Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T11:47:21.825Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Direct and indirect influences of socio-economic position on the wellbeing of older adults: a Structural Equation Model using data from the first wave of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2016

JONATHAN PRATSCHKE ,
TRUTZ HAASE  and
KIERAN McKEOWN
JONATHAN PRATSCHKE*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Salerno, Italy.
TRUTZ HAASE
Affiliation:
Social and Economic Consultant, Ireland.
KIERAN McKEOWN
Affiliation:
Social and Economic Research Consultant, Ireland.
*
Address for correspondence: Jonathan Pratschke, Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, 84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy E-mail: jpratschke@unisa.it
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The authors use Structural Equation Modelling techniques to analyse the determinants of wellbeing amongst older adults using data from the first wave of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), a rich source of data on people aged over 50 and living in private households. The analysis uses a two-group linear statistical model to explore the influence of socio-economic position on the wellbeing of men and women, with Full Information Maximum Likelihood estimation to handle missing data. The fit indices for the final model are highly satisfactory and the measurement structure is invariant by gender and age. The results indicate that socio-economic position has a significant direct influence on wellbeing and a strong indirect influence which is mediated by health status and lifestyle. The total standardised effect of Socio-economic Position on Socio-emotional Wellbeing is statistically significant (p ⩽ 0.05) and equal to 0.32 (men) and 0.43 (women), a very strong influence which risks being underestimated in standard multivariate models. The authors conclude that health, cognitive functioning and wellbeing reflect not just the ageing process, but also the impact of social inequalities across the lifecourse and how they are transmitted across different life spheres. These results can help to orient future research on factors which mediate between socio-economic position and wellbeing, an important policy-related issue.

Keywords

wellbeinghealtholder adultssocio-economic positionIreland
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 37 , Issue 9 , October 2017 , pp. 1770 - 1797
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott, R. A., Ploubidis, G. B., Huppert, F. A., Kuh, D. Wadsworth, M. E. J. and Croudace, T. J. 2006. Psychometric evaluation and predictive validity of Ryff's psychological well-being items in a UK birth cohort sample of women. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, Published online, 4 October, doi: 10.1186/1477-7525-4-76.Google Scholar
Ayres, S. and Cracknell, R. 2015. Pensions: International Comparisons. House of Commons Library, Standard Note SN/SGS/00290. Available online at http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN00290/SN00290.pdf [Accessed 28 January 2016].Google Scholar
Baker, L. A., Cahalin, L. P., Gerst, K. and Burr, J. A. 2005. Productive activities and subjective well-being among older adults: the influence of number of activities and time commitment. Social Indicators Research, 73, 3, 431–58.Google Scholar
Baltes, P. B. and Mayer, K. U. 1999. The Berlin Ageing Study: Ageing from 70 to 100. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Barrett, A., Savva, G., Timonen, V. and Kenny, R. A. (eds) 2011. Fifty Plus in Ireland 2011: First Results from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, Dublin.Google Scholar
Beekman, A. T. F., Deeg, D. J. H. Braam, A. W. Smit, J. H. and Van Tilburg, W. 1997. Consequences of major and minor depression in later life: a study of disability, well-being and service utilization. Psychological Medicine, 27, 6, 1397–409.Google Scholar
Bentler, P. M. 2006. EQS 6 Structural Equations Program Manual. Multivariate Software, Encino, California.Google Scholar
Bowling, A. 2005. Ageing Well: Quality of Life in Old Age. Open University Press, Maidenhead, UK.Google Scholar
Burns, R. A. and Machin, M. A. 2009. Investigating the structural validity of Ryff's psychological well-being scales across two samples. Social Indicators Research, 93, 2, 359–75.Google Scholar
Craig, C. L., Marshall, A. L., Sjöström, M., Bauman, A. E., Booth, M. L., Ainsworth, B. E., Pratt, M., Ekelund, U., Yngve, A., Sallis, J. F. and Oja, P. 2003. International physical activity questionnaire: 12-country reliability and validity. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 35, 8, 1381–95.Google Scholar
Cramm, J. M., van Dijk, H. M. and Nieboer, A. P. 2012. The importance of neighborhood social cohesion and social capital for the well being of older adults in the community. The Gerontologist, 53, 1, 142–52.Google Scholar
