Gender, Age and Subjective Well-Being: Towards Personalized Persuasive Health Interventions

Abstract

(1) Background: Subjective well-being (SWB) is an individual’s judgment about their overall well-being. Research has shown that high subjective well-being contributes to overall health. SWB consists of both Affective and Cognitive dimensions. Existing studies on SWB are limited in two major ways: first, they focused mainly on the Affective dimension. Second, most existing studies are focused on individuals from the Western and Asian nations; (2) Methods: To resolve these weaknesses and contribute to research on personalizing persuasive health interventions to promote SWB, we conducted a large-scale study of 732 participants from Nigeria to investigate what factors affect their SWB using both the Affective and Cognitive dimensions and how distinct SWB components relates to different gender and age group. We employed the Structural Equation Model (SEM) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to develop models showing how gender and age relate to the distinct components of SWB; (3) Results: Our study reveals significant differences between gender and age groups. Males are more associated with social well-being and satisfaction with life components while females are more associated with emotional well-being. As regards age, younger adults (under 24) are more associated with social well-being and happiness while older adults (over 65) are more associated with psychological well-being, emotional well-being, and satisfaction with life. (4) Conclusions: The results could inform designers of the appropriate SWB components to target when personalizing persuasive health interventions to promote overall well-being for people belonging to various gender and age groups. We offer design guidelines for tailoring persuasive intervention to increase SWB based on an individual’s age and gender group. Finally, we map SWB components to possible persuasive technology design strategies that can be employed to implement them in persuasive interventions design.

Gender and Age Factors in Subjective Wellbeing and Quality of Life Among College Students

“…Moreover, educational institutions should provide a wide space for students to become creative both in academic and non-academic fields via intracampus organizations that directly support social relations (Undip Chancellor Regulation Number 4, 2014). In contrast, late adults tend to perceive psychological well-being and life satisfaction through activities like spiritual values enhancements (Abdullahi et al, 2019).…”

“…In college students, the age influence is apparent perhaps because they are young adult individuals who tend to actively perceive well-beings in social relationships, as shown through numerous organizational activities, habits to hangout, and relationships building (Abdullahi et al, 2019). Moreover, educational institutions should provide a wide space for students to become creative both in academic and non-academic fields via intracampus organizations that directly support social relations (Undip Chancellor Regulation Number 4, 2014).…”

“…On this basis, interventions need to be tailored to age and gender groups. Abdullahi et al (2019) introduced a persuasive health intervention to upgrade SWB with adjustments based on age and gender groups.…”

“…College students experience transitions between adolescence and adulthood, where new biological, social, and psychological factors simultaneously emerge, interact, and render them vulnerable to negative impacts on their long-term health and survivals (Aucott et al, 2014). Interventions adjusted on the basis of age and gender are considered more sensitive and more successful to bring positive effects related to achieving program objectives (Abdullahi et al, 2019). Therefore, exploring the compositional roles of age and sex in SWB and QOL in college students should be the basis of any appropriate interventions recommended for their conditions.…”

Co-curricular activities and subjective well-being among university students

“…Research evidence revealed gender differences in subjective well-being. For instance, Abdullahi et al (2019) carried out a large-scale study of 732 respondents in Nigeria and presented a significant gender difference in subjective well-being. Findings of this study showed that females are more connected to emotional well-being, whereas males are more connected to satisfaction with life and social well-being.…”