Journal of Community Psychology Volume 17. July 1989

The Relationship of Stress and Social Support to Life Satisfaction: Age Effects

Denis Gray North Carolina State University

Robert J. Calsyn University of Missouri - St. Louis

The present study rephrased the debate between activity and disengagement theorists using the terminology of the stress/social support literature. The following hypotheses were tested: (1) stress has more of a negative impact on the life satisfaction of those under age 75 than those over age 75; (2) social support has more of a positive effect on life satisfaction in those under age 75 than those over age 75; (3) the buffering effect of social support is stronger in the under age 75 group than the over age 75 group. The analyses supported hypotheses 1 and 2, but not hypothesis 3.

In recent years, considerable research has been generated on the relationship be- tween stress, social support, and psychological adjustment. (See Cohen & Wills, 1985, for a review of this literature.) Most research has found that stress has a direct (main) negative effect on psychological adjustment and that social support has a direct (main) positive effect on psychological adjustment. However, some studies also show evidence of the so-called buffering effect of social support, i.e., an interaction between social sup- port and stress such that social support has more impact on psychological adjustment under conditions of high stress.

Although there are very few studies that explicitly examine the relationship between stress, social support, and psychological adjustment in the elderly, there has been over 33 years of research on the correlates of life satisfaction in the elderly (Larson, 1978). Although the labeling of the variables is different, the constructs studied by these two research traditions are quite similar. In the gerontology literature, role losses are roughly equivalent t o stress, activity is similar to social support, and life satisfaction is an in- dicator of psychological adjustment. The results of gerontological research parallel those of the stress/social support research in that researchers generally find a direct (main) negative effect of role losses and a direct positive effect of activity on life satisfaction (Larson, 1978). In general, researchers find that the strength of the negative role losses effect is greater than the positive effects of activity (Larson, 1978; Revenson & Johnson, 1974; Talmer & Kutner, 1969). The so-called buffering or interaction effect has rarely been tested in the gerontology literature. Smith and Lyesman (1972) found that higher peer interaction (social support) was related to life satisfaction only in their constrained (poor health and low income) sample, indicating a buffering effect. However, Krause

The authors wish to thank Dorothy Payne and Roxanne O’Connor of the Tri-County Office on Aging for their financial and administrative support of the project. In addition, the authors wish to thank Caroline Clark who conducted half of the interviews and Deloris Licklider and Grace Kennedy who typed the manuscript. Finally, we want to thank the 70 senior citizens who graciously consented to be interviewed for the project. Reprint requests should be sent to Robert J . Calsyn, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Department of Psychology, 8001 Natural Bridge Road, St. Louis, MO 63121-4499.

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SOCIAL SUPPORT AND STRESS 215

(1987), using better measures of social support and stress, found no evidence of social support by stress interaction in his elderly sample.

Although activity theory and social support theory are similar in many respects, there is one important difference. Activity theory hypothesizes that participation in leisure activities (such as listening to the radio, hobbies, etc.) can also have a positive effect on morale. However, participation in solitary leisure activities generally correlates less with life satisfaction than does social activity (Hoyt, Kaiser, Peters, & Babchuk, 1980; Knapp, 1976). Social support theory has no comparable proposition.

For many years, the gerontology literature featured research examining the debate between activity theory and disengagement theory regarding the relationship between activity and life satisfaction. Activity theorists (Lemon, Bengtson, & Peterson, 1972) maintained that there was a positive relationship between activity and life satisfaction regardless of age, whereas disengagement theorists (Cumming & Henry, 1961) argued that the relationship between activity and life satisfaction diminished with age.

In general, research has supported activity theory; however, the correlation between activity and life-satisfaction generally has not been as high as predicted by activity theorists. Moreover, there have been two studies supporting disengagement theory with samples of older elderly (Maddox & Eisdorfer, 1962; Mancini, Quinn, Gavigan, & Franklin, 1980).

Activity theorists also argued that role losses (stress) would be negatively related to life satisfaction regardless of age. Although disengagement theorists did not formulate a specific proposition regarding the impact of role losses on morale, they implied that the impact of role losses on morale would diminish with age. Supposedly the older “disengaged” person would turn inward and care less about his or her role in the social structure.

Although the current research will use the terminology of stress/social support literature, it will attempt a cross-fertilization of these two traditions by testing hypotheses derived from both social support and disengagement/activity theory. The following hypotheses will be tested: (1) Stress will have more of a negative effect on the life satisfac- tion of the young/old (those elderly under age 75) than the old/old (those over age 75); (2) social support and activity will have more of a positive effect on the life satisfaction of the young/old than the old/old; (3) the buffering effect of social support will be stronger in the young/old than in the old/old.

