Resilience and Savoring in Older Adults in Relation to Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

Research has identified a wide range of benefits associated with resilience (i.e., the ability to effectively adapt to adversity) and savoring positive experiences (i.e., the capacity to enhance and actively manage positive emotions). However, research on these constructs particularly among older adults is limited. Smith and Hollinger-Smith (2015) found that resilience moderated the relationship between savoring and the affective constructs of happiness and depression. However, no significant moderation effect on the cognitive construct of satisfaction with life was found possibly due to the type of measure used. Furthermore, other aspects of subjective well-being that reflect social relationships were not examined. The current study investigated whether resilience moderated the relationship between savouring and three variables of subjective well-being, specifically, satisfaction with life, satisfaction with social relationships, and perceived quality of social relationships in older adults. Moreover, exploratory analyses were conducted to identify whether particular facets of resilience and savoring were more strongly related to older adults’ subjective well-being. Community-dwelling adults aged 60 and above (N = 412) completed a survey which included five standardised measures assessing savoring, resilience, and the three variables of subjective well-being. The main finding of this study is that resilience moderated the relationship between savoring and satisfaction with life, and this relationship was stronger for older adults with lower resilience. This has implications for the implementation of savoring strategies targeted specifically at older adults lower on resilience as developing a greater ability to savor may enhance the psychosocial resources that they lack and thus improve subjective well-being.