Qual Life Res (2015) 24:241–244 DOI 10.1007/s11136-014-0750-4
BRIEF COMMUNICATION
Life satisfaction and social desirability across the late life span: What relationship? Maria Chiara Fastame • Maria Pietronilla Penna Paul Kenneth Hitchcott
•
Accepted: 26 June 2014 / Published online: 2 July 2014 Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
Abstract Purpose The current study mainly aimed to investigate the impact of social desirability in predicting life satisfaction in cognitively healthy elderly people. Methods One hundred and seventy-eight 65- to 99-yearold adults were recruited in Sardinia, an Italian Isle known for the longevity of its inhabitants, and were presented a battery of questionnaires assessing subjective well-being, metacognitive efficiency, depressive symptoms and socially desirable responding style. Results An analysis of covariance and a hierarchical regression analysis showed that the social desirable style does have a marginal impact on self-referent measures of life satisfaction. Indeed, only 5 % of the variance in life satisfaction was predicted by self-rated social desirability. Conclusions Social desirability does not seem to bias the self-assessment of an important aspect of quality of life in late adulthood. That is, life satisfaction of Italian elderly people does not seem to be impacted by the tendency to present themselves in a more favourable way. Keywords Ageing Life satisfaction Social desirability Metacognition Well-being
M. C. Fastame (&) M. P. Penna Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy, University of Cagliari, Via Is Mirrionis 1, 09123 Cagliari, Italy e-mail: [email protected] P. K. Hitchcott Department of Psychology, Southampton Solent University, East Park Terrace, Southampton SO14 0YN, UK
Introduction Life satisfaction (LS) refers to a construct embodied in the subjective well-being, a broad and heterogeneous category including further phenomena, such as the experience of pleasant emotions and lower levels of negative moods [1]. There is evidence that higher scores in LS scales are associated with the preservation of health and predict longevity in late adulthood, a phenomenon found across different cultures [2, 3]. In terms of studies on psychological well-being in later life, recently, Fastame [4] found that negative emotions together with education and age play a crucial role in predicting general beliefs about memory efficiency and self-referent capacity to control mnestic processes in healthy adulthood. However, according to Soubelet and Salthouse [5], older adults present higher level of LS and lower neuroticism, but they tend to have a more socially desirable responding style. A possible explanation is that the elderly conform more to social norms. Therefore, they tend to present themselves in a more favourable way; that is, they try to ‘‘look good’’ as an attempt to preserve their social image [6]. However, the question is controversial, because further studies suggest that the impact of social desirability on subjective well-being in late adulthood is overestimated [7]. The main goal of the current study was to examine the impact of social desirability on LS in later life, when controlling for metacognitive and affective measures. According to previous studies, both a marginal or significant effect could be hypothesised. In our opinion, it is important to investigate the role played by social desirability in subjective well-being, of the elderly, because LS is strictly related to quality of life in late adulthood.
123
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Qual Life Res (2015) 24:241–244
Table 1 Socio-demographic characteristics collected from all the participants of the study
n
Old group
Very old group
Oldest old group
71
60
47
F
Genre Males
34
30
20
Females
27
37
30
Age range (years)
65–74
75–84
85–99
Age (years)
M = 69.8 (SD = 2.8)
M = 78.8 (SD = 3.2)
M = 87.9 (SD = 3)
Single/widow
27
36
31
Married/engaged
44
24
16
60 11
38 22
29 18
Yes
36
24
14
No
35
36
33
Yes
46
50
43
No
25
10
4
Marital status
Hobby Yes No Gardening
Medicines
Education (years) Males
Females
Males
Females
Males
Females
0–8
15
18
18
18
12
16
C9
19
19
12
12
8
11
v2
df
p
5.19
2
.08
.61
2
.74
10.73
2
.005
10.04
2
.007
5.2
2
.07
13.24
2
.001
3.02
2
.22
MMSE
M = 26.6 (SD = 1.4)
M = 27.5 (SD = 1.7)
M = 27.4 (SD = 1.8)
7.06
2,175
.001
CES-D
M = 7.41 (SD = 6.44)
M = 9.98 (SD = 8.03)
M = 11.02 (SD = 8)
3.8
2,175
.024
PS-PWAQ
M = 37.27 (SD = 5.2)
M = 38.03 (SD = 5.63)
M = 37.08 (SD = 5.34)
.50
2,175
.60
MCSDS
M = 21.97 (SD = 4.21)
M = 23.27 (SD = 4.42)
M = 23.06 (SD = 4.16)
1.73
2,175
.18
CFQ
M = 30.86 (SD = 13.81)
M = 31.77 (SD = 15)
M = 31.4 (SD = 13.9)
.07
2,175
.93
M indicates mean score, whereas SD denotes standard deviation scores. MMSE refers to Mini-Mental State Examination scale, CES-D was used as measure of depression, PS-PWAQ assesses life satisfaction, MCSDS is a measure of social desirability, whereas CFQ refers to a self-referent metacognitive efficiency measure. Data are distinguished by age group (old, very old and oldest old)
Method
Table 1 shows the socio-demographic characteristics of this sample.
