Social withdrawal and psychological well-being in later life: does marital status matter?

Abstract

Objectives: Personality researchers have found that dispositional traits are typically stabile over the life course, but shyness is one trait that has rarely been examined in later life. Shyness as a global trait has been linked negatively to multiple psychological indices of childhood well-being, including loneliness. Despite the fact that older adults may already be at risk for experiencing heightened loneliness, regret, or decreased fulfillment, research has not assessed these experiences in relation to personality in later life. In the past few decades, research on social withdrawal has moved beyond treating shyness as a global trait and started to examine the multiple motivations behind socially withdrawn behavior.

Method: Employing data from 309 older participants of the Huntsman Senior Games, the current study used regression analyses to examine the potential relations between three forms of withdrawal (shyness, avoidance, and unsociability) and loneliness, regret, and fulfillment in later life.

Results and Conclusion: Results indicated that shyness, avoidance, and unsociability, respectively, were significantly associated with increased loneliness and regret, and decreased fulfillment. Further, marital status (married, divorced, widowed) moderated links between withdrawal and psychological indices of well-being in later life.

Keywords:

• Shy
• avoidant
• unsocial
• regret
• fulfillment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.