Family and social networks, subjective well-being and loneliness among older adults in Poland

Main Article Content

Anita Abramowska-Kmon
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9039-1989
Sylwia Timoszuk
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3486-841X

Abstract

The main aim of the paper was the investigation of the relationship between family situation and subjective wellbeing and loneliness among people aged 65 years and more in Poland. For purposes of our analysis we used the 6th wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) carried out in 2015. We employed linear regression and ordered probit models. Our results showed that unpartnered older adults, especially men, were less satisfied with life and more lonely than partnered individuals. Also, the quality of relationship between partners, expressed here by the presence of a spouse in SN seems to be important as well. Older adults who listed a spouse in SN felt less lonely than the others, and those married who did not have a partner in SN were less satisfied with life. Aged individuals having children had higher subjective wellbeing than the childless, although this result was insignificant. The presence of children in SN contributed to a lower life satisfaction and an increased loneliness level (especially for women). Furthermore, the association between having siblings and wellbeing and loneliness is not clear-cut.

Article Details

How to Cite
Abramowska-Kmon, A., & Timoszuk, S. (2020). Family and social networks, subjective well-being and loneliness among older adults in Poland. Studia Demograficzne, (1(177), 9–36. https://doi.org/10.33119/SD.2020.1.1
Section
Original research papers & review papers

References

Ambrosio, C. D., Jantti, M., & Lepinteur, A. (2020). Money and happiness: income, wealth and subjective well-being. Social Indicators Research, 148, 47–66, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-019-02186‑w

Angelini, V., Cavapozzi, D., Corazzini, L., & Paccagnella, O. (2012). Age, health and life satisfaction among older Europeans. Social Indicators Research, 105 (2), 293–308, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-011-9882‑x

Antonucci, T. C., & Ajrouch, K. J. (2007). Social Resources. In: M. Heidrun, A. Walker (Eds.), Quality of life in old age: international and multi-disciplinary perspectives (pp. 49–64). Dordrecht: Springer.

Antonucci, T. C., Ajrouch, K. J., & Birditt, K. S. (2014). The convoy model: explaining social relations from a multidisciplinary perspective. Gerontologist, 54 (1), 82–92, https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnt118

Antonucci, T. C., & Akiyama, H. (1987). Social networks in adult life and a preliminary examination of the convoy model. Journal of Gerontology, 42 (5), 519–527, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronj/42.5.519

Antonucci, T. C., Birditt, K. S., & Akiyama, H. (2009). Convoys of social relations. An interdisciplinary approach. In: V. L. Bengtson, D. Gans, N. M. Putney, M. Silverstein (Eds.), Handbook of Theories of Ageing (2nd ed., pp. 247–260). New York: Springer.

Arpino, B., & Bordone, V. (2014). Does grandparenting pay off? The effect of child care on grandparents’ cognitive functioning. Journal of Marriage and Family, 76 (2), 337–351, https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12096

Becker, C., Kirchmaier, I., & Trautmann, S. T. (2019). Marriage, parenthood and social network: Subjective well-being and mental health in old age. PLoS ONE, 14 (7), 1–20, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218704

Berg, A. I., Hassing, L. B., McClearn, G. E., & Johansson, B. (2006). What matters for life satisfaction in the oldest-old? Aging & Mental Health, 10 (3), 257–264, https://doi.org/10.1080/13607860500409435

Berg, A. I., Hoffman, L., Hassing, L. B., McClearn, G. E., & Johansson, B. (2009). What matters, and what matters most, for change in life satisfaction in the oldest-old? A study over 6 years among individuals 80+. Aging & Mental Health, 13 (2), 191–201, https://doi.org/10.1080/13607860802342227

Birditt, K. S., & Antonucci, T. C. (2007). Relationship quality profiles and well-being among married adults. Journal of Family Psychology: JFP: journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43), 21 (4), 595– 604, https://doi.org/10.1037/0893–3200.21.4.595

Blanchflower, D. G., & Oswald, A. J. (2004). Well-being over time in Britain and the USA. Journal of Public Economics, 88(7–8), 1359–1386, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2727 (02)00168-8

Blanchflower, D. G., & Oswald, A. J. (2008). Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle? Social Science & Medicine, 66 (8), 1733–1749, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.01.030

Bohnke, P., & Kohler, U. (2010). Well-being and inequality. In: S. Immerfall, G. Therborn (Eds.), Handbook of European societies. Social transformations in the 21st century (pp. 629–666). New York, NY: Springer New York.

