The International Journal of Aging and Human Development

Individuals’ Subjective Well-being (SWB) increases as they grow older. Past literature suggests that emotional intelligence may increase with age and lead to higher levels of SWB in older adults. The primary purpose of the present study was to test whether emotional intelligence would mediate the relationship between age and SWB. A total of 360 Chinese adults (age range: 20 to 79 years old) participated in this study. They filled out questionnaires that assessed their age, life satisfaction (The Satisfaction with Life Scale), affective well-being (The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule), and emotional intelligence (The Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale). Using Structural Equation Modeling, the mediation model was supported, χ² (75) = 194.21, p < .01; RMSEA = .07; CFI = .91. Emotional intelligence partially mediated the relationship between age and life satisfaction, and fully mediated the relationship between age and affective well-being. The findings suggest that older adults may use their increased emotional intelligence to enhance their SWB.

This study examines how parental investments on children affect elderly support, and how this effect is contingent on emotional closeness or parental authority. Data collected from 770 elderly parents residing in rural China were analyzed. We gathered dichotomous data for (a) whether parents invested on their children via financial or instrumental means (i.e., parental investments) and (b) whether parents reported closeness to their children (i.e., emotional closeness) and whether children respected them (i.e., parental authority). We examined the relation between these variables and children’s elderly support (financial, instrumental, and emotional). We tested models in two ways, one examining the direct effect of investments, and another testing the interactions between investments and closeness or authority. We first found that investments were not directly associated with elderly support, although the closeness and authority were. Additionally, the association between investments and support was found within parents who reported authority or closeness with their children.

Teachers are often thought to retire early and have more stress and burnout than other human service professionals. In this article, we investigate attrition intention amongst senior teachers and senior employees of six other blue- and white-collar occupational categories using the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. We followed a two-step approach. First, analysis of variance and logistic regression analysis was used to assess differences in the level of job demands, resources, and attrition intention between occupations for male and female employees separately. Subsequently, multiple group path analysis was used to assess the invariance of the JD-R model across occupational groups and genders. We used representative data gathered in Flanders among 6,810 senior employees (45 years or older). Results indicate that there are differences in the determinants of attrition intention between men and women. The differences in attrition intention are minimal between occupations once controlled for job demands and resources. In addition, the JD-R model is largely invariant across white-collar occupations and gender. We provide support for both the energetic and motivational process of the JD-R model.

Two key theoretical frameworks that explain why people might hold biases for or against a specific age group—cultural stereotypes and in-group favoritism—yield distinct and sometimes contradictory predictions. This study proposes a combined framework drawing on these two theories and then tests hypotheses based on this framework in the workplace context. Using survey data from U.S. employees of two pharmaceutical companies, we evaluated the extent to which respondents attributed characteristics related to innovation or change and reliable performance to other workers based on perceived relative age (the age of the target relative to the age of the respondent). The hypotheses that our combined framework generated were supported, but the results varied by type of characteristic as well as by age of the respondent. We conclude that the combined framework is more predictive of age bias in the workplace than either individual framework alone.

This study explored psychological well-being in Australian adults with a particular focus on meaning in life. Older adults (N = 57) reported lower levels of search for meaning and higher levels of presence of meaning than young adults (N = 208) suggesting that both groups were able to distinguish between the two aspects of meaning. For older adults, higher presence was associated with better mental health and well-being outcomes, regardless of level of search. For the young adults, higher presence and lower search was associated with better outcomes. These results suggest that presence of meaning is an important aspect of well-being for older adults living in a high income English-speaking country and may be an important focus when working with depressed or anxious older adults, while both presence of, and search for meaning may be more meaningful therapeutic targets when working with depressed or anxious younger adults. Theoretical implications are discussed.