Relationships Among Life Events and Psychological Well-Being: More Evidence for a Two-Factor Theory of Well-Being

Abstract

Relationships between 11 major life events and changes in psychological well-being were examined in a three-generation sample: grandparents, their adult children, and their young adult grandchildren. Psychological well-being was measured using the Bradburn Affect Balance Scale. Life events included marriages; divorces; births of children; deaths of spouses, children, and parents; health declines; hospitalizations; improved standard of living; retirement; and retirement of one's spouse. Both positive and negative affect demonstrated similar stability over 14 years and were equally predictable from the life events. However, consistent with a two-factor conceptualization of psychological well-being, for all generations, desirable life events predicted change in positive affect whereas undesirable events predicted change in negative affect; cross-domain prediction was minimal. Results further indicated that whether life events are expected may be more important in predicting subsequent psychological well-being than whether they are desirable or undesirable.

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