Well-being of elderly people living in nursing homes: The benefits of making friends

François-Charles Wolff (1, 2)

1 LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique
2 INED - Institut national d'études démographiques

Using French data collected in 2007 from a sample of about 2,000 elderly people living in nursing homes, this paper investigates the role that individual characteristics play in satisfaction with life and depression. Following psychological studies that have highlighted the benefits of social interactions on individual well-being, I focus in particular on the role played by making friends in the nursing home. Results from random effect ordered Probit models show that both satisfaction with living conditions and feeling of depression are much more influenced by making friends in the institution than by visits from family and relatives or other individual background characteristics. These findings may be interpreted as evidence of a relational return to friendship within nursing homes.

Mots clés: friends; institutionalized elderly; living conditions; nursing home; relational goods

Domaines: Economies et finances; Gestion et management

François-Charles Wolff. Well-being of elderly people living in nursing homes: The benefits of making friends. 2012. ⟨hal-00759187⟩