Browsing by Author "Homi, Ira"

Objectives: High social well-being is associated with health, happiness and psychological well-being, as low is associated with the risk of depression and anxiety problems. There is a lack of research examining factors connected to the experience of social well-being on the individual level. The associations of personality traits with social well-being have been studied with partly inconsistent results. In turn, social support is associated with psychological well-being and happiness, so it can also be assumed to be related to social well-being, although there is hardly any research about it. The interactions between personality traits and social support with happiness and psychological well-being have been studied only to some extent. However, there is no research concerning the interaction between social support and personality traits with social well-being. The aim of this study is to examine whether social support is associated with personality traits and social well-being and to do personality traits moderate the association between social support and social well-being. Methods: The sample consisted of 3584 men and women, who participated in the second wave of the National Survey of Midlife in the United States. Social support was assessed with five questions about the frequency of contact with family and friends and the perceived emotional support from them. Personality traits were assessed with The Midlife Development Inventory and social well-being with the short version of the Social Well-Being scale. The associations between social support and personality traits with social well-being were examined using regression analysis. Results and conclusions: Both high perceived emotional support from family and friends and high contact frequency with them were associated with high social well-being. High extraversion, agreeableness and consciousness were associated with both high perceived emotional support from family and friends and high contact frequency with them. Low neuroticism and high openness to experience were in turn associated with high contact frequency with family and friends and perceived emotional support from friends. Extraversion, neuroticism and consciousness moderated some associations between social support factors and social well-being. These results support the connection of social support with personality traits and social well-being and suggest that at least some personality traits have a moderator effect on the association between social support and social well-being. In addition, the results strengthen the conception of the significance of social support emphasizing the importance of one's social network and the emotional support perceived from it to social well-being.