The Subjective Well-being of the Elderly and Its Influential Factors

To explore the influence of personality and other variables on the subjective well-being of the elderly. Methods:A total of 346 urban elderly was sampled. The indices of subjective well-being were positive affection, negative affection and general life satisfaction. Influential factors were about general variables, personality, family, work, retirement, housing, health, income, interests and activities, totally 9 domains. Results:(1) In multi-variable stepwise regression analysis, the β values of the extraversion on the positive, negative affections were 0.3845 and -0.1975 separately, and the β values of the neroticism on the positive affection, negative affection and total life satisfaction were -0.1358, 0.6260 and -0.2320 separately. (2) Other than personality, marriage quality(β=0.1821), interests(β=0.1271) and worry about children(β=-0.1042) had independent effects on positive affection, and sex(β=-0.1722), education(β=-0.1218), retirement stress (β=0.1049) and intersts (β=-0.1027) on negative affection, and marriage quality (β=0.3722), work stress (β=-0.2379), residence envionment (β=0.1857) and income (β=0.1346) on satisfaction. Conclusion: Personality was the most powerful influential factor on the subjective well-being of the elderly, different dimension of personality had different effects on distinguished aspects of well-being, and many factors exert their effects on well-being through personality.