Openness to experience and active older adults’ life satisfaction: A trait and facet-level analysis

Although the contribution of personality on life satisfaction is well-recognized, less attention has been devoted to openness to experience in gerontological research. The present study aimed at testing the relation between openness to experience and life satisfaction among active older adults, both at the broad and facet-level. Two hundred and thirty-five retired adults aged from 58 to 85 years were administered the openness to experience scale of the NEO-PIR and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Multiple regression analyses revealed that openness to experience added small but incremental variance to the prediction of life satisfaction, beyond subjective health and financial satisfaction. Openness to ideas and to feelings were both positively related to older individuals’ life satisfaction, while controlling for subjective health and financial satisfaction, and accounted for a higher amount of variance than the broad openness factor. The present study suggests that during the retirement years, openness is a resource for life satisfaction. Open individuals are more likely to benefit from the opportunities of personal growth proposed during this period, and thus to satisfy their needs. In addition, a facet-level analysis could provide a fined-grained explanation of the contribution of openness to experience on life satisfaction.