Subjective Well-Being

Quality of life during late life is a key focus of much research on aging. How satisfied people are with their lives—especially as they compare their own lives with those of people around them—is of great importance to older individuals themselves and to different stakeholders in the society at large. Subjective well-being—how individuals evaluate their overall existence—has been studied by gerontologists over the past six decades. However, definingsubjective well-being (or its synonymsquality of life, life satisfaction, andhealth-related quality of life) has remained an elusive task for those doing research in this area.

By estimating their subjective well-being, older adults provide a measure of how completely they feel they are integrated into society. Although the early research in this area tried to evaluate subjective well-being objectively, researchers soon became convinced that it was not effective to generalize to an individual, or a group of individuals, from a single answer. They came to subdivide subjective well-being into four discrete dimensions: physical, financial, social, and psychological. Although it is probably easier to evaluate older people on these four separate dimensions, the measure of overall well-being or quality of life remains a challenge. Both objective and subjective assessments must be used. For example, finances can be measured as assets or income, both of which are objective measures. But the question “Do you have sufficient funds to allow you to live in your accustomed style?” is a subjective and critical part of the overall answer.

Social interaction can also be measured objectively by counting the number of contacts individuals have with others; for example, a subjective measure might ask, “Would you say that you would like to see friends and relativesmore, less, orat about the rate as you see them now?” This same bifurcation exists in physical health and psychological well-being. A count of chronic conditions can provide an objective measure of physical health, but it is critical to measure the subjective consequences of these conditions as well. And although psychological well-being can be determined by counting the number of mental health symptoms, it is important to measure the overall psychological gestalt as well. Operationalizing the four dimensions in this way supplies an objective measure of certain key aspects of well-being. However, these scores provide the presence or absence of these characteristics without any assessment of their impact on individuals. Subjectively, however, characteristics such as self-rated health, financial security, and impact of chronic conditions may play an even greater role in assessment of overall life conditions during late life. In fact, research has shown that the subjective indicators are more strongly related to outcomes than are the objective measures. In all, subjective self-assessments contribute a great deal to well-being, especially during late life.

Terms such asoverall well-being, quality of life, life satisfaction, andsubjective well-being seem to be used interchangeably in the literature on late life. In looking at the substantial literature that discusses these issues, there appear to be trends in terminology that cannot be overlooked. Subjective well-being appears to be the term used in social and social–psychological research, whereashealth-related quality of life is used more frequently in journals that include research on chronic illness and functional capacity. For our purposes here, subjective well-being is used as the overall term, andhealth-related quality of life is used in discussions associated with chronic diseases that influence well-being.

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