This document examines the effects of aging on subjective well-being in later life using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging. It finds that measures of well-being such as quality of life and depressive symptoms continue to decline with age even after controlling for circumstances, but life satisfaction increases with age after accounting for conditions. The study explores how aging relates to different conceptualizations of well-being and whether its effects can be explained by declining health and social factors.

1. Age effects on subjective
well-being in later life
Stephen Jivraj, Bram Vanhoutte, James Nazroo & Tarani Chandola
University of Manchester
Frailty, Resilience and Inequality in Later Life

2. Background
• In general population wellbeing is U-shaped
over age (Blanchflower & Oswald 2008)
• How does well-being evolve in later life (50+)?
– Is there a third age (Laslett 1989) ?
– What does ageing substantively mean?
• Only a decline in conditions and circumstances (health,
social support, partnership, ses, …)?

3. What is subjective well-being?
• Subjective well-being (SWB) is
– mental health more than physical health?
– subjective judgement more than objective
conditions?
– a social construct rather than universal truth?
• Measuring SWB relates to normative ideas
about what ‘the good life’ is about!

4. Aristotle
Epicurus/Aristippus

5. Hedonic well-being
• Philosophical roots in Aristippus of Cyrene,
Epicurus, Bentham, Mill
– Well-being is maximalisation of pleasure,
minimalisation of suffering
• Affective and cognitive aspect (Diener 1984)
– Both + and – affect, based on moods and emotions
– Individual assessment of quality of life, based on
internal criteria (Life satisfaction)

6. Hedonic
Well-being
Affective Cognitive
+ -
Positive Negative Domain
Holistic
Affect Affect specific
CES-D SWLS

7. Eudaimonic well-being
• Philosophical roots in Aristotle:
• Well-being is about developing one-self
and realising one’s potential (Maslow 1968;
Erikson 1959)
• Different operationalisations, with similar
subdimensions:
– Psychological Well-being (Ryff & Singer, 1998)
– Self-determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000)
– In later life: CASP (Hyde, Wiggins, Higgs & Blane, 2003)

8. Eudaimonic Well-being
Eudaimonic
Well-being
Autonomy & Self-
Pleasure realisation
Control
CASP
CASP15

9. Research Questions
• What are the effects of ageing, cross-sectional
and longitudinal, on well-being?
• Do different measures show similar age-
effects?
• Does controlling for circumstances explain
away age-effects ?

10. Data
• English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)
– Longitudinal unbalanced sample
• 10.331 respondents (aged 50+) in wave 1 (2002-2003)
• 5.913 in wave 5 (2010-2011)
• Average of 3.1 waves completed
• SWB Measures:
– CASP15: quality of life, autonomy, self-
actualisation
– CES-D: depressive symptoms
– SWLS: evaluative of life satisfaction

11. Method: Latent Growth model
• Multilevel/Hierarchical/Random model with 2
levels
– observations (L 1) nested in individuals (L 2)
• Steps
– Null model => 50-30 % of change in SWB is intra-
individual.
– Model with only age
– Full Model

12. Evolution CASP 15
40
35
Predicted CASP-15 score
30
25
20
50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95
Age

13. Evolution CES-D
3.5
3
2.5
Predicted CES-D score
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95
Age

14. Evolution Life Satisfaction
27
26
25
Predicted SWLS score
24
23
22
21
20
50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95
Age

15. Explaining age effects
• Controlling for conditions, is there still an age effect?
(Full model => 32-40% of total variance is explained )
• Controls:
– Wave / gender / ethnicity / marital status / wealth
/ social class / education / employment status /
LLSI / ADL / chronic conditions / close contacts /
social support / volunteering / caring

16. Age vs Full model CASP 15
Full model Age Model
38
36
34
32
30
28
26
24
50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85

17. Age vs Full Model CES-D
Age model Full Model
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85

18. Age vs Full model SWLS
Age model Full model
28
27
26
25
24
23
22
21
20
50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85

19. Conclusion
• Different measures different stories?
• What does ageing mean in terms of well-
being, is it only a decline in conditions or is
something else happening?
– CASP – quality of life in later life still declines,
taking into account all known correlates
– CES-D- rise in depressive symptoms can almost
entirely be explained by conditions
– SWLS – controlling for conditions, people evaluate
their life in more positive terms as they get older.