Predicting Life satisfaction in Spanish Adults of Advancing Age Attending University Educational Programs

Wellbeing is a major psychological construct in the social research tradition. The model of successful aging is one of the most well established models in the study of older people’s wellbeing. However, this model has been criticized, among other things, because it is based on the biomedical model and ignores an essential aspect of human beings, their spirituality. The aim of this study is to determine the predictive power of spirituality on life satisfaction, while controlling for the main components of successful aging. The sample consisted of 1016 people aged 55 years or older. A structural model with latent variables was specified and estimated using Mplus. The results revealed that, along with the traditional variables included in the successful aging model, spirituality is a relevant factor in adults of advancing age’s wellbeing and, specifically, their life satisfaction. The main conclusion is that the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction is the social component, although spirituality also plays a relevant role as an additional dimension in the successful aging paradigm.