Method Sample

The sample consisted of 70 persons from the Lansing, Michigan, area who were over 60 years of age and lived alone. Sixty of the 70 respondents were females; the mean age was 74.7 years; 68% of the respondents were White. Using Hollingshead’s (1957) two-factor index of socioeconomic status (SES), 11.3% of the respondents fell into Group I (high SES), 27.4% were in Group 11, 34% were in Group 111, 11.2% were in Group IV, and 16.1070 were in Group V (low SES). Most of the respondents had lived in the Lansing area, a highly urbanized locale, for the majority of their lives (mean = 48.76 years) and had lived at the present address for a long time (mean = 16.41 years).

Data Collection Respondents were interviewed in their home by one of two interviewers. In order

to promote objectivity and equivalence between interviewers, data collection was preceded

216 GRAY AND CALSYN

by a training period including pilot interviews with volunteer senior citizens. Interviewers were instructed not to interpret questions or response options. Each interviewer ques- tioned 35 respondents.

Measures A shortened version of Neugarten, Havighurst, and Tobin’s (1961) Life Satisfac-

tion Scale, Index A (LSIA), was used as the major dependent variable. Item analysis of data collected from another study in Michigan using this device revealed unsatisfac- tory item-total correlations for 6 items on the original scale. Thus, only 14 of the 20 items contained on Index A were used in this assessment. The internal consistency of the scale as measured by Cronbach’s alpha was .74 for the study sample.

Stress was measured by combining the standard scores of two measures, total losses and total problems. The loss measure focused on significant recent (previous 2 years) role losses. Respondents were asked to indicate whether a spouse and/or close relative/friend had passed away, whether they had suffered a serious injury or illness, and/or whether they had retired from work. (However, retirement had not occurred during the past 2 years for any of the respondents.) The ten-item problems measure assessed reports of problems using a 3-point scale (no problem, somewhat of a prob- lem, or important problem). The ten problem areas were income, health care, housing, transportation, age discrimination, employment opportunities, spare time activities, crime, nutrition, and problems with merchants.

Social support was measured by summing the number of visits and telephone con- tacts the respondents had from children, other relatives, and friends. Leisure activities were measured by obtaining a count of the number of leisure activities (out of 15 listed) in which respondents had engaged during the past week. Leisure activities included both social activities (e.g., participation in church) and solitary activities (e.g., writing letters).

Two additional variables, health and income, were included in the analysis as con- trol variables. Prior research (Larson, 1978) has shown that these two variables are moderately correlated with both age and life satisfaction. Thus, we chose to include these two variables in our analysis and thereby remove their effect on the dependent variable. Health was measured by a one-item (4-point scale) self-evaluation of health measure. Although there are some drawbacks to using a subjective estimate of health, the convenience of this approach, as well as reports that objective health measures are the best predictor of self-health evaluation (Palmore & Luikart, 1972), provided a basis for its use in this study.

There has been considerable debate on how to measure disengagement. Although a revised disengagement theory (Hochschild, 1975) does acknowledge individual varia- tions in the disengagement process, the original theory postulated that disengagement increased with age. Thus, the study hypotheses were tested by performing separate regres- sion equations on the under age 75 sample (n = 35) and the over age 75 sample (n = 35). In order to partial out their effect on life satisfaction, health and income were forced into the equation on the first step. The study hypotheses were tested by adding stress to the equations on the second step, social support and activities on the third step; and the interaction terms stress x social support and stress x activities on the fourth step. All variables were standardized prior to the regression analysis.

Results Table 1 displays the standardized means and standard deviations for the two samples.

There were significant differences at the .05 level or greater between the two groups on

SOCIAL SUPPORT AND STRESS 21 7

only income (t =2.48, p < .Ol), with the younger group having the higher income, and on the number of leisure activities (t = 2.58, p < .Ol), again with the younger group engaging in more leisure-type activities.