Dean, A., Kolody, B., Wood, P. and Matt, G. E. 1992. The influence of living alone on depression in elderly persons. Journal of Ageing and Health, 4, 1, 3–18.Google Scholar
Enders, C. K. 2001. A primer on maximum likelihood algorithms available for use with missing data. Structural Equation Modeling, 8, 1, 128–41.Google Scholar
Ewing, J. 1984. Detecting alcoholism. The CAGE questionnaire. Journal of the American Medical Association, 252, 14, 1905–7.Google Scholar
Fan, X., Thompson, B. and Wang, L. 1999. Effects of sample size, estimation methods and model specification on structural equation modeling fit indices. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1, 56–83.Google Scholar
Folstein, M. F., Folstein, S. E. and McHugh, P. R. 1975. ‘Mini-Mental State’: a practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 3, 189–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garatachea, N., Molinero, O., Martínez-García, R., Jiménez-Jiménez, R., González-Gallego, J. and Márquez, S. 2009. Feelings of well being in elderly people: Relationship to physical activity and physical function. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 48, 306–312.Google Scholar
George, L. K. 2010. Still happy after all these years: research frontiers on subjective well-being in later life. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 65B, 3, 331–9.Google Scholar
Giles, L. C., Glonek, G. F. V., Luszcz, M. A. and Andrews, G. R. 2005. Effect of social networks on 10 year survival in very old Australians: the Australian Longitudinal Study of Aging. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 59, 7, 574–9.Google Scholar
Gilleard, C., Hyde, M. and Higgs, P. 2007. The impact of age, place, aging in place and attachment to place on the well-being of the over 50s in England. Research on Aging, 29, 6, 590–605.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez, M., Tomás, J. M., Galiana, L., Sancho, P. and Cebrià, M. A. 2013. Predicting life satisfaction of the Angolan elderly: a structural model. Aging & Mental Health, 17, 1, 94–101.Google Scholar
Hellevik, O. 2007. Linear versus logistic regression when the dependent variable is a dichotomy. Quality and Quantity, 43, 1, 59–74.Google Scholar
House, J. S., Lantz, P. M. and Herd, P. 2005. Continuity and change in the social stratification of aging and health over the life course: evidence from a nationally representative longitudinal study from 1986 to 2001/2002. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 60B, special issue 2, S15–26.Google Scholar
Hu, L. and Bentler, P. M. 1999. Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6, 1, 1–55.Google Scholar
Hyde, M., Wiggins, R. D., Higgs, P. and Blane, D. B. 2003. A measure of quality of life in early old age: the theory, development and properties of a needs satisfaction model (CASP-19). Aging and Mental Health, 7, 3, 186–94.Google Scholar
Kearney, P. M., Cronin, H., O’Regan, C., Kamiya, Y., Whelan, B. J. and Kenny, R. A. 2010. Comparison of centre and home-based health assessments: early experience from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). Age and Ageing, 40, 1, 85–90.Google Scholar
Kearney, P. M., Cronin, H., O’Regan, C., Kamiya, Y., Savva, G. M., Whelan, B. and Kenny, R. 2011. Cohort profile: the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. International Journal of Epidemiology, 40, 4, 877–884.Google Scholar
Kendig, C., Browning, J. and Young, A. 2000. Impacts of illness and disability on the well-being of older people. Disability and Rehabilitation, 22, 1/2, 15–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kenny, R. A., Whelan, B. J., Cronin, H., Kamiya, Y., Kearney, P., O'Regan, C., Ziegel, M., Barrett, A., Finucane, C. and Timonen, V. 2010. The Design of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. Trinity College Dublin, Dublin.Google Scholar
Kunzmann, U., Little, T. D. and Smith, J. 2000. Is age-related stability of subjective wellbeing a paradox? Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from the Berlin Aging Study. Psychology and Aging, 15, 3, 511–26.Google Scholar
Lampinen, P., Heikkinen, R.-L., Kauppinen, M. and Heikkinen, E. 2006. Activity as a predictor of mental well-being among older adults. Aging and Mental Health, 10, 5, 454–66.Google Scholar
Lawton, M. and Brody, E. 1969. Assessment of older people: self-maintaining and instrumental activities of daily living. Gerontologist, 9, 3 (Part 1), 179–86.Google Scholar
Layte, R., Sexton, E. and Savva, G. 2013. Quality of life in older age: evidence from an Irish cohort study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 61, Suppl 2, S299–S305.Google Scholar
Lee, G. R. and Ishii-Kuntz, M. 1987. Social interaction, loneliness and emotional well-being among the elderly. Research on Aging, 9, 4, 459–82.Google Scholar
