Comparación del bienestar psicológico de personas mayores dominicanas y españolas / Comparison of psychological well-being among Dominican and Spanish elders

RESUMEN

Introducción El bienestar y su relación con diferentes variables se ha convertido en los últimos años en un aspecto central en los trabajos de Gerontología. Dada su importancia, este trabajo examina diferentes factores que potencialmente pueden influir en el bienestar psicológico de las personas mayores. Material y métodos La investigación, de carácter transcultural, se basa en una encuesta que se realizó a 2 muestras de personas mayores de 65 años, una de la República Dominicana (n=1.296) y otra de España (n=476), extraídas, respectivamente, mediante muestreo estratificado y por cuotas. Los análisis incluyen datos estadísticos descriptivos, correlaciones y análisis de covarianza multivariado.Resultados En el conjunto de ambas muestras, los factores sociodemográficos tuvieron un efecto, tanto multivariante como univariante, sobre el bienestar. Sin embargo, los tamaños de los efectos fueron, en general, bastante bajos, alcanzando la significación fundamentalmente los efectos aislados de los factores. La edad se relacionó negativamente con el bienestar. Respecto al estado civil, los sujetos casados tuvieron mayores grados en algunos de los factores de bienestar. Los niveles de estudio más altos se asociaban también a mayores grados en alguno de los factores de bienestar. El efecto de mayor tamaño fue el correspondiente a país; los sujetos dominicanos presentaron un grado de bienestar menor, incluso al controlar estadísticamente el resto de los factores.Conclusiones Una primera conclusión es que los factores sociodemográficos estudiados no actúan diferencialmente en ambos países, dada la baja capacidad explicativa de las interacciones entre factores. No obstante, hay un efecto sistemático de los factores sociodemográficos, independientemente (..) (AU)

ABSTRACT

Introduction Well-being and its association with distinct factors have played a central role in the arena of psychogerontology research. Given the importance of this topic, the present study examined several factors that could influence well-being among the elderly of two countries. Material and methods This cross-cultural study was based on a survey of two samples of elderly people, one from the Dominican Republic (N=1,296) and another from Spain (N=476), sampled, respectively, by stratification and quota sampling. Analyses included descriptive statistics, correlations and a multivariate analysis of covariance. Results Overall, sociodemographic factors were found to affect well-being both in the univariate and multivariate analyses. Nevertheless, the effect sizes were, in general, rather low. These effects were basically due to main effects rather than interactions. Age was negatively related to well-being. Marriage was associated with the highest levels of some well-being dimensions. The highest educational levels were also associated with higher levels of some well-being dimensions. The largest effect was due to country, with Dominicans scoring lower on all well-being dimensions, even after statistically controlling for other factors.Conclusions A main conclusion of this study was that sociodemographic factors did not differentially affect the two countries, given the rather low interaction effects. However, systematic effects were found for sociodemographic factors, independently of country. These effects were analyzed in light of the distinction between subjective and psychological well-being, and the data failed to support the idea of a different profile of results on these two types of well-being dimensions. Finally, given the large effect of country on all well-being dimensions, the relative importance of several sociopolitical and cultural factors was analyzed (AU)