Participants One hundred and seventy-eight healthy community dwelling elders participated in the study voluntarily. They were recruited in rural areas of Sardinia, an Italian island located in the Mediterranean Sea and known for the longevity of its inhabitants. Participants were, respectively, assigned to three age groups: old (i.e., 65–74 years old), very old (i.e., 75–84 years old) and oldest old (i.e., [84 years old) groups. In order to take part in the study, they had to have a score up to 23/30 on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) [8]. Therefore, a score below 24/30 was the criterion used to exclude suspected milddemented participants. Participants were recruited using direct appeals to community groups and through the local social services.
123
Materials and procedure Each participant was presented the following tests: 1.
2.
The MMSE [8] is a paper and pencil test composed of 30 items assessing spatial–temporal orientation, visualmotor integration, short- and long-term memory, attention and mental calculation processes. It provides a measure of general cognitive efficiency. The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) [9] has been adapted in Italian by Borella et al. [10] and is composed of 25 items. It provides a self-referent measure of the efficiency of cognitive processes, because the participant has to self-rate the failures of memory and motor processes during the last 6 months
Qual Life Res (2015) 24:241–244
3.
4.
5.
using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (very often). It is a metacognitive measure of the cognitive efficiency of each participant. The maximum score is 100. The internal consistency in our sample was expressed by a Cronbach’s alpha of .86. The Psychological Well-Being and Aging Questionnaire (PWAQ) [11] assesses subjective psychological well-being in sexagenarians and older adults. The PWAQ is composed of 37 items providing a general wellness, personal satisfaction (i.e., PS-PWAQ, defined as the level of satisfaction with respect to what was realised in the past, the level of selfappreciation in the present and the expectations of satisfaction in the future), coping strategies (i.e., SCPWAQ, the capacity to tackle daily life problems, as well as the capacity to overcome them) and emotional competencies (i.e., EM-PWAQ, the capacity to recognise and understand emotional status as well as the capacity to establish social relationships). Self-rated scores are expressed along a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 3 (often). The maximum score is 111. For the aim of the current study, we will focus only on the LS measure (i.e., PS-PWAQ, the maximum total score is 44; the Cronbach’s alpha in our sample was .84). The Centre of Epidemiological Studies of Depression Scale (CES-D) [12] was adapted in Italian by Fava [13]. This tool offers a measure of depressive signs and is composed of 20 questions asking people to selfassess how frequently they had specific feelings or thoughts during the past week. Scores are expressed along a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (rarely or never) to 3 (most days or every day). The maximum score is 60; a score of 23 or higher is used as the Italian cutoff to diagnose depressive symptoms. The internal consistency in the current sample was expressed by a = .68. The Marlowe and Crown Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS) [14] has been recently adapted in Italian for elderly people by Fastame and Penna [15] and is composed of 33 true and false items describing socially acceptable but unlikely behaviours and socially rejected but probable situations. The maximum score is 33. In the current sample, the internal consistency was a = .72.
