Relationship Between Prosocial Behavior And Subjective Well-being Of The Elderly ——A Moderated Mediation

In the context of active aging,it is of great significance for the society and the elderly themselves to promote the elderly to achieve “a sense of happiness and worthiness”.Therefore,starting from the perspective of prosocial behavior,this study explores the relationship between “a sense of worthiness” and “a sense of happiness ”,so as to seek new ideas for this proposition.Previous studies have proved that prosocial behavior can significantly improve the subjective well-being of the elderly.However,most of the researches on prosocial behavior mainly focus on formal voluntary service,and the research on the mechanism between them is relatively scarce.Therefore,this study focuses on the influence of informal prosocial behaviors on the subjective well-being of the elderly.At the same time,according to the theory of self-determination,the basic psychological needs satisfaction is taken as an mediating variable into the relationship between them,and its mediating role is discussed.Finally,combining with the model of the consistency between people and activities,orientations to happiness is taken as the moderating variable into the relationship between them,and the moderating effects of its two dimensions,eudaimonic orientation and hedonic orientation,are discussed.In this study,“the Self-Reported Altruism Scale Distinguished by the Recipient”,“Life Satisfaction Index”,“Positive Affection and Negative Affection Scale”,“Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction Scale of the Elderly” and “Orientations to Happiness Scale” were used to investigate 657 elderly people.The results showed that:（1）Informal prosocial behavior significantly positively predicted the subjective well-being of the elderly,and the implementation of prosocial behavior was beneficial to the improvement of the subjective well-being of the elderly.（2）The basic psychological needs satisfaction partially mediated the influence of prosocial behavior on the subjective well-being of the elderly.Specifically,the basic psychological needs satisfaction of the elderly was obtained through acting out prosocial behaviors,which in turn improved the subjective well-being.（3）Both eudaimonic and hedonic orientation played a moderating role in the influence of prosocial behavior on the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs of the elderly,and both of which weaken the positive influence of prosocial behavior on the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs of the elderly.However,neither of them could moderate the influence of prosocial behavior on the subjective well-being of the elderly.To sum up,the results of this study confirmed the positive influence of prosocial behavior on the subjective well-being of the elderly.Moreover,orientations to happiness and the basic psychological needs satisfaction played an important role in it respectively.