Soft skills and their relationship with life satisfaction and cognitive reserve in adulthood and older age.

IF 3.7 2区社会学 Q1 GERONTOLOGY

European Journal of Ageing Pub Date : 2024-09-09 DOI:10.1007/s10433-024-00820-2

Tommaso Feraco, Nicole Casali, Elena Carbone, Chiara Meneghetti, Erika Borella, Barbara Carretti, Veronica Muffato

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Soft skills are key factors for success in multiple contexts of daily life, as well as for life satisfaction, but little is known about their role in late adulthood and older age. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationships of soft skills, as defined by the World Economic Forum, with two indicators of successful/healthy aging: life satisfaction and cognitive reserve. A sample of 435 adults aged 50 and over completed self-reported measures of soft skills, life satisfaction, and cognitive reserve. As control, fluid (reasoning) and crystalized (vocabulary) intelligence were assessed too, along with socio-demographic characteristics. A series of regression analyses showed that soft skills were positively related to both life satisfaction and, to a lower extent, cognitive reserve, above and beyond gender, age, and both fluid and crystallized intelligence. Interestingly, these associations were independent from participants' age. Overall, these results highlight the importance of considering soft skills also over the middle-late adult life course, due to the potential role of these individual qualities in supporting an individual's well-being and an active and engaged lifestyle, with implications for the promotion of a healthy aging.

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软技能及其与成年期和老年期生活满意度和认知储备的关系。

软技能是在日常生活的多种环境中取得成功以及获得生活满意度的关键因素，但人们对其在成年晚期和老年期的作用却知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们旨在调查世界经济论坛所定义的软技能与成功/健康老龄化的两个指标（生活满意度和认知储备）之间的关系。435 名 50 岁及以上的成年人完成了对软技能、生活满意度和认知储备的自我报告测量。作为对照，还对流体智力（推理）和晶体智力（词汇）以及社会人口特征进行了评估。一系列回归分析表明，软技能与生活满意度呈正相关，在较低程度上与认知储备也呈正相关，超越了性别、年龄以及流体智力和晶体智力。有趣的是，这些关联与参与者的年龄无关。总之，这些结果凸显了在中晚年生活过程中考虑软技能的重要性，因为这些个人素质在支持个人福祉和积极投入的生活方式方面具有潜在作用，对促进健康老龄化具有重要意义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

European Journal of Ageing GERONTOLOGY-

CiteScore

6.50

自引率

7.90%

发文量

期刊介绍： The European Journal of Ageing: Social, Behavioural and Health Perspectives is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to the understanding of ageing in European societies and the world over. EJA publishes original articles on the social, behavioral and population health aspects of ageing and encourages an integrated approach between these aspects. Emphasis is put on publishing empirical research (including meta-analyses), but conceptual papers (including narrative reviews) and methodological contributions will also be considered. EJA welcomes expert opinions on critical issues in ageing. By stimulating communication between researchers and those using research findings, it aims to contribute to the formulation of better policies and the development of better practice in serving older adults. To further specify, with the term ''social'' is meant the full scope of social science of ageing related research from the micro to the macro level of analysis. With the term ''behavioural'' the full scope of psychological ageing research including life span approaches based on a range of age groups from young to old is envisaged. The term ''population health-related'' denotes social-epidemiological and public health oriented research including research on functional health in the widest possible sense.