Associations of personal and mobility resources with subjective well-being among older adults in Italy and Germany

The purpose of this study was to investigate the patterns of associations of personal and mobility resources with positive well-being in two sample populations of older adults from Germany (n = 1518) and Italy (n = 600). A correlation study showed which variables correlated the closest with the wellbeing components, then four logistic regression analyses were performed, one for each well-being component such as the positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS) positive scale, mobility satisfaction, health satisfaction and life satisfaction. High positive scores of PANAS and satisfaction scales were found both for Germany and Italy. As expected and in accordance with previous studies, components utilized as a measure of subjective well-being correlated significantly with each other in both countries, confirming their validity as instruments of evaluation for several different life domains. A considerable result of this study was that the driving car is an important predictor of well-being in both countries. The findings underlined a variety of associations among the mobility resources and the subjective perception of well-being. Our work supports the importance of being aware of the main variables influencing the positive dimension of well-being for creating a better understanding the needs and goals of older people. Moreover, the present study shows that individual-environment interaction should be considered in evaluating personal well-being, especially in older people. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.