The Influence Of Social Support On The Subjective Well-being Of The Elderly

The aging of the world's population is becoming more and more obvious,and it has attracted the focus of public attention.Among many aging problems,the mental health of the elderly has become one of the outstanding ones.In recent years,the mental health of the elderly in China has been declining year by year,which has aroused the attention of the government and academia.The subjective well-being of the elderly is one of the important psychological indicators of the elderly.Studying the subjective well-being and its related factors are necessary means to promote successful aging from a theoretical perspective.Based on the P-E Fit model,looking from the perspective of positive psychology,and combing the "psychological resilience framework" theory,this article utilizes "Social Support Rating Scale","Life Orientation Test-Revised","Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale" in one questionnaire survey,distributed to 508 elderly people in Nanjing and Shanghai,etc.The research outcomes show that:1)The subjective well-being of the elderly and its dimensions have significant differences in age,gender,education level,number of children,type of residence,income level,health status,with or without hobbies,and area of residence;2)The social support of the elderly and its dimensions have significant differences in age,gender,education level,marriage status,number of children,type of residence,income level,health status,with or without hobbies,and area of residence;3)The optimism of the elderly has significant differences in number of children,type of residence,health status,with or without hobbies,and area of residence;4)The resilience of the elderly has significant differences in gender,education level,marriage status,health status,with or without hobbies;5)In the correlation analysis,there is a significant pair wise positive correlation between social support,optimism,resilience,and subjective well-being.In the subdimension,significant correlations were found except for support utilization and negative emotions,objective support and optimism;6)In regression analysis,social support can significantly predict the elderly's subjective well-being;optimism and resilience can significantly predict the elderly's subjective well-being and its dimensions individually;social support can significantly predict the elderly's optimism and resilience;7)The results of the mediating effect show that optimism and resilience can partially mediate between social support and subjective well-being;optimism can partially mediate between social support and resilience;optimism and resilience are chain mediators between social support and subjective well-being.In summary,it can be concluded that social support can directly or indirectly affect the elderly's subjective well-being through optimism and resilience.Moreover,increasing the level of social support of the elderly can help improve their optimism and resilience,hence boost their subjective well-being.