AI Article Synopsis
- The study explored the relationship between life satisfaction (LS) and physical health in older adults over an 8-year period, focusing on whether LS causes better health or vice versa.
- The research involved 899 participants aged 64 to 97, using sophisticated statistical models to analyze both cross-lagged and simultaneous effects of health and LS.
- Findings revealed that poor health led to lower life satisfaction, but higher life satisfaction did not predict better health, supporting the idea that health influences well-being rather than the other way around.
Article Abstract
Objective: The emergence of positive psychology propelled scientific interest in the causal relationships between subjective well-being (SWB; e.g., happiness, life satisfaction [LS], positive affect) and physical health. However, it is becoming a controversial topic. Indeed, dependent on approach, LS is either considered a cause (top-down) or an effect (bottom-up). The aim of the present study was to investigate both cross-lagged and simultaneous effects between LS (as an enduring component of SWB) and physical health (as measured by self-perceived health and self-reported diseases), using 8-year longitudinal data from a sample of older adults.
Method: The study included 899 participants aged 64 to 97 years and assessed 5 times over an 8-year period. Cross-lagged and simultaneous models were specified and estimated using structural equation modeling.
Results: Both cross-lagged and simultaneous coefficients indicated that poor health significantly predicted subsequent levels of life dissatisfaction, but LS did not predict subsequent levels of health.
Conclusions: These findings contradict, at least in our older sample, the postulates of positive psychology, and support the bottom-up approach to well-being as well as the popular adage, "As long as you've got your health."
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0031656 | DOI Listing |
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