| As people continue to live longer, quality of life and well-being issues as we age have become critically important. Informed by Bandura's social cognitive theory, this study aimed to contribute knowledge about subjective well-being for older adults, by examining the relationship between older adult life satisfaction and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is an individual's perceptions of his or her own capabilities to perform specific actions required to produce specific results. Life satisfaction was used as an indicator of subjective well-being.; A sample of 93 community-dwelling men and women age 65 to 92 was studied to test hypotheses that self-efficacy beliefs would be predictive of life satisfaction in older adults. This research analyzed general self-efficacy, social-efficacy and productive-efficacy using the Self-Efficacy Scale of Sherer, Maddux, Mercadante, Prentice-Dunn, Jacobs & Rogers (1982) and three original, individual questions about productive-efficacy. Life satisfaction was measured with the Satisfaction with Life Scale of Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin (1985).; Hierarchical multiple-regression analyses found self-efficacy beliefs to predict life satisfaction even after controlling for demographic (age, gender & marital status) and health related variables. The most interesting predictor of life satisfaction was a one-item self-efficacy variable "I am able to be useful to my family, friends and community" that appears to measure efficacy in both the productive and social-connectedness domains. Self-rated health was also found to be predictive of life satisfaction in older adults.; With its combined foci on life satisfaction and self-efficacy, this study contributes to the evolving field of positive psychology that highlights well-being rather than negative states such as problems and illness. The findings support Bandura's social cognitive theory that self-efficacy beliefs influence well-being in later life. Implications of the findings are discussed for theory, policy, social work education, practice and further research. |