All the participants were tested individually in a quiet room. In order to avoid the fatigue effect, the experimenter read aloud each item and the participant had to refer to the answer. After presenting the MMSE, the presentation order of the further questionnaires was counterbalanced across the participants. Each experimental session lasted about 60 min.
243 Table 2 Predictors of LS measure using depression (i.e., CES-D), metacognition (i.e., CFQ) and social desirability (MCSDS) scores as independent variables Variable
n
PS-PWAQ
178
Predictors
R2
CFQ
.10
CES-D CFQ CES-D MCSDS
.15
b
t
-.005
p -.07
.94
- .34
- 4.53
\.0001
.07 -.32
.94 -4.36
.35 \.0001
.24
3.23
.001
Results Table 1 summarises the mean scores and the relative standard deviation in the cognitive, metacognitive and affective measures administered. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was carried out to explore the effect of age groups (i.e., old vs very old and oldest old) on LS measure, using the social desirability score as covariate. The main effect of age group was not significant [F(2,174) = .38, p = .69], whereas there was the effect of social desirability [F(1,174) = 13.36, p \ .0001, g2p = .07]. When an ANCOVA was carried out on the CFQ measure, the effect of social desirability as covariate was significant [F(1,174) = 24.49, p \ .0001, g2p = .12], but not the effect of age group [F(2,174) = .57, p = .56]. An ANCOVA carried out on the CES-D scores revealed both the main effect of age group [F(2,174) = .4.93, p = .008, g2p = .05] and social desirability which was the covariate [F(1,174) = 7.57, p = .007, g2p = .042]. Finally, a hierarchic stepwise linear regression analysis performed by ordinary least squares estimation was carried out to investigate the impact of social desirability on LS scores, when controlling for the effect of self-referent depressive and metacognitive measures. Specifically, CESD, CFQ and MCSDS scores were used as predictors, whereas PS-PWAQ index was fitted as the dependent variable. Table 2 summarises these outcomes.
General discussion The major goal of the present study was to investigate the role played by social desirability in predicting LS in late adulthood. The significant role of socially responding style emerged when an ANCOVA was carried out on LS score, using the social desirability measure as covariate and the age group as independent factor. Two further ANCOVAs revealed that social desirability influences self-referent measures of depression and metacognitive efficiency too.
123
244
However, despite previous findings [5, 16], socially desirable responding style predicts only 4 % of variance relative to LS score. Therefore, current outcomes are consistent and extend the findings by Phillips et al. [7], according to which social desirability plays a very marginal role in predicting the psychological well-being of the elderly. A surprising finding was the lack of age-related differences in the LS scores. Indeed, considering the norms proposed by De Beni et al. [11], our Old and Very Old participants showed the highest level of LS (i.e., scores [35), whereas the oldest old group showed medium scores (i.e., 36–39). Overall, in agreement with previous studies [16, 17], it is plausible to hypothesise that Sardinian elderly people are a specific subpopulation showing not only high longevity, but also the highest levels of LS compared with further Italian older groups. Therefore, a limit of the current study is that Sardinian elderly living in the rural areas could not be representative of the Italian older population. This is an emerging outcome proposed by Fastame et al. [18] and Fastame and Penna [16] in two recent studies in which Sardinian adults living in the area of Ogliastra showed greater subjective well-being and mnestic performance than peers recruited in rural areas of Lombardy. Our participants were recruited in different inner rural areas of Sardinia, but it seems that they still had an active lifestyle, meaning they were still involved in the social life of their village. Overall, notwithstanding modest physical health, the greatest part of our sample spent time for leisure; specifically, more than 47 % carried out social or recreational activities, almost 9 % were involved in cultural activities and approximately 15 % participated in some sports or had hobbies. A further interesting outcome is that the self-referent metacognitive measure does not predict LS scores. This is inconsistent with a previous study showing a significant relationship between negative affect and self-rated personal and general metamemory measures in young and old adults [4]. However, our participants were only cognitively healthy elderly people. Therefore, future research has to overcome the current issues, exploring the relationship between LS, negative mood and metacognitive efficiency in further Italian older samples with or without mild signs of cognitive decline.
