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. 2022 Jan 26:9:754681.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.754681. eCollection 2021.

Widowhood and Life Satisfaction Among Chinese Elderly Adults: The Influences of Lifestyles and Number of Children

Caiyun Yang  1 , Xixi Sun  2 , Wenjie Duan  2
Affiliations

Widowhood and Life Satisfaction Among Chinese Elderly Adults: The Influences of Lifestyles and Number of Children

Caiyun Yang et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Our study examined how lifestyle and number of children influence the relationship between widowhood and life satisfaction based on self-regulation theory. A sample of 2,968 elderly respondents (male = 1,515, female = 1,453, mean age = 69.12 years, SD = 7.24) participated in Chinese General Social Survey. Our findings suggest that lifestyle is positively related to life satisfaction, and number of children is positively associated with life satisfaction but negatively related to lifestyle. The moderated mediation model demonstrated that lifestyle partly mediated the relationship between widowhood and life satisfaction. Moreover, number of children moderated the relationship between widowhood and lifestyle and between lifestyle and satisfaction with life. Widowed elderly individuals who have more children are likely to show a higher level of satisfaction with life. The present study has significance in practice because it provides empirical implications obtained from a national survey on the universal two-child policy in China as two children might decrease the negative impacts of widowhood on life satisfaction.

Keywords: life satisfaction; lifestyle; moderated mediation; number of children; self-regulation theory; widowhood status.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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