A Preliminary Study On The Effect And Mechanism Of Personality Traits On Subjective Well-being Of The Elderly

Objective: With the advent of China’s aging population,a series of old age problems will impair the well-being of the elderly,and the improvement of well-being of the elderly has become a hot issue that can not be ignored.Studies have shown that personality traits are one of the most important factors affecting subjective well-being of the elderly,but there are many controversies about how personality traits affect subjective well-being.From perspective and interpersonal perspective of the elderly,this study explored the different paths and ways in which personality traits affected the subjective well-being of the elderly in home care and institutional pension,and found out the key factors,so as to provide theoretical basis for targeted strategies to improve the subjective well-being of the elderly.Methods:In this study,we used convenient sampling to select 436 elderly people under home care,161 pairs of the elderly and nurses under institutional pension in Shijiazhuang City,to carry out the current situation investigation.The questionnaire included General Well-being Schedule(GWBS),Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short(EPQ-RSC),Social Support Rating Scale(SSRS),General Self-Efficacy Scale(GSES)and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10(CD-RISC-10).From perspective of the elderly,using spearman correlation analysis,multiple stepwise regression analysis,path analysis and mediation effect analysis,we carried out the model construction of personality traits on the subjective well-being of the elderly under the two pension modes.Based on the analysis results,and from interpersonal perspective of the elderly,we used polynomial regression analysis,response surface analysis and mediation effect analysis,to construct the influencing model of neuroticism fit on subjective well-being of the elderly in institutional pension.Results:1.From perspective of the elderly themselves in home care,the correlation analysis showed that subjective well-being of the elderly was significantly related to the extraversion,neuroticism,psychoticism,social support and self-efficacy of the elderly(P<0.01).Multiple stepwise regression analysis found that age,extraversion,neuroticism,psychoticism,social support,and self-efficacy of the elderly could explain 40% of subjective well-being(P<0.01).Path analysis showed that extraversion and psychology could indirectly affect their subjective well-being by affecting social support and self-efficacy;neuroticism could directly or indirectly affect subjective well-being by affecting self-efficacy.(Model fit was good: χ2=3.51,χ2/df=1.2<5,CFI=0.99>0.9,TLI=0.99>0.9,RMSEA=0.02<0.05,P<0.01).The results suggested that the three personality traits of extraversion,neuroticism and psychoticism,directly or indirectly affected the subjective well-being of the elderly in the home care through social support and self-efficacy.2.From perspective of the elderly themselves in institutional pension,the correlation analysis of influencing factors of the elderly’s subjective well-being showed that,the elderly’s subjective well-being was significantly correlated with their extraversion,neuroticism and resilience(P<0.01).Among them,neuroticism and resilience entered the multiple stepwise regression model,which could explain 46% of their subjective well-being(P<0.01);Mediation effect analysis showed that neuroticism,partially mediated by resilience,directly or indirectly affected the subjective well-being of the elderly(P<0.01).The results suggested that neuroticism was mainly mediated by resilience,and directly or indirectly affected the subjective well-being of the elderly in institutional pension.3.From the interpersonal perspective of the elderly-nurses,we further analyzed the neuroticism fit mode of the elderly-nurses in the institutional pension,and its effect and mechanism on the subjective well-being of the elderly.The results of polynomial regression and response surface analysis showed that the curvature of response surface along the incongruence line was significant and positive(P<0.01),and 95% bias-corrected“bootstrap” confidence intervals for the slope and the intercept of the first principal axis were,respectively,(-4.24,-0.93)and(-245.20,13.72),which were not different from-1 and 0,respectively,indicating that the incongruence of neuroticism between the elderly and nurses predicted a higher level of subjective well-being of the elderly.The slope of response surface along the congruence line was significant and negative(P<0.01),indicating that when the neuroticism of the elderly and nurses were at a lower level,the subjective well-being of the elderly would be higher.The slope of response surface along the incongruence line was significant and negative(P<0.01),indicating that the elderly would have higher subjective well-being when the neuroticism level of the elderly were lower than that of nurses.In addition,the mediation effect analysis showed that the resilience of the elderly played a partial mediating role between the elderly-nurses neuroticism fit modes and subjective well-being of the elderly(P<0.01).The results suggested that the elderly-nurses neuroticism fit modes could directly or indirectly affect subjective well-being of the elderly in the institutional pension through resilience(P<0.01).Conclusion: The personality traits of the elderly mainly affected the subjective well-being of the elderly through social support,self-efficacy and resilience in the home care and institutional pension.The elderly-nurses neuroticism fit modes also influenced subjective well-being of the elderly.This study helps to develop characteristic care measures focusing on social support,self-efficacy,and resilience,and provides a theoretical basis for the development of scientific management measures for people in aged care institutions.