References 1. Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Oishi, S. (2002). Subjective wellbeing: The science of happiness and life satisfaction. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), The handbook of positive psychology (pp. 63–73). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Qual Life Res (2015) 24:241–244 2. Chida, Y., & Steptoe, A. (2008). Positive psychological wellbeing and mortality: A quantitative review of prospective observational studies. Psychosomatic Medicine, 70, 741–756. doi:10.1097/PSY.0b013e31818105ba. 3. Diener, E., & Chan, M. Y. (2011). Happy people live longer: Subjective well-being contributes to health and longevity. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 3, 1–43. doi:10. 1111/j.1758-0854.2010.01045.x. 4. Fastame, M. C. (2014). Exploring the effect of depressive symptoms and ageing on metamemory in an Italian adult sample. Psychology, Health and Medicine, 19(2), 127–135. doi:10.1080/ 13548506.2013.802360. 5. Soubelet, A., & Salthouse, T. A. (2011). Influence of social desirability on age differences in self-reports of mood and personality. Journal of Personality, 79, 741–762. doi:10.1111/j. 1467-6494.2010.00700.x. 6. Dijkstra, W., Smit, J. H., & Comijs, C. H. (2001). Using social desirability scales in research among the elderly. Quality & Quantity, 35(1), 107–115. doi:10.1023/A:1004816210439. 7. Phillips, L. H., Henry, J. D., Hosie, J. A., & Milne, A. B. (2006). Age, anger regulation, and wellbeing. Aging and Mental Health, 10, 250–256. doi:10.1080/13607860500310385. 8. Folstein, M. F., Folstein, S. E., & McHugh, P. R. (1975). Minimental state. A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 189–198. doi:10.1016/0022-3956(75)90026-6. 9. Broadbent, D. E., Cooper, P. F., Fitzgerald, P., & Parkes, K. R. (1982). The Cognitive Failure Questionnaire (CFQ) and its correlates. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 21, 1–16. doi:10. 1111/j.2044-8260.1982.tb01421.x. 10. Borella, E., Carretti, B., Cornoldi, C., & De Beni, R. (2007). Working memory, control of interference and everyday experience of thoughts interference: A comparison between young, young–old and old–old adults. Aging, Clinical and Experimental Research, 19, 200–206. 11. De Beni, R., Borella, E., Carretti, B., Marigo, C., & Nava, L. A. (2007). BAC: Benessere e Abilita` Cognitive nell’eta` Adulta e Avanzata. [BAC: Wellness and cognitive abilities in the advanced and adult age]. Firenze: Organizzazioni Speciali. 12. Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D Scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401. doi:10.1177/014662167700100306. 13. Fava, G. A. (1983). Assessing depressive symptoms across cultures: Italian validation of the CES-D self-rating scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 39, 249–251. doi:10.1002/1097-4679 (198303)39:2\249:AID-JCLP2270390218[3.0.CO;2-Y. 14. Crowne, D. P., & Marlowe, D. (1960). A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 24, 349–354. doi:10.1037/h0047358. 15. Fastame, M. C., & Penna, M. P. (2012). Does social desirability confound the assessment of self-reported measures of wellness and metacognitive efficiency in young and older adults? Clinical Gerontologist, 35(3), 239–256. doi:10.1080/07317115.2012.660411. 16. Fastame, M. C., & Penna, M. P. (2014). Psychological well-being and metacognition in the fourth age: An explorative study in an Italian oldest old sample. Aging & Mental Health, 18, 648–652. doi:10.1080/13607863.2013.866635. 17. Poulain, M., Pes, G. M., Grasland, C., Carru, C., Ferrucci, L., Baggio, G., et al. (2004). Identification of a geographic area characterized by extreme longevity in the Sardinia Island: The AKEA study. Experimental Gerontology, 20, 1–7. doi:10.1016/j. exger.2004.06.016. 18. Fastame, M. C., Penna, M. P., Rossetti, E. S., & Agus, M. (2014). The effect of age and socio-cultural factors on self-rated wellbeing and metacognitive and mnestic efficiency among healthy elderly people. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 9, 325–334. doi:10.1007/s11482-013-9238-6.
