[Dimensions of subjective well-being in elderly persons]

Subjective well-being is an important and relevant theme in psychogerontological theory and practice. Against the background of the distinction between hedonistic and eudaimonic conceptions of well-being a six-dimensional relational model of subjective well-being is described. A new instrument for the measurement of psychological, physical, social, material, cultural and existential well-being was tested in a sample of 366 elderly persons (61% women) aged 60 years and older. After item analysis and exploratory factor analysis of the different scales, 56 items of the original 72 were retained for six more homogeneous scales with acceptable Cronbach's alphas between .89 en .61. Relations were found between the scores on different scales--especially on the scales for Physical, Psychological, Existential and Cultural Well-being--and some demographic and person-related variables such as, number of children, presence or absence of daughters, living independently, availability of friends, etc.