Qualities of social relationships as mediators of the relationship between future perceptions and health

Abstract

Objectives

Foreshortened future perceptions relate to higher mental and physical morbidity. However, socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) maintains that psychological well-being improves as future perceptions narrow due to growing tendency to prioritize meaningful goals and close relationships. The objective of this study was to reconcile this contradiction by examining a model in which the focus on close relationships suppresses the direct relationship between narrow future perceptions and physical/mental morbidity.

Method

Community-dwelling older adults (N = 249, mean age = 75.60, SD = 7.54) recruited through social clubs and day centers were interviewed at home. They filled self-report questionnaires measuring future time perspective, subjective nearness to death, positivity of relationships with others and inclusion of others in the self, while rating several physical/mental health indices. A structural equation modeling analysis tested direct and indirect effects.

Results

Narrow future perceptions related to higher mental (|β| ranged .28 to .47, p < .001) and physical morbidity (|β| ranged .37 to .45, p < .001) and, surprisingly, also to lower positivity of close relationships (|β| ranged .24 to .31, p < .01) and less inclusion of others (|β| ranged .17 to .21, p < .01). Both social indices mediated the relationship with lower physical health, while positivity of close relationships also mediated the relationship with psychological distress.

Conclusion

The findings challenge SST assumptions by underscoring the negative effects of narrow future perceptions on social relationship, making the latter a mediator rather than suppressor in the link between future perceptions and physical/mental morbidity. The findings should be viewed in light of the study’s limitations, including convenience sampling and cross-sectional design.

Keywords:

• Future time perspective
• subjective nearness to death
• positivity of social relationships

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.