Closeness and emotional valence of social interactions and subjective happiness of elderly people

Abstract

The relationship between emotional valence of social interactions and subjective happiness (SH) of elderly groups was investigated based on the convoy model in young adults (n=30), early-elderly (n=30), and late-elderly (n=29) groups. Results of a simple correlation analysis indicated a positive correlation between mean closeness scores and SH Scale scores in young adults and a positive correlation between mean emotional valence and SH Scale scores in early-elderly and late-elderly people. Moreover, multiple regression analysis was conducted by adding variables: health status scale score, the rate of relatives living together, the number of interactions, the mean frequency of the interactions per month, the rate of the same sex, which indicated that the significant correlation coefficient between mean closeness scores and SH scale scores disappeared, and that the number of interactions predicted SH in the young adult group. Furthermore, SH in the early-elderly and late-elderly groups was predicted by the mean emotional valence score. Results of this study suggested that selecting interactions with others with positive emotions was necessary for SH in elderly people, which supported the socioemotional selectivity theory.

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