Table 1 Standardized Means and Standard Deviations by Age Groups

Variable Over age 75 Under age 75 1 P

Life satisfaction M .09 - .G9 .I3 .47 SD .85 1.14

Health

Income

Stress

Support

Leisure

M .09 .08 - .I2 .47 SD 1.01 .99

.27 - M - .34 SD .49 1.22

2.48 .01

M .03 - .03 - .01 .99 SD 1.05 1.72 M - SD M - SD

. .08 .08 - .61 .51

. .31 31 - 2.58 .01 .90 1.10

.79 1.10

Table 2 presents the results of the regression analyses relevant to testing the hypotheses of the study. As expected, the two control variables, health and income, were significantly related to life satisfaction in both samples, with the percentage of variance explained being nearly identical in the two samples. As predicted, the addition of the stress measure to the regression equation did not significantly add to the predic- tion of life satisfaction in the over age 75 sample (Rz change = .OO, F = .OO, p = .96), but stress did add significantly to the prediction of life satisfaction in the under age 75 sample (R2 change = .16, F = 7.77, p = .01). Similarly, as predicted, social support did not significantly add to the prediction of life satisfaction in the over age 75 group (R2 change = .04, F = 83, p = .45), but social support did add significantly to the prediction of life satisfaction in the under age 75 group (R2 change = .12, F = 3.56, p = .04). However, hypothesis 3 was not supported; there was no evidence of a buffer- ing effect in either sample.

Table 2 A Comparison of Predictors of Life Satisfaction by Age Groups

Over age 75 Under age 75 RZ F R* F

Step R RZ Change Change p R R2 Change Change p

1. Income .41 .17 .17 3.28 .05 .46 .22 .22 4.41 .02

2. Stress .41 .17 .OO .OO .96 .61 .37 .16 7.77 .01

3. Social Support .46 .22 .04 .83 .45 .71 .SO .12 3.56 .04

4. Stress x Social Support .48 .23 .01 .18 .84 .75 .55 .06 1.77 .19

Health

Leisure

Stress x Leisure

218 GRAY AND CALSYN

Discussion As anticipated, our findings were consistent with the predictions of the stresdsocial

support literature and activity theory for the under age 75 sample; i.e., the addition of both stress and social support to the regression equation increased the prediction of life satisfaction in the under age 75 sample. However, contrary to hypothesis 3, inclu- sion of a variable for the interaction between stress and social support (the buffering effect) did not improve the prediction of life satisfaction in the under age 75 sample, thus replicating the findings of Krause (1987).

In the over age 75 sample neither stress, social support, nor the interaction term added to the prediction of life satisfaction as anticipated by our modified version of disengagement theory. Thus, our findings are consistent with the findings of Maddox and Eisdorfer (1962) and of Mancini et al. (1980); namely, that the normal positive rela- tionship between morale and activity declines in the very old. These findings suggest that negative effects of stress and the positive effects of social support that have been found in the general population (Cohen & Wills, 1985) decline with age. However, it is important to note that in a longitudinal study, Graney (1975) found that changes in activity level had more effect on morale in the old/old than the young/old.

Additional research is needed before gerontologists conclude that activity theory best explains the aging process in the young/old, whereas disengagement theory best explains the aging process in the old/old. Because our sample was a small (70) con- venience one, our results may not generalize to other samples. Moreover, 60 of the 70 respondents were women. Past studies (Elwell & Mattbie-Crannell, 1981 ; Spreitzer & Snyder, 1974) have found that the correlates of life satisfaction vary by gender. Similarly, future research should use more conventional measures of stress such as the Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Rating scale (1967) or the Life Experiences Survey (Sarason, Johnson, & Siegel, 1978).

Future research should also use a multidimensional measure of social support. Cohen and Wills (1985) point out that quantitative indices of social support such as the one used in the present study usually correlate less with psychological adjustment than do qualitative (perceived) measures of social support. Moreover, the buffering effect of social support on stress is more frequently found with qualitative measures of social support. In addition, future researchers should also examine the negative impacts that the social network may have in addition to its supportive functions, as illustrated in the work of Fiore, Becker, and Coppel (1983). A prospective longitudinal design is also needed to establish causal relationships between measures of stress, social support, and psychological adjustment (or morale).

Finally, it is important to remind ourselves that the elderly are as heterogeneous as the young and that no one theory will adequately explain all of the variance in morale or psychological adjustment for a given cohort of the elderly. Thurmond and Belcher (1980-81) reached a similar conclusion when they tested the propositions of disengage- ment, activity, and role theory with the rural elderly.

Continuity theory (Fox, 1981-82) has emerged as an alternative to disengagement and activity theories. Continuity theory emphasizes the consistency in roles and per- sonality that a given individual maintains across time, while recognizing the vast array of individual patterns of personality that exist among the elderly. Although continuity theory has provided a useful perspective, it has not generated vast amounts of research. Thus gerontology remains in search of a “few good theories.”

SOCIAL SUPPORT AND STRESS 219

Cohen, S., & Wills, T 98(2), 310-357.

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