Litwin, H. and Shiovitz-Ezra, S. 2010. Social network type and subjective well-being in a national sample of older Americans. The Gerontologist, 51, 3, 379–88.Google Scholar
Loehlin, J. 1992. Latent Variable Models: An Introduction to Factor, Path and Structural Analysis. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Mor-Barak, M. E. and Miller, L. S. 1991. A longitudinal study of the causal relationship between social networks and health of the poor frail elderly. Journal of Applied Gerontology: The Official Journal of the Southern Gerontological Society, 10, 3, 293–310.Google Scholar
Morrow-Howell, N., Hinterlong, J., Rozario, P. A. and Tang, F. 2003. Effects of volunteering on the well-being of older adults. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58B, 3, S137–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nasreddine, Z. S., Phillips, N. A., Bédirian, V., Charbonneau, S., Whitehead, V., Collin, I., Cummings, J. L. and Chertkow, H. 2005. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment, MoCA: a brief screening tool for mild cognitive impairment. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 53, 4, 695–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okun, M. A. and Stock, W. A. 1987. Correlates and components of subjective well-being among the elderly. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 6, 1, 95–112.Google Scholar
Pinquart, M. and Sorensen, S. 2000. Influences of socioeconomic status, social network and competence on subjective well-being in later life: a meta-analysis. Psychology and Aging, 15, 2, 187–224.Google Scholar
Podsiadlo, D. and Richardson, S. 1991. The timed ‘up and go’: a test of basic functional mobility for frail elderly persons. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 39, 2, 142–8.Google Scholar
Radloff, L. S. 1977. The CES-D Scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 3, 385–401.Google Scholar
Raykov, T. 1997. Estimation of composite reliability for congeneric measures. Applied Psychological Measurement, 21, 2, 173–84.Google Scholar
Raykov, T. and Marcoulides, G. A. 2006. A First Course in Structural Equation Modeling. Psychology Press, New York.Google Scholar
Read, S., Grundy, E. and Foverskov, E. 2015. Socio-economic position and subjective health and well-being among older people in Europe: a systematic narrative review. Aging and Mental Health. Published online 25 March, doi:10.1080/13607863.2015.1023766.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roth, M., Tym, E., Mountjoy, C. Q., Huppert, F. A., Hendrie, H., Verma, S. and Goddard, R. 1986. CAMDEX: a standardised instrument for the diagnosis of mental disorder in the elderly with special reference to the early detection of dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 6, 698–709.Google Scholar
Russell, D. W. 1996. UCLA Loneliness Scale (version 3): reliability, validity and factor structure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 66, 1, 20–40.Google Scholar
Ryff, C. D. and Keyes, C. L. M. 1995. The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 4, 719–27.Google Scholar
Schwingel, A., Niti, M. M., Tang, C. and Ng, T. P. 2009. Continued work employment and volunteerism and mental well-being of older adults: Singapore longitudinal ageing studies. Age and Ageing, 38, 5, 531–7.Google Scholar
Shen, S. M. and Lai, Y. L. 1998. Optimally scaled quality-of-life indicators. Social Indicators Research, 44, 2, 225–54.Google Scholar
Silverstein, M. and Parker, M. G. 2002. Leisure activities and quality of life among the oldest old in Sweden. Research on Aging, 24, 5, 528–47.Google Scholar
Slocum-Gori, S. L., Zumbo, B. D., Michalos, A. C. and Diener, E. 2009. A note on the dimensionality of quality of life scales: an illustration with the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). Social Indicators Research, 92, 3, 489–96.Google Scholar
Springer, K. W., Pudrovska, T. and Hauser, R. M. 2011. Does psychological well-being change with age? Longitudinal tests of age variations and further exploration of the multidimensionality of Ryff's model of psychological well-being. Social Science Research, 40, 1, 392–98.Google Scholar
Tomás, J. M., Sancho, P., Galiana, L. and Oliver, A. 2015. A double test on the importance of spirituality, the ‘forgotten factor’, in successful aging. Social Indicators Research. Published online, 26 June, doi:10.1007/s11205-015-1014-6.Google Scholar
Verbrugge, L. M. and Jette, A. M. 1994. The disablement process. Social Science & Medicine, 38, 1, 1–14.Google Scholar
Waddell, E. L. and Jacobs-Lawson, J. M. 2010. Predicting positive well-being in older men and women. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 70, 3, 181–97.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, R. G. 1996. Unhealthy Societies: The Afflictions of Inequality. Routledge, London.Google Scholar