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J Happiness Stud (2017) 18:389407
DOI 10.1007/s10902-016-9731-3
RESEARCH PAPER
Jan Hofer1 Holger Busch1 Iva Polkovolcov2
Peter Tavel3
Published online: 4 March 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016
Abstract Reminiscence has various functions, not all of which are benecial for well-being. In particular, self-negative reminiscence functionsboredom reduction, bitterness revival, and intimacy maintenancehave been shown to be associated with reduced well-being. The present paper examines the link between self-negative reminiscence functions and depression in three cultural contexts. We hypothesize that both variables are indirectly linked via satisfaction of basic psychological needs: Self-negative reminiscing is associated with an impairment of need satisfaction which in turn relates to enhanced depressive symptoms. This hypothesis is tested in elderlies from Cameroon, the Czech Republic, and Germany. A total of 637 elderly participants reported on self-negative reminiscing, need satisfaction, and depressive symptoms. Analyses indicate that for boredom reduction and bitterness revival an indirect effect on depression via decreased need satisfaction can be established in all cultural contexts. For intimacy maintenance, a different picture emerges in that in the Czech and the German sample, there was a direct effect on depression but not an indirect one via need satisfaction. Yet, among Cameroonian participants an indirect effect was found, demonstrating that intimacy maintenance was related to decreased depression via enhanced need satisfaction. These results suggest that reminiscence functions may have partly universal, partly culture-specic effects on well-being.
Keywords Reminiscence Self-negative functions Depression Need satisfaction
Old age Culture
& Jan Hofer [email protected]
1 Department of Psychology, Developmental Psychology, University of Trier, 54296 Trier, Germany
2 The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic
3 Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
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1 Introduction
Adjustment to the changes and challenges of aging mirrors in individuals physical and mental well-being. Research has recently started to examine processes involved in, rather than describing criteria for individuals successful aging. One of the processes that have come into focus is reminiscence, i.e., the recall of personally experienced episodes from ones past (Webster et al. 2010). Albeit reminiscence is considered to be...