Influence of Social Support and Subjective Well-Being on the Perceived Overall Health of the Elderly.

Scientific interest in the positive aspects of aging and the development of healthy aging has increased, given the need to ensure older people well-being and quality of life. In this sense, social support and some sociodemographic variables may have a not yet entirely clear role. The main objective of this work was to analyze the predictive relationships of age, marital status, social support and subjective well-being on the general perception of the health of a group of elderly people. The participants were 137 people (77.4% women) between 61 and 91 years old (M = 73.11; SD = 6.22); 56.9% of them had a partner and 40.1% did not. The path analysis tested indicates that social support has an indirect predictive value on perceived overall health through its influence on subjective well-being. Age and life satisfaction are the most important direct predictors of perceived overall health. Conclusions highlight the need to delve into the study of explanatory factors of the general perception of the health of the elderly and promote interventions to facilitate the development of an appropriate social support network and increase the subjective well-being of this group.

Therapist activities preceding setbacks in the assimilation process.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the therapist activities immediately preceding assimilation setbacks in the treatment of a good-outcome client treated with linguistic therapy of evaluation (LTE). METHOD: Setbacks (N = 105) were defined as decreases of one or more assimilation stages from one passage to the next dealing with the same theme. The therapist activities immediately preceding those setbacks were classified using two kinds of codes: (a) therapist interventions and (b) positions the therapist took toward the client's internal voices. RESULTS: Preceding setbacks to early assimilation stages, where the problem was unformulated, the therapist was more often actively listening, and the setbacks were more often attributable to pushing a theme beyond the client's working zone. Preceding setbacks to later assimilation stages, where the problem was at least formulated, the therapist was more likely to be directing clients to consider alternatives, following the LTE agenda, and setbacks were more often attributable to the client following these directives shifting attention to less assimilated (but nevertheless formulated) aspects of the problem. CONCLUSIONS: At least in this case, setbacks followed systematically different therapist activities depending on the problem's stage of assimilation. Possible implications for the assimilation model's account of setbacks and for practice are discussed.