Identifying Individual and Community-Level Influencers on Well-Being Across the Lifespan: Findings From the 2019 Nova Scotia Quality of Life Survey

Presented by the University of Toronto’s Institute for Life Course & Aging (ILCA).

Taylor G. Hill, PhD Student

Department of Psychology & Neuroscience Emerging Leader, Healthy Populations Institute Dalhousie University

About the Event:

Inspired by theory in well-being science, Taylor G. Hill examined the influence of lifestyle factors and living conditions on well-being in a representative sample of 12,871 participants in Nova Scotia who answered a 230-question survey on quality of life in 2019. First, Hill explored age-related patterns in individual and community-level wellbeing across six domains: social isolation, sense of community, feelings of trust, experiences of discrimination, poverty, and health. Then, using robust multiple regression and measures of relative importance with the lmg method, Hill identified which variables are most important to predicting life satisfaction (10-point scale measuring overall satisfaction with life) and life worth (10-point scale measuring feelings of life being worthwhile). Twenty-two predictors accounted for 54% of the variance in life satisfaction; the top six predictors accounted for 43% of the variance: self-rated mental health (12%), time adequacy (8%), satisfaction with community’s (?) natural environment (8%), sense of community (6%), financial insecurity (5%), and self-rated physical health (4%). These variables were also the top predictors of life worthwhileness, although all 22 predictors (R2 = .42) and these six predictors (R2 = .34) accounted for less variance than for life satisfaction. These results show that community-level (i.e., environment quality of neighbourhood, sense of community) and individual-level (i.e., mental health, time adequacy, financial insecurity, and physical health) variables are substantial predictors of well-being. The effect sizes differ between the hedonistic and eudaimonic dimensions of well-being, suggesting there may be important predictors of eudaimonic well-being not accounted for. Further, while the same top six predictors of well-being exist for different age groups, the order of relative importance differs. This research can be used to inform community-level programming and policy that seeks to promote well-being at any life stage.

Taylor G. Hill is a PhD student in Experimental Psychology at Dalhousie University. She has two distinct, complementary lines of research centred on well-being and methodology. One line of research is quantitative measurement and modeling of well-being and personality at the individual level, which is rooted in theory and constructs from positive psychology (e.g., personality strengths, values, motivation). Her second line of research is focused on mental health promotion at the community level (e.g., to inform programming and practice) with a socio-ecological lens. With her doctoral work, she is developing a translational research program on community mental health promotion to understand psychosocial and community resources that contribute to positive mental health and healthy communities.

This seminar will be recorded and can be accessed within a week at: http://aging.utoronto.ca/ under Events

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Housed at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, the University of Toronto’s Institute for Life Course & Aging (ILCA) facilitates interdisciplinary research on the biological, psychological and social dimensions of the life course and aging; and provides graduate and post-graduate education on the life course and aging. FIFSW professor Esme Fuller-Thomson is the Institute’s director.