Borsch-Supan, A. (2017). Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) Wave 6. Release version: 6.0.0. SHARE-ERIC. Data set. http://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w6.600

Borsch-Supan, A., Brandt, M., Hunkler, C., Kneip, T., Korbmacher, J., Malter, F., Schaan B., Stuck S., & Zuber, S. (2013). Data Resource Profile: The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). International Journal of Epidemiology, 42 (4), 992–1001, https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyt088

Burton-Jeangros, C., & Zimmermann-Sloutskis, D. (2014). Life satisfaction trajectories of elderly women living in Switzerland: an age – period – cohort analysis. Ageing and Society, 36(1), 106–132, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X14001044

Cameron, A. C., & Trivedi, P. K. (2010). Microeconometrics Using Stata, Revised Edition (2nd ed.)., College Station, Tex.: Stata Press.

Carr, D., Freedman, V. A., Cornman, J. C., & Schwarz, N. (2014). Happy marriage, happy life? Marital quality and subjective well-being in later life. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 76 (5), 930–948, https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12133

Carstensen, L. L. (1995). Evidence for a Life-Span Theory of Socioemotional Selectivity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 4 (5), 151–156, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep11512261

Chipperfield, J. G., & Havens, B. (2001). Gender differences in the relationship between marital status transitions and life satisfaction in later life. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 56 (3), P176‑P186, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/56.3. P176

Chłoń-Domińczak, A., Kotowska, I. E., Abramowska-Kmon, A., Kurkiewicz, J., & Stonawski, M. (2014). Population ageing in Europe: facts, implications and policies. European Commission.

Clark, A. E. (2007). Born to be mild? Cohort effects don’t (fully) explain why well-being is U-shaped in age (IZA Discussion Papers No. 3170). Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

Czapiński, J. (2015). Indywidualna jakość i styl życia. Contemporary Economics, 9 (4), 200–331, https://doi.org/10.5709/ce.1897–9254.190

Damri, N., & Litwin, H. (2019). Relationships with parents in childhood and well-being in later life. In: A. Borsch-Supan, J. Bristle, K. Andersen-Ranberg, A. Brugiavini, F. Jusot, H. Litwin, G. Weber (Eds.). Health and socio-economic status over the life course (pp. 57–66), https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110617245-005

Dear, K., Henderson, S., & Korten, A. (2002). Well-being in Australia-findings from the national survey of mental health and well-being. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 37 (11), 503–509, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-002-0590-3

De Jong Gierveld, J., Dykstra, P. A., & Schenk, N. (2012). Living arrangements, intergenerational support types and older adult loneliness in Eastern and Western Europe. Demographic Research, 27, 167–200, https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2012.27.7

Easterlin, R. A. (2003). Happiness of women and men in later life: nature, determinants, and prospects. In: M. J. Sirgy, D. Rahtz, A. C. Samli (Eds.), Advances in Quality-of-Life Theory and Research (Vol. 20, pp. 13–25). The Netherlands: Springer, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0387-1_2

Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. (2013). Happiness economics. SERIEs, 4, 35–60, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13209-012-0086-7

Filipska, K., Biercewicz, M., Wiśniewski, A., Kędziora-Kornatowska, K., & Ślusarz, R. (2019). Prevalence of elder abuse and neglect: screening in Poland families. European Geriatric Medicine, 10 (5), 817–825, https://doi.org/10.1007/s41999-019–00224‑x

Fokkema, T., & Esveldt, I. (2008). Motivation to have children in Europe. In: C. Hohn, D. Avramov, I. E. Kotowska (Eds.), People, Population Change and Policies. European Studies of Population (Vol. 16/1, pp. 141–155). Dordrecht: Springer.

George, L. K. (2010). Still happy after all these years: research frontiers on subjective well-being in later life. The Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 65B(3), 331–339, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbq006

Gerdtham, U.‑G., & Johannesson, M. (2001). The relationship between happiness, health, and socio-economic factors: results based on Swedish microdata. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 30, 553–557, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1053-5357 (01)00118–4

Hank, K., & Buber, I. (2009). Grandparents caring for their grandchildren. Findings from the 2004 Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe. Journal of Family Issues, 30 (1), 53–73, https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X08322627.

