Determinants of Subjective Well-Being among Older Marriages in Poland

Milena Chelchowska , SGH Warsaw School of Economics

In recent decades, the issue of life satisfaction and its determinants has been increasingly discussed in the scientific literature. One of the key determinants of life satisfaction is the fact of being in a relationship (formal or not). In addition to being in a relationship, its quality is also important: people more satisfied with marriage declare greater life satisfaction than those less satisfied. The aim of the study is to analyze the life satisfaction (expressed in terms of well-being and depression) among older people living with partner in Poland, putting emphasis on their individual and household characteristics. For the purposes of this study I use data of ‘Social Diagnosis’ study carried out in 2015 in Poland. The final sample was limited to older couples living in the same household. This approach allowed to investigate subjective well-being and satisfaction with relationship in the dyads of spouses. The set of linear, logistic and ordered logistic regression models were estimated. The preliminary results show that older men in Poland have generally higher subjective well-being than women (in terms of individual life satisfaction and level of depression). Also, older men report higher levels of marital satisfaction than women do. Moreover, for both women and men the relationship between marital quality and subjective well-being is very strong, but stronger for women. Cohabiting older couples were less satisfied with life than spouses in formal marriages. The association between the quality of relationship and subjective well-being was similar in these two groups of unions.

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 Presented in Session P1. Poster Session Fertility, Family and the Life Course