Age Differences in Goal Concordance, Time Use, and Well-Being.

The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate age differences in goal concordance, time use, and Well-Being. Past research has found that despite age-related decline in life circumstances (e.g., health), the Well-Being of older adults is as high as young adults. The present study used a novel approach to explore the Paradox of Well-Being. One hundred and seventy-seven adults participated in the study. They first generated their three most important personal strivings and rated levels of goal concordance for external, introjected, identified, and intrinsic reasons. Then, they reported their actual and ideal time use in 10 categories of activities in the past 24 hours. Finally, Well-Being was assessed by the Flourishing Scale and the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (Diener, Wirtz, et al., 2010). Older adults did not differ from young adults in overall Well-Being. However, they held higher levels of goal concordance and were more likely to spend time in spirituality and religion-related activities than young adults. The relationships between goal concordance, time use, and Well-Being were examined separately for young and older adults. Implications were discussed to improve Well-Being for young and older adults.