IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v18y2017i5d10.1007_s10902-016-9772-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Association of Positivity with Health Problems in Old Age: Preliminary Findings from Spanish Middle Class Seniors

Author

Listed:
  • Mariagiovanna Caprara

    (Open University of Madrid, UDIMA)

  • Laura Giunta

    (Sapienza University of Rome)

  • Gian Vittorio Caprara

    (Sapienza University of Rome)

Abstract

Previous studies have indicated positivity as a basic trait which lies at the very heart of self-esteem, life satisfaction, and dispositional optimism, and predisposes people to view life and experience from a positive point of view. The present research addresses the extent to which age, positivity and its abovementioned expressions may be associated with healthy functioning in old age. Fifty-one men and eighty-one women, all Spanish, predominantly middle-class and educated, in good health and ranging in age from 62 to 80, participated in this research project. The findings reveal the role positivity plays in moderating the negative impact of aging on health problems as assessed by availing of the Nottingham Health Profile. The higher the positivity, the less people seem inclined to report health problems as they advance in age. Self-esteem, life satisfaction, and optimism too show similar effects, but only the association between life satisfaction, health problems and aging were worth considering, once positivity was kept under control.

Suggested Citation

  • Mariagiovanna Caprara & Laura Giunta & Gian Vittorio Caprara, 2017. "Association of Positivity with Health Problems in Old Age: Preliminary Findings from Spanish Middle Class Seniors," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 1339-1358, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:18:y:2017:i:5:d:10.1007_s10902-016-9772-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-016-9772-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10902-016-9772-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-016-9772-7?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. Alonso, J. & Anto, J.M. & Moreno, C., 1990. "Spanish version of the Nottingham Health Profile: Translation and preliminary validity," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 80(6), pages 704-708.
    2. Robert Cummins & Helen Nistico, 2002. "Maintaining Life Satisfaction: The Role of Positive Cognitive Bias," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 37-69, March.
    3. Ed Diener & Christie Napa-Scollon & Shigehiro Oishi & Vivian Dzokoto & Eunkook Suh, 2000. "Positivity and the Construction of Life Satisfaction Judgments: Global Happiness is not the Sum of its Parts," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 159-176, June.
    4. Marco Lauriola & Luca Iani, 2015. "Does Positivity Mediate the Relation of Extraversion and Neuroticism with Subjective Happiness?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-16, March.
    5. Karen Siedlecki & Timothy Salthouse & Shigehiro Oishi & Sheena Jeswani, 2014. "The Relationship Between Social Support and Subjective Well-Being Across Age," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 561-576, June.
    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. Eriona Thartori & Concetta Pastorelli & Flavia Cirimele & Chiara Remondi & Maria Gerbino & Emanuele Basili & Ainzara Favini & Carolina Lunetti & Irene Fiasconaro & Gian Vittorio Caprara, 2021. "Exploring the Protective Function of Positivity and Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy in Time of Pandemic COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-19, December.
    2. Claudio Singh Solorzano & Maria Serena Panasiti & Alessandra Di Pucchio & Caterina Grano, 2022. "The Impact of Positivity and Parochial Altruism on Protective Behaviours during the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Italy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-11, August.
    3. Chiara Consiglio & Pietro Menatta & Laura Borgogni & Guido Alessandri & Lucia Valente & Gian Vittorio Caprara, 2021. "How Youth May Find Jobs: The Role of Positivity, Perceived Employability, and Support from Employment Agencies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-17, 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. Behera, Deepak Kumar & Rahut, Dil B & Padmaja, M & Dash, Ajit Kumar, 2024. "Socioeconomic determinants of happiness: Empirical evidence from developed and developing countries," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    2. Maria Carella & Thaís García-Pereiro & Roberta Pace, 2022. "Subjective Well-Being, Transnational Families and Social Integration of Married Immigrants in Italy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(2), pages 785-816, June.
