Purpose The current study mainly aimed to investigate the impact of social desirability in predicting life satisfaction in cognitively healthy elderly people. Methods One hundred and seventy-eight 65- to 99-yearold adults were recruited in Sardinia, an Italian Isle known for the longevity of its inhabitants, and were presented a battery of questionnaires assessing subjective well-being, metacognitive efficiency, depressive symptoms and socially desirable responding style. Results An analysis of covariance and a hierarchical regression analysis showed that the social desirable style does have a marginal impact on self-referent measures of life satisfaction. Indeed, only 5 % of the variance in life satisfaction was predicted by self-rated social desirability. Conclusions Social desirability does not seem to bias the self-assessment of an important aspect of quality of life in late adulthood. That is, life satisfaction of Italian elderly people does not seem to be impacted by the tendency to present themselves in a more favourable way.

Life satisfaction and social desirability across the late life span: What relationship?

FASTAME, MARIA CHIARA;PENNA, MARIA PIETRONILLA;HITCHCOTT, PAUL KENNETH
2015-01-01

Abstract

Purpose The current study mainly aimed to investigate the impact of social desirability in predicting life satisfaction in cognitively healthy elderly people. Methods One hundred and seventy-eight 65- to 99-yearold adults were recruited in Sardinia, an Italian Isle known for the longevity of its inhabitants, and were presented a battery of questionnaires assessing subjective well-being, metacognitive efficiency, depressive symptoms and socially desirable responding style. Results An analysis of covariance and a hierarchical regression analysis showed that the social desirable style does have a marginal impact on self-referent measures of life satisfaction. Indeed, only 5 % of the variance in life satisfaction was predicted by self-rated social desirability. Conclusions Social desirability does not seem to bias the self-assessment of an important aspect of quality of life in late adulthood. That is, life satisfaction of Italian elderly people does not seem to be impacted by the tendency to present themselves in a more favourable way.
2015
Ageing; Life satisfaction; Social desirability; Metacognition; Well-being
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
2015 FASTAME PENNA HITCHCOTT quality of life research.pdf

Solo gestori archivio

Dimensione 321.6 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
321.6 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11584/108891
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 18
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 16
social impact