BRIEF COMMUNICATION
Life satisfaction and social desirability across the late life span: What relationship? Maria Chiara Fastame • Maria Pietronilla Penna Paul Kenneth Hitchcott
•
Accepted: 26 June 2014 / Published online: 2 July 2014 Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
Abstract Purpose The current study mainly aimed to investigate the impact of social desirability in predicting life satisfaction in cognitively healthy elderly people. Methods One hundred and seventy-eight 65- to 99-yearold adults were recruited in Sardinia, an Italian Isle known for the longevity of its inhabitants, and were presented a battery of questionnaires assessing subjective well-being, metacognitive efficiency, depressive symptoms and socially desirable responding style. Results An analysis of covariance and a hierarchical regression analysis showed that the social desirable style does have a marginal impact on self-referent measures of life satisfaction. Indeed, only 5 % of the variance in life satisfaction was predicted by self-rated social desirability. Conclusions Social desirability does not seem to bias the self-assessment of an important aspect of quality of life in late adulthood. That is, life satisfaction of Italian elderly people does not seem to be impacted by the tendency to present themselves in a more favourable way. Keywords Ageing Life satisfaction Social desirability Metacognition Well-being
M. C. Fastame (&) M. P. Penna Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy, University of Cagliari, Via Is Mirrionis 1, 09123 Cagliari, Italy e-mail: [email protected] P. K. Hitchcott Department of Psychology, Southampton Solent University, East Park Terrace, Southampton SO14 0YN, UK
Introduction Life satisfaction (LS) refers to a construct embodied in the subjective well-being, a broad and heterogeneous category including further phenomena, such as the experience of pleasant emotions and lower levels of negative moods [1]. There is evidence that higher scores in LS scales are associated with the preservation of health and predict longevity in late adulthood, a phenomenon found across different cultures [2, 3]. In terms of studies on psychological well-being in later life, recently, Fastame [4] found that negative emotions together with education and age play a crucial role in predicting general beliefs about memory efficiency and self-referent capacity to control mnestic processes in healthy adulthood. However, according to Soubelet and Salthouse [5], older adults present higher level of LS and lower neuroticism, but they tend to have a more socially desirable responding style. A possible explanation is that the elderly conform more to social norms. Therefore, they tend to present themselves in a more favourable way; that is, they try to ‘‘look good’’ as an attempt to preserve their social image [6]. However, the question is controversial, because further studies suggest that the impact of social desirability on subjective well-being in late adulthood is overestimated [7]. The main goal of the current study was to examine the impact of social desirability on LS in later life, when controlling for metacognitive and affective measures. According to previous studies, both a marginal or significant effect could be hypothesised. In our opinion, it is important to investigate the role played by social desirability in subjective well-being, of the elderly, because LS is strictly related to quality of life in late adulthood.
123
242
Qual Life Res (2015) 24:241–244
Table 1 Socio-demographic characteristics collected from all the participants of the study
n
Old group
Very old group
Oldest old group
71
60
47
F
Genre Males
34
30
20
Females
27
37
30
Age range (years)
65–74
75–84
85–99
Age (years)
M = 69.8 (SD = 2.8)
M = 78.8 (SD = 3.2)
M = 87.9 (SD = 3)
Single/widow
27
36
31
Married/engaged
44
24
16
60 11
38 22
29 18
Yes
36
24
14
No
35
36
33
Yes
46
50
43
No
25
10
4
Marital status
Hobby Yes No Gardening
Medicines
Education (years) Males
Females
Males
Females
Males
Females
0–8
15
18
18
18
12
16
C9
19
19
12
12
8
11
v2
df
p
5.19
2
.08
.61
2
.74
10.73
2
.005
10.04
2
.007
5.2
2
.07
13.24
2
.001
3.02
2
.22
MMSE
M = 26.6 (SD = 1.4)
M = 27.5 (SD = 1.7)
M = 27.4 (SD = 1.8)
7.06
2,175
.001
CES-D
M = 7.41 (SD = 6.44)
M = 9.98 (SD = 8.03)
M = 11.02 (SD = 8)
3.8
2,175
.024
PS-PWAQ
M = 37.27 (SD = 5.2)
M = 38.03 (SD = 5.63)
M = 37.08 (SD = 5.34)
.50
2,175
.60
MCSDS
M = 21.97 (SD = 4.21)
M = 23.27 (SD = 4.42)
M = 23.06 (SD = 4.16)
1.73
2,175
.18
CFQ
M = 30.86 (SD = 13.81)
M = 31.77 (SD = 15)
M = 31.4 (SD = 13.9)
.07
2,175
.93
M indicates mean score, whereas SD denotes standard deviation scores. MMSE refers to Mini-Mental State Examination scale, CES-D was used as measure of depression, PS-PWAQ assesses life satisfaction, MCSDS is a measure of social desirability, whereas CFQ refers to a self-referent metacognitive efficiency measure. Data are distinguished by age group (old, very old and oldest old)
Method
Table 1 shows the socio-demographic characteristics of this sample.
