Understanding the associations between the number of close friends and life satisfaction: considering age differences
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Kang, Weixi
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Life satisfaction refers to one's subjective evaluation of life, which is the cognitive aspect of subjective well-being. Understanding factors that contribute to life satisfaction has important implications as higher life satisfaction is closely associated with better physical, psychological, and behavioral health outcomes. Close friendship serves as a valuable source of social support across life spans. Although there are some studies regarding the associations between friendship and well-being, much less is known regarding the relationships between the number of close friends and life satisfaction and how this association varies with age. By analyzing data from 29,785 participants with an age range of 16–101 years old from the Understanding Society, the current study found that there is a significant interaction effect of age with the number of close friends (b = −0.003, p < 0.01, 95% C.I. [−0.004, −0.001]) after controlling for demographic covariates. Simple slope regressions showed that the positive association between the number of close friends and life satisfaction is the strongest in young people (b = 0.018, p < 0.001, 95% C.I. [0.012, 0.024]), and less strong in middle-aged (b = 0.008, p < 0.001, 95% C.I. [0.003, 0.013]), and the weakest in older adults (b = 0.004, p < 0.01, 95% C.I. [0.002, 0.007]).
Date Issued
2023-03-28
Date Acceptance
2023-02-27
Citation
Frontiers in Psychology, 2023, 14, pp.1-6
ISSN
1664-1078
Publisher
Frontiers Media S.A.
Start Page
1
End Page
6
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers in Psychology
Volume
14
Copyright Statement
© 2023 Kang. This is an open-access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use,
distribution or reproduction in other forums is
permitted, provided the original author(s) and
the copyright owner(s) are credited and that
the original publication in this journal is cited, in
accordance with accepted academic practice.
No use, distribution or reproduction is
permitted which does not comply with these
terms.
distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use,
distribution or reproduction in other forums is
permitted, provided the original author(s) and
the copyright owner(s) are credited and that
the original publication in this journal is cited, in
accordance with accepted academic practice.
No use, distribution or reproduction is
permitted which does not comply with these
terms.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1105771/full
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
110577
Date Publish Online
2023-03-28