Hank, K., & Wagner, M. (2013). Parenthood, marital status, and well-being in later life: evidence from SHARE. Social Indicators Research, 114 (2), 639–653, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0166‑x

Helliwell, J. F. (2003). How’s life? Combining individual and national variables to explain subjective well-being. Economic Modelling, 20 (2), 331–360.

Heukamp, F. H., & Arino, M. A. (2011). Does country matter for subjective well-being? Social Indicators Research, 100 (1), 155–170, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9610‑y

Hughes, M. E., Waite, L. J., Hawkley, L. C., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2004). A short scale for measuring loneliness in large surveys: results from two population-based studies. Research on Ageing, 26 (6), 655–672, https://doi.org/10.1109/ICIT.2017.7913066

Hughes, M. E., Waite, L. J., LaPierre, T. A., & Luo, Y. (2007). All in the family: the impact of caring for grandchildren on grandparents’ health. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 62B(2), 108–119, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/62.2. S108

Igel, C., & Szydlik, M. (2011). Grandchild care and welfare state arrangements in Europe. Journal of European Social Policy, 21 (3), 210–224, https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928711401766

Kryla-Lighthall, N., & Mather, M. (2009). The role of cognitive control in older adults’ emotional well-being. In: V. L. Bengtson, D. Gans, N. M. Putney, M. Silverstein (Eds.), Handbook of Theories of Ageing (2nd ed., pp. 323–344). New York: Springer.

Lang, F. R., Staudinger, U. M., & Carstensen, L. L. (1998). Perspectives on socioemotional selectivity in late life: how personality and social context do (and do not) make a difference. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 53 (1), 21–29, https://doi.org/10.1037/0882–7974.9.2.315

Lim, C., & Putnam, R. D. (2010). Religion, social networks, and life satisfaction. American Sociological Review, 75 (6), 914–933, https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122410386686

Litwin, H. (2009). Social networks and well-being: a comparison of older people in Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean countries. Journals of Gerontology – Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 65B(5), 599–608, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbp104

Litwin, H., & Shiovitz-Ezra, S. (2006). The association between activity and wellbeing in later life: what really matters? Ageing and Society, 26 (2), 225–242, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X05004538

Litwin, H., & Stoeckel, K. J. (2013a). Confidant network types and well-being among older Europeans. The Gerontologist, 54 (5), 762–772, https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnt056

Litwin, H., & Stoeckel, K. J. (2013b). Social networks and subjective wellbeing among older Europeans: does age make a difference? Ageing and Society, 33 (07), 1263–1281, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X12000645

Litwin, H., & Stoeckel, K. J. (2013c). The social networks of older Europeans. In: C. Phellas (Ed.), Ageing in European Societies (pp. 177–190). New York: Springer Science+Business Media New York, https://doi.org/10.1007/978–1-4419-8345–9

Luty-Michalak, M. (2017). Siła więzi rodzinnych osob starszych. Uniwersyteckie Czasopismo Socjologiczne, 18 (1), 41–49.

Martin-Matthews, A. (2011). Revisiting widowhood in later life: changes in patterns and profiles, advances in research and understanding. Canadian Journal on Ageing, 30, 339–354. doi:10.1017/S0714980811000201

McCamish-Svensson, C., Samuelsson, G., Hagberg, B., Svensson, T., & Dehlin, O. (1999). Social relationships and health as predictors of life satisfaction in advanced old age: results from a Swedish longitudinal study. The International Journal of Ageing & Human Development, 48 (4), 301–324. https://doi.org/10.2190/GX0K-565H--08FB-XF5G

Muller, Z., & Litwin, H. (2011). Grandparenting and well-being: how important is grandparent-role centrality? European Journal of Ageing, 8 (2), 109–118, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-011-0185–5

Netuveli, G., Wiggins, R. D., Hildon, Z., Montgomery, S. M., & Blane, D. (2006). Quality of life at older ages: evidence from the English longitudinal study of ageing (wave 1). Journal of Epidemiology And Community Health, 60 (4), 357–363, https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2005.040071

Neuberger, F. S., & Preisner, K. (2018). Parenthood and quality of life in old age: the role of individual resources, the welfare state and the economy. Social Indicators Research, 138, 353–372, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1665–6

Neuberger, F. S, & Haberkern, K. (2014). Structured ambivalence in grandchild care and the quality of life among European grandparents. European Journal of Ageing, 11, 171–181, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-013-0294–4

