Gender differences of social interactions and their effects on subjective well-being among Japanese elders.

Objectives: Gender differences of social interactions and their effects on subjective well-being among Japanese elders over three years were examined.

Methods: Repeated measurements of 498 elders over a three-year survey interval were obtained from a baseline mail survey and two- and three-year follow-up surveys. Outcomes were analyzed using Hierarchical Linear Modeling.

Results: Male elders were more likely to have a spouse and work at paid jobs, while female elders were likely to have more frequent contacts with their child/children and more interactions with friends. As the elders aged over three years, life satisfaction decreased, while depression did not show any significant overall trend. There were no beneficial effects of social interactions on change in well-being, although social participation, interaction with friends, and conversation with spouse were beneficially related to baseline levels of both depressive tendency and life satisfaction. Among female elders only, the number of children had beneficial effects on life satisfaction.

Conclusions: There are modest gender differences of the impact of social interactions on the well-being of Japanese elders, and the number of children seems to be more important as potential sources of support for female rather than male elders. Spousal conversation and non-obligatory social interaction such as unpaid social activities and friendship seem to be important for both male and female elders in Japan. These findings suggest that social relations among Japanese elders may be moving away from more gender dependent patterns seen in the past.