Participants One hundred and seventy-eight healthy community dwelling elders participated in the study voluntarily. They were recruited in rural areas of Sardinia, an Italian island located in the Mediterranean Sea and known for the longevity of its inhabitants. Participants were, respectively, assigned to three age groups: old (i.e., 65–74 years old), very old (i.e., 75–84 years old) and oldest old (i.e., [84 years old) groups. In order to take part in the study, they had to have a score up to 23/30 on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) [8]. Therefore, a score below 24/30 was the criterion used to exclude suspected milddemented participants. Participants were recruited using direct appeals to community groups and through the local social services.
123
Materials and procedure Each participant was presented the following tests: 1.
2.
The MMSE [8] is a paper and pencil test composed of 30 items assessing spatial–temporal orientation, visualmotor integration, short- and long-term memory, attention and mental calculation processes. It provides a measure of general cognitive efficiency. The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) [9] has been adapted in Italian by Borella et al. [10] and is composed of 25 items. It provides a self-referent measure of the efficiency of cognitive processes, because the participant has to self-rate the failures of memory and motor processes during the last 6 months
Qual Life Res (2015) 24:241–244
3.
4.
5.
using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (very often). It is a metacognitive measure of the cognitive efficiency of each participant. The maximum score is 100. The internal consistency in our sample was expressed by a Cronbach’s alpha of .86. The Psychological Well-Being and Aging Questionnaire (PWAQ) [11] assesses subjective psychological well-being in sexagenarians and older adults. The PWAQ is composed of 37 items providing a general wellness, personal satisfaction (i.e., PS-PWAQ, defined as the level of satisfaction with respect to what was realised in the past, the level of selfappreciation in the present and the expectations of satisfaction in the future), coping strategies (i.e., SCPWAQ, the capacity to tackle daily life problems, as well as the capacity to overcome them) and emotional competencies (i.e., EM-PWAQ, the capacity to recognise and understand emotional status as well as the capacity to establish social relationships). Self-rated scores are expressed along a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 3 (often). The maximum score is 111. For the aim of the current study, we will focus only on the LS measure (i.e., PS-PWAQ, the maximum total score is 44; the Cronbach’s alpha in our sample was .84). The Centre of Epidemiological Studies of Depression Scale (CES-D) [12] was adapted in Italian by Fava [13]. This tool offers a measure of depressive signs and is composed of 20 questions asking people to selfassess how frequently they had specific feelings or thoughts during the past week. Scores are expressed along a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (rarely or never) to 3 (most days or every day). The maximum score is 60; a score of 23 or higher is used as the Italian cutoff to diagnose depressive symptoms. The internal consistency in the current sample was expressed by a = .68. The Marlowe and Crown Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS) [14] has been recently adapted in Italian for elderly people by Fastame and Penna [15] and is composed of 33 true and false items describing socially acceptable but unlikely behaviours and socially rejected but probable situations. The maximum score is 33. In the current sample, the internal consistency was a = .72.
