Relationship between self-assessed health and life satisfaction in older adults: the moderating role of ego-resiliency

Abstract

Abstract The present study was focused on the relationship between the subjective assessment of physical health and satisfaction with life (SWL) in older adults. The relationship itself was found in previous studies, but we postulated that it is moderated by ego-resiliency (ER). To verify this hypothesis, 124 Polish participants aged between 60 and 89 (mean = 71.72, standard deviation = 7.08) were asked to complete questionnaire measures of: self-assessed health (SAH; measured with seven items from the World Health Organization Quality of Life WHOQOL-BREF assessment), SWL (measured with the Satisfaction with Life Scale) and ER (measured with the Ego-Resiliency Scale ER89). The results confirmed the moderating role of ER by showing that the relationship between SAH and SWL was statistically significant only when ER was high or moderate, while there was no relationship for participants with low ER. To interpret these results, we postulate that ego-resilient older adults are more accurate in the assessment of health, i.e. their SAH reflects the objective condition more closely, which strengthens the relationship between SAH and wellbeing. ER is thus conceived as an important psychological resource that promotes the accuracy of SAH and, consequently, makes it a more robust predictor of SWL. We hypothesise that this is based on the positive relationship between ER and wisdom in older adults.