Although it is known that subjective well-being among elderly people is related to generativity, which refers to the interest in establishing and leading the next generation, no studies have examined the relationship between frequency of intergenerational interaction, adaptation strategies of difficulty (i.e., coping style) and subjective well-being among elderly people. We hypothesized that generativity and frequency of interaction with younger people would be related to subjective well-being. For this purpose, we conducted a questionnaire survey of 100 older adults, which also included other factors expected to be related to subjective well-being such as subjective economic status, subjective health status, and coping style (e.g., wishful thinking and distraction). Multiple regression analysis of the associations of these factors with subjective well-being revealed that generativity was the strongest predictor of subjective well-being, while frequency of interaction with younger people, subjective economic status, and wishful thinking were also significant predictors. On the other hand, subjective health status and distraction were not significant predictors. The findings suggest that not only generativity but also frequency of interaction with different generations and the coping style of wishful thinking are important psycho-behavioral factors that predict subjective well-being among elderly people.

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[in Japanese]

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This study focused on the social roles of community-dwelling older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and aimed to clarify their actual conditions and related factors. We compared the values of four social roles of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology and various survey items in 127 elderly subjects aged 65 years or older. The group who talked to young people tended to eat alone more (p = 0.00), to be more depressed (p = 0.00), and had lower food intake diversity scores (p = 0.04) than the group who didn't talk to young people. No significant associations were found between the three social roles and the values of the various survey items, except for 'Do you talk to young people yourself?'. Logistic regression analysis showed that the no involvement group was significantly associated with loners (odds ratio = 4.28, 95% confidence interval = 1.69-10.83, p = 0.00) and depression-prone individuals (odds ratio = 3.73, 95% confidence interval = 1.02-6.96, p = 0.01). Future cross-sectional studies should investigate the relationship between older adults' health and the presence or absence of involvement with young people, taking into consideration the evolution of the situation during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

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[in Japanese]

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