All the participants were tested individually in a quiet room. In order to avoid the fatigue effect, the experimenter read aloud each item and the participant had to refer to the answer. After presenting the MMSE, the presentation order of the further questionnaires was counterbalanced across the participants. Each experimental session lasted about 60 min.
243 Table 2 Predictors of LS measure using depression (i.e., CES-D), metacognition (i.e., CFQ) and social desirability (MCSDS) scores as independent variables Variable
n
PS-PWAQ
178
Predictors
R2
CFQ
.10
CES-D CFQ CES-D MCSDS
.15
b
t
-.005
p -.07
.94
- .34
- 4.53
\.0001
.07 -.32
.94 -4.36
.35 \.0001
.24
3.23
.001
Results Table 1 summarises the mean scores and the relative standard deviation in the cognitive, metacognitive and affective measures administered. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was carried out to explore the effect of age groups (i.e., old vs very old and oldest old) on LS measure, using the social desirability score as covariate. The main effect of age group was not significant [F(2,174) = .38, p = .69], whereas there was the effect of social desirability [F(1,174) = 13.36, p \ .0001, g2p = .07]. When an ANCOVA was carried out on the CFQ measure, the effect of social desirability as covariate was significant [F(1,174) = 24.49, p \ .0001, g2p = .12], but not the effect of age group [F(2,174) = .57, p = .56]. An ANCOVA carried out on the CES-D scores revealed both the main effect of age group [F(2,174) = .4.93, p = .008, g2p = .05] and social desirability which was the covariate [F(1,174) = 7.57, p = .007, g2p = .042]. Finally, a hierarchic stepwise linear regression analysis performed by ordinary least squares estimation was carried out to investigate the impact of social desirability on LS scores, when controlling for the effect of self-referent depressive and metacognitive measures. Specifically, CESD, CFQ and MCSDS scores were used as predictors, whereas PS-PWAQ index was fitted as the dependent variable. Table 2 summarises these outcomes.
General discussion The major goal of the present study was to investigate the role played by social desirability in predicting LS in late adulthood. The significant role of socially responding style emerged when an ANCOVA was carried out on LS score, using the social desirability measure as covariate and the age group as independent factor. Two further ANCOVAs revealed that social desirability influences self-referent measures of depression and metacognitive efficiency too.
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However, despite previous findings [5, 16], socially desirable responding style predicts only 4 % of variance relative to LS score. Therefore, current outcomes are consistent and extend the findings by Phillips et al. [7], according to which social desirability plays a very marginal role in predicting the psychological well-being of the elderly. A surprising finding was the lack of age-related differences in the LS scores. Indeed, considering the norms proposed by De Beni et al. [11], our Old and Very Old participants showed the highest level of LS (i.e., scores [35), whereas the oldest old group showed medium scores (i.e., 36–39). Overall, in agreement with previous studies [16, 17], it is plausible to hypothesise that Sardinian elderly people are a specific subpopulation showing not only high longevity, but also the highest levels of LS compared with further Italian older groups. Therefore, a limit of the current study is that Sardinian elderly living in the rural areas could not be representative of the Italian older population. This is an emerging outcome proposed by Fastame et al. [18] and Fastame and Penna [16] in two recent studies in which Sardinian adults living in the area of Ogliastra showed greater subjective well-being and mnestic performance than peers recruited in rural areas of Lombardy. Our participants were recruited in different inner rural areas of Sardinia, but it seems that they still had an active lifestyle, meaning they were still involved in the social life of their village. Overall, notwithstanding modest physical health, the greatest part of our sample spent time for leisure; specifically, more than 47 % carried out social or recreational activities, almost 9 % were involved in cultural activities and approximately 15 % participated in some sports or had hobbies. A further interesting outcome is that the self-referent metacognitive measure does not predict LS scores. This is inconsistent with a previous study showing a significant relationship between negative affect and self-rated personal and general metamemory measures in young and old adults [4]. However, our participants were only cognitively healthy elderly people. Therefore, future research has to overcome the current issues, exploring the relationship between LS, negative mood and metacognitive efficiency in further Italian older samples with or without mild signs of cognitive decline.
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