中国老年人的幸福感和个体、夫妻及社区水平的韧性因素——以北京为例

Resilience embodies the personal ability to thrive in the face of adversity.Well-being has often been considered as an indicator of successful aging. This dissertation is guided by the following knowledge gaps in research on resilience and aging: 1) on the individual level, the indication of resilience as a psychological asset and its role in older adults’ well-being (the actor effect) has not been adequately investigated; 2) in the couple unit, the effect of a partner’s resilience on an individual’s well-being (the partner effect) is not clear within elderly couples, and limited studies used dyadic data to examine the partner’s role in aging; 3) from the ecosystem perspective, the effect of resilience factors (subjective and objective factors) at the community level on older adults’ well-being has not been investigated in previous studies. In addition, further research questions merit investigation concerning how resilience at the individual level interacts with resilience at the couple and community levels to predict well-being; and 4) there are limited longitudinal studies to demonstrate the relationship between resilience and well-being. Thus, based on an ecological framework, we propose a model for older adults’ well-being associated with resilience at the individual, partner, and community levels to guide the following studies. First, focusing on the dynamics within couples, a longitudinal survey was conducted to examine the effects of personal and partner resilience on an individual’s well-being within elderly couples, and the possible mediation mechanisms at the actor and partner levels. A total of 258 Chinese couples (age range 60‒97 years) from Beijing, China, joined the baseline survey, of whom 158 couples participated in the follow-up survey. They completed measures of resilience, perceived spousal exchanges (spousal support and negative exchanges), and well-being. Using the actor partner interdependence model, this study found significant actor and partner effects of resilience on well-being. In addition, negative spousal exchanges could not mediate the actor and partner effects of resilience on well-being, and a gender difference emerged for the mediation role of spousal support: actor and partner effects of husbands’ resilience on well-being were mediated by both partners’ perceived spousal support, whereas actor and partner effects of wives’ resilience on well-being could not be mediated by perceived spousal support. Second, focusing on the subjective factor at the community level, this study examined the role of sense of community as a subjective resilience factor. With a longitudinal design, a total of 258 elderly couples participated in the baseline survey, of which 158 couples participated in the follow-up survey. The results showed that the main effect of sense of community on well-being was not significant for husbands, but it was significant for wives after controlling for personal and partner resilience. In addition, husbands and wives yielded similar results in that sense of community interacted with personal and partner resilience to predict well-being. That is, the weakest association between sense of community and well-being emerged at low personal resilience-low partner resilience or high personal resilience-high partner resilience, and the strongest association between sense of community and well-being emerged at high personal resilience-low partner resilience or low personal resiliencehigh partner resilience. Third, focusing on the objective factors at the community level, this study investigated the roles of per-capita public land, senior population density, and senior services as objective resilience factors. The sample consisted of 628 individuals (age range 60‒97 years) who were recruited from 32 communities in Beijing, China. With hierarchical linear modeling, this study found positive associations between objective resilience factors at the community level and well-being after controlling for personal and partner resilience, with sense of community as a mediator for these associations. In addition, the cross-level interaction results showed that personal resilience strengthened the associations between objective factors and well-being, whereas there were no significant interaction effects of objective factors and partner resilience on well-being. This dissertation investigated the protective roles of resilience factors at various levels (individual, partner, and community) on older adults’ well-being. The findings indicate that psychological interventions for successful aging should account for the couple-focused model, which values both the actor’s and the partner’s resilience as protective factors, and cultivates mutual support within the couple. In addition, interventions should consider the role of community in older adults’ wellbeing by enhancing public land and senior services for older adults, which then builds their sense of community and promotes their well-being.