Relationships among social support, self-concept, and wellbeing of older adults: A study of process using dynamic factor models

Intra-individual patterns of time-lagged relationships among self-reports of social support, self-concept, and physical and psychological wellbeing were investigated. Participants were older adults (mean age = 77 years) who were measured weekly on some scales and biweekly on others, covering a total of 25 weeks. Dynamic factor models were fitted to multivariate repeated measures data pooled over subsets of participants. The results indicate significant time-lagged, cross-factor relationships showing that negative social support has both a direct effect and an indirect effect, through less positive self-concept, on physical health measures. For the measures of negative social support, self-concept, subjective health, and physical performance (gait), there are substantial autoregressive effects indicating persisting factor scores over 1 or 2 weeks. How intra-individual perspectives and methods can facilitate the study of complex developmental processes is discussed.