Ory, B., & Huijts, T. (2015). Widowhood and well-being in Europe: the role of national and regional context. Journal of Marriage and Family, 77(3), 730–746, https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12187

Pinquart, M., & Sorensen, S. (2000). Influences of socioeconomic status, social network, and competence on subjective well-being in later life: a meta-analysis. Psychology and Aging, 15 (2), 187–224, https://doi.org/10.1037/0882–7974.15.2.187

Ploubidis, G. B., & Grundy, E. (2009). Later-Life Mental Health in Europe: A Country-Level Comparison, The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 64B(5), 666–676, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbp026

Puur, A., Sakkeus, L., Poldma, A., & Herm, A. (2011). Intergenerational family constellations in contemporary Europe: evidence from the Generations and Gender Survey. Demographic Research, 25, 135–172. https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2011.25.4

Read, S., & Grundy, E. (2011). Fertility history and quality of life in older women and men. Ageing and Society, 31 (1), 125–145, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X10000760

Rodrigues, M. M. S., De Jong Gierveld, J., & Buz, J. (2014). Loneliness and the exchange of social support among older adults in Spain and the Netherlands. Ageing & Society, 34 (2), 330–354, https://doi.org/doi:10.1017/S0144686X12000839

Schaan, B. (2013). Widowhood and depression among older Europeans — the role of gender, caregiving, marital quality, and regional context. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences & Social Sciences, 68 (3), 431–442, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbt015

Somarriba Arechavala, N., & Zarzosa Espina, P. (2019). Quality of life in the European Union: an econometric analysis from gender perspective. Social Indicators Research, 142, 179–200, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-1913-4

Steptoe, A., Deaton, A., & Stone, A. A. (2015). Subjective wellbeing, health, and ageing. The Lancet, 385, 640–648, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736 (13)61489-0

Štipkova, M. (2019). Marital status, close social network and loneliness of older adults in the Czech Republic. Ageing and Society, 1–15, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X19001442

Szatur-Jaworska, B. (2012a). Psychospołeczny wymiar sytuacji ludzi starych – wyniki badania „PolSenior.” Problemy Polityki Społecznej, 18, 155–173.

Szatur-Jaworska, B. (2012b). Sytuacja rodzinna i więzi rodzinne ludzi starych i osób na przedpolu starości. In: M. Mossakowska, A. Więcek, P. Błędowski (Eds.), Aspekty medyczne, psychologiczne, socjologiczne i ekonomiczne starzenia się ludzi w Polsce (pp. 419–448). Poznań: Termedia Wydawnictwo Medyczne.

Szatur-Jaworska, B. (2014). Starość w polskiej rodzinie. In: P. Szukalski (Ed.), Relacje międzypokoleniowe we współczesnych polskich rodzinach (pp. 25–40). Łodź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łodzkiego.

Tomaszewski, W. (2013). Living environment, social participation and wellbeing in older age: the relevance of housing and local area disadvantage. Journal of Population Ageing, 6, 119–156, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-012-9077–5

Uhlenberg, P., & Mueller, M. (2003). Family context and individual well-being. Patterns and mechanisms in life course perspective. In: J. T. Mortimer, M. J. Shanahan (Eds.), Handbook of the Life Course (pp. 123–148). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

Verbakel, E. (2012). Subjective well-being by partnership status and its dependence on the normative climate. European Journal of Population, 28 (2), 205–232, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-012-9257–2

Vignoli, D., Pirani, E., & Salvini, S. (2013). Family constellations and life satisfaction in Europe. Social Indicators Research, 117, 967–986, 1–20, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0372–1

von dem Knesebeck, O., Hyde, M., Higgs, P., Kupfer, A., & Siegrist, J. (2005). Quality of life and wellbeing. In: A. Borsch-Supan, A. Brugiavini, H. Jurges, J. Mackenbach, J. Siegrist, G. Weber (Eds.), Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. First Results from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (pp. 199–203), Mannheim: Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA).

Waite, L. J. (2009). Marital history and well-being in later life. In: P. Uhlenberg (Ed.), International Handbook of Population Ageing (pp. 691–704). The Netherlands: Springer, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-835

Yang, Y. (2008). Social inequalities in happiness in the United States, 1972 to 2004: an age-period-cohort analysis. American Sociological Review, 73 (2), 204–226, https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240807300202