| Description |
The study deals with the psychological and environmental antecedents and correlates of Sense of coherence (SOC) measured in middle adulthood. The antecedents of SOC (Antonovsky, 1993) are best examined in research studies employing longitudinal design. We used data from Brno Longitudinal Study of Life-Span Development, which has been running for 50 years, to examine personality (extraversion, neuroticism, intelligence) and social (atmosphere in the family of origin, school achievement) predictors of SOC in childhood and adolescence. We have also examined the personality (e.g. neuroticism, self-esteem, self-efficacy) and social (career stability, negative life events) characteristics in relation to SOC in adulthood. The sample consisted of 74 participants (32 men and 42 woman aged from 41 to 44 years) who participated in the longitudinal study running since 1961. In respondent's childhood (12 years) we used WISC (Wechsler, 1949) and we measured atmosphere in the family and school achievement; in respondent's adolescence (16 years) we used MPI (Eysenck, 1959); and in adulthood (41 to 44 years) we used SOC (Antonovsky, 1993), Life History Calendar, (Caspi, et al., 1996), EPI (Eysenck, & Eysenck, 1964), GSES (Schwarzer, & Jerusalem, 1993), RSES (Rosenberg, 1965), SWBS (Pavot, & Diener, 1993), and TCI (Cloninger, et al., 1994). Results show that psychological and environmental characteristics in the childhood did not affect the SOC in middle adulthood directly. Their influence was mediated by the stability of career line. In adulthood, we have discovered an association between SOC and self-efficacy, low neuroticism and self-directedness. Regression analysis did not revealed significant relationships with other psychological and environmental characteristics in adulthood, such as negative life events, self-esteem, well-being and self-transcendence. It seems that foundations of the SOC appear already in the childhood, although psychological and environmental characteristics in childhood did not affect the SOC in middle adulthood directly. Thein influence was exercised through the education level and the stability of career line, which appears to act as a challenge and encourage high SOC. In middle adolescence, the best predictor of SOC was not neuroticism, but extraversion.
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