    3. Lufanna Lai & Robert Cummins, 2013. "The Contribution of Job and Partner Satisfaction to the Homeostatic Defense of Subjective Wellbeing," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 111(1), pages 203-217, March.
    4. Nico Seifert, 2024. "The Effect of Loneliness on Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from the UK Household Longitudinal Study 2017–2021," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 19(4), pages 1-23, August.
    5. Matthias Lühr & Maria K. Pavlova & Maike Luhmann, 2022. "They are Doing Well, but is it by Doing Good? Pathways from Nonpolitical and Political Volunteering to Subjective Well-Being in Age Comparison," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 1969-1989, June.
    6. HangUk Cheon, 2021. "The Structural Relationship between Exercise Frequency, Social Health, and Happiness in Adolescents," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-14, January.
    7. Alessandra Martinelli & Giulia Moncalieri & Manuel Zamparini & Guido Alessandri & Gian Vittorio Caprara & Gianluca Castelnuovo & Matteo Rocchetti & Fabrizio Starace & Cristina Zarbo & Giovanni de Giro, 2024. "Positivity, daily time use, mood, and functioning in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: Results from the diapason multicentric study," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 70(2), pages 319-329, March.
    8. Jun Zhang & Yuang He & Jing Zhang, 2022. "Energy Poverty and Depression in Rural China: Evidence from the Quantile Regression Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-21, January.
    9. Laura Ponce de León & Jean Pierre Lévy Mangin & Soledad Ballesteros, 2020. "Psychosocial Determinants of Quality of Life and Active Aging. A Structural Equation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-10, August.
    10. Romina Boarini & Margherita Comola & Femke Keulenaer & Robert Manchin & Conal Smith, 2013. "Can Governments Boost People’s Sense of Well-Being? The Impact of Selected Labour Market and Health Policies on Life Satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(1), pages 105-120, October.
    11. Chia-Huei Wu & Ying-Mei Tsai & Lung Chen, 2009. "How do Positive Views Maintain Life Satisfaction?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 269-281, April.
    12. Chia-Huei Wu, 2009. "Enhancing quality of life by shifting importance perception among life domains," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 37-47, March.
    13. Gareth Davey & Ricardo Rato, 2012. "Subjective Wellbeing in China: A Review," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 333-346, April.
    14. Wilfred Uunk & Paula Hoffmann, 2023. "Do Personality Traits Moderate the Effects of Cohabitation, Separation, and Widowhood on Life Satisfaction? A Longitudinal Test for Germany," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 141-157, January.
    15. Groot, Wim & van den Brink, Henriette Maassen, 2007. "Optimism, pessimism and the compensating income variation of cardiovascular disease: A two-tiered quality of life stochastic frontier model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(7), pages 1479-1489, October.
    16. Alois Stutzer, 2008. "Bureaucratic Rents and Life Satisfaction," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 24(2), pages 476-488, October.
    17. Sri M. Setyawati & Yusmedi Nurfaizal & C. Dwiatmadja & Ade I. Anggraeni, 2019. "Creative Self-Efficacy: A New Approach to Social Support and Creativity of SMEs’ Owners," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(1), pages 64-75.
    18. Vittorio Pasquali & Cristina Mihaela Ghiciuc & Valeria Castellani & Gian Vittorio Caprara & Guido Alessandri & Raffaele D’Amelio & Vincenzo Ziparo & Fabio Scarinci & Francesca Romana Patacchioli, 2021. "Salivary Cortisol and α-Amylase Production at Awakening is Associated with Positivity (POS) Levels in Healthy Young Subjects," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 2165-2176, June.
    19. Nele Van Hecke & Claudia Claes & Wouter Vanderplasschen & Jessica De Maeyer & Nico De Witte & Stijn Vandevelde, 2018. "Conceptualisation and Measurement of Quality of Life Based on Schalock and Verdugo’s Model: A Cross-Disciplinary Review of the Literature," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 335-351, May.
    20. Ingrid Nielsen & Olga Paritski & Russell Smyth, 2010. "Subjective Well-Being of Beijing Taxi Drivers," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 11(6), pages 721-733, December.

    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:18:y:2017:i:5:d:10.1007_s10902-016-9772-7. 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.