Cargando…

Domain-specific life satisfaction among older adults with and without children: The role of intergenerational contact

BACKGROUND: Life satisfaction is associated with many important health outcomes among older adults and is an indicator of successful ageing. The present study aims to replicate earlier findings regarding relationships between satisfaction with various life domains and life satisfaction in older adul...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Doerwald, Friederike, Albrecht, Birte Marie, Stalling, Imke, Bammann, Karin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8457449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34550987
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257048
_version_ 1784571097598918656
author Doerwald, Friederike
Albrecht, Birte Marie
Stalling, Imke
Bammann, Karin
author_facet Doerwald, Friederike
Albrecht, Birte Marie
Stalling, Imke
Bammann, Karin
author_sort Doerwald, Friederike
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Life satisfaction is associated with many important health outcomes among older adults and is an indicator of successful ageing. The present study aims to replicate earlier findings regarding relationships between satisfaction with various life domains and life satisfaction in older adults. The study furthermore explores how parental status is associated with satisfaction with different life domains and how two types of intergenerational contact (contact with own children; post-retirement work in childcare) relate to life satisfaction. METHODS: Participants were 1978 older adults, aged 65–75 year (51.7% female), who live in Bremen and took part in the OUTDOOR ACTIVE study. 82.6% of the participants had one or more children. All participants completed a questionnaire, which among others comprised items assessing life satisfaction as well as satisfaction with six different life domains (satisfaction with living situation, financial situation, leisure time, health, family, neighbors and friends). RESULTS: LS is significantly related to all of the investigated life domains, independent of sex and age. For the participants with children, life satisfaction had the highest association with satisfaction with family (β: 0.202; 95%CI: 0.170–0.235), followed by satisfaction with neighbors and friends (β: 0.151; 95%CI: 0.111–0.191), and health satisfaction (β: 0.148; 95%CI: 0.120–0.176). In comparison to that, participants without children had the highest association between life satisfaction and satisfaction with health (β: 0.193; 95%CI: 0.135–0.252), followed by satisfaction with family (β: 0.175; 95%CI: 0.114–0.236) and satisfaction with neighbors and friends (β: 0.154; 95%CI: 0.077–0.232). In participants with children, there was a non-significant negative association between life satisfaction and work in childcare (β: -0.031; 95%CI: -0.178–0.116), while life satisfaction was statistically significantly positively associated to work in childcare in participants without own children (β: 0.681; 95%CI: 0.075–1.288). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the domain-specific approach to life satisfaction can elucidate differences in the correlates of life satisfaction and well-being between older adults with and without children. They further suggest that the benefits of working with children for life satisfaction may be more pronounced in older adults without children than older adults with children.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8457449
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-84574492021-09-23 Domain-specific life satisfaction among older adults with and without children: The role of intergenerational contact Doerwald, Friederike Albrecht, Birte Marie Stalling, Imke Bammann, Karin PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Life satisfaction is associated with many important health outcomes among older adults and is an indicator of successful ageing. The present study aims to replicate earlier findings regarding relationships between satisfaction with various life domains and life satisfaction in older adults. The study furthermore explores how parental status is associated with satisfaction with different life domains and how two types of intergenerational contact (contact with own children; post-retirement work in childcare) relate to life satisfaction. METHODS: Participants were 1978 older adults, aged 65–75 year (51.7% female), who live in Bremen and took part in the OUTDOOR ACTIVE study. 82.6% of the participants had one or more children. All participants completed a questionnaire, which among others comprised items assessing life satisfaction as well as satisfaction with six different life domains (satisfaction with living situation, financial situation, leisure time, health, family, neighbors and friends). RESULTS: LS is significantly related to all of the investigated life domains, independent of sex and age. For the participants with children, life satisfaction had the highest association with satisfaction with family (β: 0.202; 95%CI: 0.170–0.235), followed by satisfaction with neighbors and friends (β: 0.151; 95%CI: 0.111–0.191), and health satisfaction (β: 0.148; 95%CI: 0.120–0.176). In comparison to that, participants without children had the highest association between life satisfaction and satisfaction with health (β: 0.193; 95%CI: 0.135–0.252), followed by satisfaction with family (β: 0.175; 95%CI: 0.114–0.236) and satisfaction with neighbors and friends (β: 0.154; 95%CI: 0.077–0.232). In participants with children, there was a non-significant negative association between life satisfaction and work in childcare (β: -0.031; 95%CI: -0.178–0.116), while life satisfaction was statistically significantly positively associated to work in childcare in participants without own children (β: 0.681; 95%CI: 0.075–1.288). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the domain-specific approach to life satisfaction can elucidate differences in the correlates of life satisfaction and well-being between older adults with and without children. They further suggest that the benefits of working with children for life satisfaction may be more pronounced in older adults without children than older adults with children. Public Library of Science 2021-09-22 /pmc/articles/PMC8457449/ /pubmed/34550987 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257048 Text en © 2021 Doerwald et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Doerwald, Friederike
Albrecht, Birte Marie
Stalling, Imke
Bammann, Karin
Domain-specific life satisfaction among older adults with and without children: The role of intergenerational contact
title Domain-specific life satisfaction among older adults with and without children: The role of intergenerational contact
title_full Domain-specific life satisfaction among older adults with and without children: The role of intergenerational contact
title_fullStr Domain-specific life satisfaction among older adults with and without children: The role of intergenerational contact
title_full_unstemmed Domain-specific life satisfaction among older adults with and without children: The role of intergenerational contact
title_short Domain-specific life satisfaction among older adults with and without children: The role of intergenerational contact
title_sort domain-specific life satisfaction among older adults with and without children: the role of intergenerational contact
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8457449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34550987
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257048
work_keys_str_mv AT doerwaldfriederike domainspecificlifesatisfactionamongolderadultswithandwithoutchildrentheroleofintergenerationalcontact
AT albrechtbirtemarie domainspecificlifesatisfactionamongolderadultswithandwithoutchildrentheroleofintergenerationalcontact
AT stallingimke domainspecificlifesatisfactionamongolderadultswithandwithoutchildrentheroleofintergenerationalcontact
AT bammannkarin domainspecificlifesatisfactionamongolderadultswithandwithoutchildrentheroleofintergenerationalcontact