title: [Comparison of psychological well-being among Dominican and Spanish elders].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  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.
  
  
  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.
authors: Departamento de Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, España. tomasjm@uv.es
authors: José Manuel
authors: JM
authors: Tomás Miguel
authors: Amparo
authors: A
authors: Oliver Germes
authors: Esperanza
authors: E
authors: Navarro Pardo
authors: Juan Carlos
authors: JC
authors: Meléndez Moral
authors: Cristina
authors: C
authors: Molina Sena
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004293:Dominican Republic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D013030:Spain