Concentration of critical events influences well-being
Published: Tuesday, Nov 19th 2024, 13:20
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Researchers have investigated the impact of critical events over the course of a lifetime and their influence on well-being in old age. The study shows that it is not only the number of these events that is important, but also their concentration over time.
A high density of critical events, whether of a personal, professional or family nature, has a lasting negative impact on life satisfaction, as the Swiss Center of Expertise in Life Course Research (Lives Center) at the University of Lausanne (Unil) announced on Tuesday. This goes beyond the already known effects of socio-demographic characteristics or life circumstances.
To measure this concentration, the Unil researchers and their Italian colleagues involved in the study used data from the Swiss household panel and developed a new instrument: the concentration index (CI).
This takes into account not only the number of events experienced, but also the time between them. The study shows that critical events that are close together in time put more strain on people's resources and have a lasting impact on their well-being.
Women are more resilient
One remarkable result of the study concerned gender-specific differences: although women experienced more critical events on average than men, they also proved to be more resilient to the temporal concentration of these events.
While men experience an almost linear decline in their life satisfaction with increasing CI, the negative effects for women appear to decrease with very high CI, the report continued. This female resilience could be due to the fact that they are more frequently exposed to concentrated critical events in the course of their lives. This prepares them to cope better with these challenges.
Socio-economic background also plays a decisive role. Men from disadvantaged backgrounds felt the negative effects of the concentration of critical incidents more strongly than men from better-off backgrounds. For women, on the other hand, social background had no significant influence on the relationship between CI and long-term well-being.
The research published in the journal "Advances in Life Course Research" shows that simply counting critical incidents is not enough to understand their impact on quality of life. These findings offer starting points for the development of support measures for affected people.
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