Successful Aging: Cross-National Analysis of Subjective Well-Being in the Late Life Period

This paper aims to identify and analyze the life course and contextual factors that influence the level of subjective well-being (SWB) of 60+ aged people. Our research is based on the results of 5-th waves of World Value Survey. We have investigated the level of SWB of older people on individual and country level. The results of research demonstrate that the strongest predictors of SWB in late life period are satisfaction of financial state, health state and sense of control, i.e. belief of individuals that they control their live, control what happens to them. Besides, the important factors of SWB of older people is an ability of older people to establish and maintain friendly relations with other people (members of family, friends and etc), i.e. to invest their own recourses to positive emotions and important relationships for themselves. Older people from ex-communist countries have the lowest level of SWB. Older people from English-speaking countries such as USA, Canada, New Zealand and United Kingdom have, by contrast, the highest level of SWB. These results allow suggesting that the degree of modernization influences the level of SWB very strongly. For older people the country in which they live, the level of democracy, GDP per capita, freedom and tolerance are very important. In contemporary society late life period is a time for self-realization, new activities, new leisure and new emotions. If society understands the needs of older people and provides the opportunities for their realization, society can overcome the challenges caused by population aging. Only in this case we can say about such a conception as ‘successful aging”.