Psychological well-being is seen as a protective factor when facing adverse life events. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most dangerous challenges that has put humanity to the test. In this context, present study aimed to investigate in a comparative plan the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the Greek and Bulgarian older adults' perceptions of psychological well-being and distress. A total of 180 older adults, 90 Greeks (45 men) and 90 Bulgarians (45 men), aged 60-89 years, were studied by means of the Heubeck and Neill’s inventory questionnaire (Heubeck & Neill, 2000). The results revealed insignificantly higher levels of psychological well-being and distress among the Bulgarian sample in comparison to the Greek sample, with the differences between Greek and Bulgarian women regarding psychological well-being being more pronounced and statistically significant.
With the aim to explore how demographic factors impact a subject’s life purpose and meaning and life satisfaction nowadays, especially among Greek elderly population, 272 individuals, aged 60-89 years were studied with Purpose in Life test (PIL Test – Crumbaugh & Maholick, 1964) and Satisfaction with Life scale (SWLS – Diener, 1984). The total sample was regrouped three times according to the participants’ gender (male and female), age (60-74 elderly and 75–89-year-old), and level of education (primary, secondary, and higher education), and the results of the groups were compared. Our findings showed that level of education, but not gender and age, was related to individual differences in subjective perception of both life purpose and meaning and life satisfaction. We found that 60–89-year-old with higher education demonstrated significantly higher level of meaning and purpose of life and higher satisfaction of life in comparison to 60–89-year-olds with primary or secondary education.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.