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

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.