Examining processing speed as a predictor of subjective well-being across age and time in the German Aging Survey

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the current study was to examine the associations between cognition, measured via the Digit Symbol Substitution Task, and subjective well-being (measured using the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Positive and Negative Affect scale) in a community-based sample of middle-aged and older adults. Specifically, we examined both the cross-sectional and the longitudinal relationships between processing speed and subjective well-being. Data are from participants between 40–85 years-old (at baseline) who participated in the German Aging Survey across four waves. Results showed that processing speed was a weak but consistent predictor of positive affect, while age was associated with decreases in negative affect and positive affect, and increases in life satisfaction cross-sectionally. Conversely, cross-lagged panel analyses showed that the temporal relationship between processing speed and positive affect was close to zero, and non-significant. The results of this study shed additional light on the relationship between subjective well-being and cognition.

KEYWORDS:

• Subjective well-being
• positive affect
• processing speed
• digit symbol substitution task
• German Aging Survey

Acknowledgments

Data for the current study came from the German Ageing Survey (DEAS). The DEAS is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth (Grant 301-6083-05/003*2). We would like to thank the Research Data Centre of the German Centre of Gerontology (DZA) for providing the data.

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethical Statement

Per Romswinkel et al. (2018), an ethical statement was not necessary for the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) because there was little to no risk to participants, information about the purpose of the study was available to the participants, and the level of examination of the participants did not meet criteria to require an ethical statement. This rationale is supported by the German Research Foundation-guidelines (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) available at: http://dfg.de/foerderung/faq/geistes_sozialwissenschaften/(in German). The DEAS meets the ethical standards delineated in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its amendments. Although there is no ethical statement, consent for participation was requested by a joint written request of the Research Data Centre of the German Centre of Gerontology (DZA) and Infas (Institute of Applied Social Sciences), the institute that conducted field interviewing. Consent was obtained for saving participant addresses for purposes of prospective contact for participation in the longitudinal survey.