Some factors said to make for happiness in old age

Abstract

PROBLEM Books and articles of both a popular and scientific nature mention seven factors said to be important in achieving happiness in old age. The factors are: Good health, financial security, hobbies and interests, friends and acquaintances, living with one's spouse, age, and sex.Under the auspices of the Florida State Improvement Commission surveys are being made of the older members of certain Florida communities. As a part of this survey the present writer and other trained interviewers went to St. Cloud and , Winter Park, Florida. These two towns were studied because census data had shown that high concentrations of people above the age of 60 were to be found there. The controlled, systematic fashion of gathering data in these communities, as well as a broad picture of the senior residents, has been presented by Aldridge(1) and Granick@). The data gathered in these surveys has been reexamined in order to investigate the relative importance of the seven factors said to make for happiness in old age. PROCEDURE One of the questions used for systematic data gathering read, "How do you feel about your life now as compared with your life before age 60?" Of the 383 people who replied t o this question, 81 thought of themselves as being happier, while 73 were less happy than they were before the age of 60. Those who replied they felt "about the same" were not included in the present study.By determining the significance of the difference between percentages of the happier and the less happy people in the two communities, it was found that neither community had a significantly higher group of happy or unhappy people. This indicated that personal rather than community differences would account for happiness and unhappiness in old age.Data pertinent to the seven factors under consideration were extracted from IBM cards representing the material collected in the two communities. The significance of the differences between the information supplied by both groups was determined. Differences a t the five per cent level of confidence and below were regarded as significant. THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD HEALTH IN OLD AGEIt was found that the happier old people rated their health as either good or excellent while the unhappier ones reported their health as being either poor or very poor. The reliability of this difference in feeling about general health was significant a t better than the .05 level of confidence. The happier old people also reported having no serious health problems a significantly greater number of times (at better than the .05 level) than did the unhappy ones. When asked how many times they visited a doctor during the year, a significantly higher precentage (at better than the .05 level) of the happier people replied they had not visited a doctor since the beginning of the year. The unhappy people reported one or more visits to the doctor for the same period of time. However, it is interesting to notice that there was no significant difference found between the number of days subjects in either group had been to...

The Role of Social Participation in Postseparation and Postdivorce Adjustment

“…Journal of Diuorce participation (activities) and life satisfaction or personal adjustment (Burgess, 1954;Kutner, 1962;Lebo, 1953;Reichard, Livson, & Peterson, 1962;Tobin & Neugarten, 1961).…”

Does Consumer Well‐Being Affect Hedonic Consumption?

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Disengagement of older people in an urban setting

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