect of physical health on mental health, (b) two significant specific indirect effects of physical health on mental health, substantiating that the sense of coherence was a stronger mediator than psychological resources, and (c) two significant 3-path mediated effects. Physical health is profoundly associated with mental health. However, resilience factors such as the sense of coherence and psychological resources enable older people to maintain mental health when confronted with chronic physical health problems. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Ulrich Wiesmann & Hans-Joachim Hannich, 2014. "A Salutogenic Analysis of the Well-Being Paradox in Older Age," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 339-355, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:15:y:2014:i:2:p:339-355
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-013-9425-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10902-013-9425-z
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-013-9425-z?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. R. Veenhoven, 2008. "Healthy happiness: effects of happiness on physical health and the consequences for preventive health care," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 449-469, September.
    2. Bullinger, Monika, 1995. "German translation and psychometric testing of the SF-36 Health Survey: Preliminary results from the IQOLA project," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 41(10), pages 1359-1366, November.
    3. 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.
    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. Fuzhen Xu & Mengmeng Wang & Qingyao Zhang & Tingting Xing & Wei Cui, 2021. "The Association Between Maternal Control and Sense of Coherence in Chinese Adolescents: Self-Efficacy as a Mediator and Stressful Life Events as a Moderator," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 2721-2738, August.
    2. Ulrich Wiesmann & Ilka Ballas & Hans-Joachim Hannich, 2018. "Sense of Coherence, Time Perspective and Positive Aging," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 817-839, March.
    3. Kun Wang & Yan Li & Tingran Zhang & Jiong Luo, 2022. "The Relationship among College Students’ Physical Exercise, Self-Efficacy, Emotional Intelligence, and Subjective Well-Being," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-14, September.
    4. Raquel Lara & Mᵃ Luisa Vázquez & Adelaida Ogallar & Débora Godoy-Izquierdo, 2020. "Psychosocial Resources for Hedonic Balance, Life Satisfaction and Happiness in the Elderly: A Path Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-18, August.

    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. Junji Kageyama & Kazuma Sato, 2021. "Explaining the U-shaped life satisfaction: dissatisfaction as a driver of behavior," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 179-202, July.
    2. Janina Nemitz, 2022. "Increasing longevity and life satisfaction: is there a catch to living longer?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(2), pages 557-589, April.
    3. Débora Godoy-Izquierdo & Raquel Lara Moreno & María Vázquez Pérez & Francisco Araque Serrano & Juan Godoy García, 2013. "Correlates of Happiness Among Older Spanish Institutionalised and Non-Institutionalised Adults," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 389-414, April.
    4. Raquel Lara & Mᵃ Luisa Vázquez & Adelaida Ogallar & Débora Godoy-Izquierdo, 2020. "Psychosocial Resources for Hedonic Balance, Life Satisfaction and Happiness in the Elderly: A Path Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-18, August.
    5. Abel Brodeur, 2012. "Smoking, Income and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Smoking Bans," Working Papers halshs-00664269, HAL.
    6. Hongyun Fu & Mark VanLandingham, 2012. "Mental Health Consequences of International Migration for Vietnamese Americans and the Mediating Effects of Physical Health and Social Networks: Results From a Natural Experiment Approach," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(2), pages 393-424, May.
    7. Noelia Somarriba Arechavala & Pilar Zarzosa Espina & Ana Teresa López Pastor, 2022. "The Importance of the Neighbourhood Environment and Social Capital for Happiness in a Vulnerable District: The Case of the Pajarillos District in Spain," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 1941-1965, June.
    8. Robert Weech-Maldonado & Michael J. Miller & Justin C. Lord, 2017. "The Relationships among Socio-Demographics, Perceived Health, and Happiness," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 289-302, June.
    9. Yi Jie Wong & Nursyahida Ahmad & Loo Seng Neo & Jia Wen Lee & Kenneth Loong & Rebecca Low & James Lim, 2024. "Mind Over Matter: Effects of Digital Devices and Internet Dependence Perceptions and Behavior on Life Satisfaction in Singapore," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-11, July.
    10. David G. Blanchflower, 2020. "Is Happiness U-shaped Everywhere? Age and Subjective Well-being in 132 Countries," NBER Working Papers 26641, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Binder, Martin & Coad, Alex, 2013. "“I'm afraid I have bad news for you…” Estimating the impact of different health impairments on subjective well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 155-167.
    12. Ruut Veenhoven, 2011. "World Database of Happiness Example of a focused ‘Findings Archive’," RatSWD Working Papers 169, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    13. Bruce Headey & Jongsay Yong, 2019. "Happiness and Longevity: Unhappy People Die Young, Otherwise Happiness Probably Makes No Difference," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 713-732, April.
    14. Terence C. Cheng & Nattavudh Powdthavee & Andrew J. Oswald, 2017. "Longitudinal Evidence for a Midlife Nadir in Human Well‐being: Results from Four Data Sets," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(599), pages 126-142, February.
    15. Ciorbagiu Ioana & Stoica Adrian, 2020. "The Importance Of Affective And Cognitive Dimensions Of Happiness - Analysis In European Countries," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 6, pages 138-148, December.
    16. Alexandra Cristina Sãžrbu & Mircea Asandului, 2021. "Determinants Of Subjective Well-Being Among Romanian Older Adults," Review of Economic and Business Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 28, pages 111-124, December.
    17. Lorenzo Rocco & Elena Fumagalli & Marc Suhrcke, 2014. "From Social Capital To Health – And Back," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(5), pages 586-605, May.
    18. Jit Hui Tan & Edimansyah Abdin & Shazana Shahwan & Yunjue Zhang & Rajeswari Sambasivam & Janhavi Ajit Vaingankar & Rathi Mahendran & Hong Choon Chua & Siow Ann Chong & Mythily Subramaniam, 2019. "Happiness and Cognitive Impairment Among Older Adults: Investigating the Mediational Roles of Disability, Depression, Social Contact Frequency, and Loneliness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-14, December.
    19. Juliane Scheffel & Yiwei Zhang, 2019. "How does internal migration affect the emotional health of elderly parents left-behind?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 953-980, July.
    20. Rui Zhang & Lin-Xin Wang & Jesus Alfonso D. Datu & Yue Liang & Kai Dou & Yan-Gang Nie & Jian-Bin Li, 2023. "High Qualities of Relationships with Parents and Teachers Contribute to the Development of Adolescent Life Satisfaction Through Resilience: A Three-Wave Prospective Longitudinal Study," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1339-1365, April.

    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:15:y:2014:i:2:p:339-355. 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.