Activity, social network and well-being: An empirical examination

H. Litwin*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

A study of older adults in Israel (n = 170) examined the relationship of activity level and social network characteristics to respondents' subjective well-being, controlling for background socio-demographic characteristics and extent of physical disability. Factor analysis derived three activity factors corresponding to formal, informal and solitary activity. A hierarchical regression procedure revealed that physical disability accounted for 40 per cent of the variance in the well-being measure. Extent of informal activity explained another 3 per cent of the variance, but was outweighed in the final model by the addition of a social network factor - degree of network supportiveness (R2 = .48). The findings suggest that it is the social network aspect of activity that makes a difference in older persons' subjective well-being, rather than the effect of activity per se.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)343-362
Number of pages20
JournalCanadian Journal on Aging
Volume19
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2000

Keywords

  • Activity
  • Disability
  • Israel
  • Social Network
  • Subjective Well-Being

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