Exploring Subjective Well-being in Older Age by Using Participant-generated Word Clouds

Linden Douma · Nardi Steverink · Inge Hutter · Louise Meijering

67 citations0/0 files storedThe Gerontologist

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Aging and Gerontology Research Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction Aging, Health, and Disability

Abstract

Purpose of the study: Previous research has overlooked the heterogeneity in older adults' personal conceptions of subjective well-being (SWB), by not taking into account intradomain differences in the conceptions of SWB for different groups of older adults. The aim of this article is therefore to explore (a) older adults' own views on which aspects, categorized under domains, are important to their SWB and (b) which domains and aspects are important to older adults in different contexts and with different characteristics: to men and women, of different ages, and in different housing arrangements. Design and methods: Sixty-six older adults (aged 65 and older) participated in our study. We asked the participants to freely nominate aspects of SWB that are important to them, using participant-generated word clouds as our exploratory, qualitative data collection method. The data were analyzed using qualitative inductive content analysis. Results: We found 15 domains based on our participants' conceptions of SWB. The multidimensional domains of social life, activities, health, and space and place were most important to our participants. The domains and aspects were defined and prioritized differently by different groups of participants. Implications: SWB should be studied as a multidimensional, individualized, and contextualized process to generate meaningful empirical information for researchers and policymakers.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 67 citations exist upstream.

References

1985Naturalistic inquiry 2005Three Approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis 1998Basics of qualitative research : techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory 2008The qualitative content analysis process 2001On Happiness and Human Potentials: A Review of Research on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being 1990Psychological perspectives on successful aging: The model of selective optimization with compensation 2011Report by the commission on the measurement of economic performance and social progress 1992Social and emotional patterns in adulthood: Support for socioemotional selectivity theory.

Cited by

2016A Social Model of Loneliness: The Roles of Disability, Social Resources, and Cognitive Impairment 2019A Closer Look at Loneliness: Why Do First-Generation Migrants Feel More Lonely Than Their Native Dutch Counterparts?2018Determinants of multidimensional mental wellbeing in the oldest old: a rapid review 2021Human resources management and corporate governance: Integration perspectives and future directions 2019Views of older people in the Netherlands on wellbeing: A Q-methodology study

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.