Subjective wellbeing of elderly people: social domain aspect

ENResearch on wellbeing provides new information about the human being. Recently the interest in this feld increased among academic researchers, policy makers, national statistical offces, the media and the public. Traditional view evaluating objective wellbeing was extended/supplemented by subjective wellbeing approach. It enabled to make a deeper analysis of wellbeing of social groups. This has also become an important research feld in Lithuania, though the tradition of subjective wellbeing is growing in momentum. The changes after the reestablishment of the independence of Lithuania challenged wellbeing differentiation in the society, which determined that some elderly people feel low wellbeing while others live normally. The interest in subjective wellbeing of elderly people in social sciences is quite new and mostly revealed in medicine, somewhat in gerontology, psychology. This view is rather limited and gives opportunities for social sciences to explore it. The growing number of elderly people in society makes challenges for their overall wellbeing. Being aware of what life domains affect their subjective wellbeing it can be easier to improve their lives. Considering wellbeing issues mentioned in the paper the object of this research was – interrelations between social domain and subjective wellbeing of elderly people. The aim of the research was to analyse social domain interrelations with subjective wellbeing of elderly people. The objectives of the research are as follows: to defne subjective wellbeing conception and its domains; to analyse social domain elements infuencing subjective wellbeing of elderly people; to explore the conclusions of the research. The defnition of subjective wellbeing originated in studies and researches from psychology science.Interdisciplinary interest in subjective wellbeing enforced various scientists who are concerned with the questions related to human entity, individual needs, value expression and other to focus on this feld of research. Subjective wellbeing defnition is linked with: recognition and individual’s emotional experiences that affect his/her life; personal experience of various situations, events when an individual undergoes happy or unhappy empathy and has to make a decision how to behave further; it is a socially determined construct comprising various aspects of real life which infuence each social group’s/individual’s wellbeing. The analysis of this conception showed that the measurement of subjective wellbeing should be based on separate individuals’ life domains: social, economic, political, cultural, environmental, personal. Accordingly the social domain interrelations with elderly people subjective wellbeing were analysed in this article. Empirical research of subjective wellbeing of elderly people was accomplished using the questionnaire method. The questionnaire was created using the examples of international wellbeing questionnaire researches that are implemented in various countries or within separate countries i.e. national, regional, local level wellbeing researches of countries. Most of the questions were focused on the actualisation of social domain with the aim to reveal the signifcance of social relations to the integration of elderly people, social problems and their connections with subjective wellbeing. The respondents were elderly people (retiring age people). Characteristics of social life domain and connections with subjective wellbeing of elderly people revealed that infuence of social life domain on wellbeing of elderly people is usually estimated in the context of social relations, social attendance/integration and social problems.The research of subjective wellbeing of elderly people giving attention to social domain aspect revealed miscellaneous results. It has been found out that family status performs an important part in wellbeing estimations of elderly people: married and not married people feel better wellbeing than widowed persons. According to socioeconomic characteristics better wellbeing is for those who live normally or good and worse who believe they are poor. The data about social relations showed that the communication with close environment improves the respondents’ wellbeing and elderly people feel necessary, important. This estimation of the feeling of necessity can be associated with elderly people’s qualities of activeness/passiveness. Family is important while solving individual care questions meanwhile state is a guarantee of fnancial resources. Analysing social domain elderly people evaluated how various fears infuence their wellbeing: the biggest fears are associated with breakdown of health, loss of relatives, loneliness. Since elderly people contact with different institutions, suitable implementation of functions of different institutions contribute not only to elderly people’s risk factors remission/elimination but to the rise of wellbeing as well. Summarizing it should be noted that the interrelations of social life domain with subjective wellbeing of elderly people have distinguished few results. The basis for better evaluation of subjective wellbeing is close social relations in the closest environment and ensuring of better integration to society in general. External environment is signifcant as well because it is associated with the satisfaction of various demands. In this case the integration to society while maintaining relations with various institutions is emphasized. [...] Keywords: wellbeing, subjective wellbeing, elderly people, social domain. [From the publication]

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