Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T12:32:15.027Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The economic recession and subjective well-being in older adults in the Republic of Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2016

R. M. Duffy ,
K. Mullin ,
S. O’Dwyer ,
M. Wrigley  and
B. D. Kelly
R. M. Duffy
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, St James Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
K. Mullin
Affiliation:
Mental Health Services for Older Adults, Middlemore Hospital, Otahuhu, New Zealand
S. O’Dwyer
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, St James Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
M. Wrigley
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry of Old Age, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
B. D. Kelly*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
*
*Address for correspondence: B. D. Kelly, Department of Psychiatry, Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Tallaght Hospital, Dublin 24, Ireland. (Email: brendan.kelly@tcd.ie)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objective

Subjective well-being in older people is strongly associated with emotional, physical and mental health. This study investigates subjective well-being in older adults in Ireland before and after the economic recession that commenced in 2008.

Methods

Cross-sectional data from the biennial European Social Survey (2002–2012) were analysed for two separate groups of older adults: one sampled before the recession and one after. Stratification and linear regression modelling were used to analyse the association between subjective well-being, the recession and multiple potential confounders and effect modifiers.

Results

Data were analysed on 2013 individuals. Overall, subjective well-being among older adults was 1.30 points lower after the recession compared with before the recession (s.e. 0.16; 95% confidence interval 1.00–1.61; p<0.001) [pre-recession: 16.1, out of a possible 20 (s.d. 3.24); post-recession:14.8 (s.d. 3.72)]. Among these older adults, the pre- and post-recession difference was especially marked in women, those with poor health and those living in urban areas.

Conclusions

Subjective well-being was significantly lower in older adults after the recession compared with before the recession, especially in women with poor health in urban areas. Policy-makers need proactively to protect these vulnerable cohorts in future health and social policy. Future research could usefully focus on older people on fixed incomes whose diminished ability to alter their economic situation might make them more vulnerable to reduced subjective well-being during a recession.

Keywords

Agedeconomic recessionIrelandmental healthsubjective well-being
Type
Original Research
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 99 - 104
Copyright
© College of Psychiatrists of Ireland 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

Chida, Y, Steptoe, A (2008). Positive psychological well-being and mortality: a quantitative review of prospective observational studies. Psychosomatic Medicine 70, 741–756.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diener, E (2000). Subjective well-being. The science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. The American Psychologist 55, 34–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diener, E (2012). New findings and future directions for subjective well-being research. The American Psychologist 67, 590–597.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diener, E, Chan, MY (2011). Happy people live longer: subjective well-being contributes to health and longevity. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being 3, 1–43.Google Scholar
Diener, E, Oishi, S, Lucas, RE (2002). Subjective well-being: the science of happiness and life satisfaction. In Handbook of Positive Psychology (ed. C. R. Snyder and S. J. Lopez), pp. 63–73. Oxford University Press: Oxford and New York.Google Scholar
Doherty, A, Kelly, BD (2013). When Irish eyes are smiling: income and happiness in Ireland. Irish Journal Medical Science 182, 113–119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
European Social Survey (ESS) (2012). Sampling for the European Social Survey Round VI: Principles. European Social Survey, GESIS: Mannheim.Google Scholar
Ganninger, M (2007). Weighting in the ESS Cumulative Data Set: How to (Final Version). European Social Survey: Mannheim.Google Scholar
George, LK (2010). Still happy after all these years: research frontiers on subjective well-being in later life. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences 65B, 331–339.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hillyard, P, Lundström, F, Patsios, D, Machniewski, S, Taylor, D, Lyons, M (2010). Inequalities in Old Age: An Exploratory Study of the Impact of the Recession on Older People in Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (RoI). Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (CARDI): Belfast.Google Scholar
Howell, RT, Howell, CJ (2008). The relation of economic status to subjective well-being in developing countries: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin 134, 536–560.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Howell, RT, Kern, ML, Lyubomirsky, S (2007). Health benefits: meta-analytically determining the impact of well-being on objective health outcomes. Health Psychology Review 1, 83–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huppert, FA, So, TT (2013). Flourishing across Europe: application of a new conceptual framework for defining well-being. Social Indicators Research 110, 837–861.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jowell, R, Central the Co-ordinating Team (2003). European Social Survey 2002/2003. Technical Report, City University, London.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D, Krueger, AB, Schkade, D, Schwarz, N, Stone, AA (2006). Would you be happier if you were richer? A focusing illusion. Science 312, 1908–1910.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, H, Kim, K, Shin, DC (1982). Perceptions of quality of life in an industrializing country: the case of the republic of Korea. Social Indicators Research 10, 297–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, B, Floud, S, Pirie, K, Green, J, Peto, R, Beral, V, (for the Million Women Study Collaborators) (2016). Does happiness itself directly affect mortality? The prospective UK Million Women Study. Lancet 387, 874–881.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lyubomirsky, S, King, LA, Diener, E (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin 131, 803–855.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ní Mhaoláin, A, Gallagher, D, O Connell, H, Chin, A, Bruce, I, Hamilton, F, Teehee, E, Coen, R, Coakley, D, Cunningham, C, Walsh, J, Lawlor, B (2012). Subjective well-being amongst community-dwelling elders: what determines satisfaction with life? Findings from the Dublin Healthy Aging Study. International Psychogeriatrics 24, 316–323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O’Toole, F (2009). Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corruption Sank the Celtic Tiger. Faber and Faber: London.Google Scholar
Sacks, DW, Stevenson, B, Wolfers, J (2012). The new stylized facts about income and subjective well-being. Emotion 12, 1181–1187.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steptoe, A, Deaton, A, Stone, AA (2015). Subjective wellbeing, health and ageing. Lancet 385, 640–648.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Suhail, K, Chaudhry, HR (2004). Predictors of subjective well-being in an Eastern Muslim culture. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 23, 359–376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taborda, J (2014). Ireland: unemployment rate, report, 6 May. Central Statistics Office of Ireland, Dublin.Google Scholar
Van Hal, G (2015). The true cost of the economic crisis on psychological well-being: a review. Psychology Research and Behavior Management 8, 17–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wahlbeck, K, McDaid, D (2012). Actions to alleviate the mental health impact of the economic crisis. World Psychiatry 11, 139–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watson, D, Pichler, F, Wallace, C (2010). Second European Quality of Life Survey. Subjective Well-Being in Europe. Eurofound: Brussels.Google Scholar
Whelan, EJ (2009). Being old in Ireland: a fit state? Irish Medical Journal 102, 220–223.Google ScholarPubMed