Positive Mental Health of Finnish People Living Alone: The Role of Circumstantial Factors and Leisure-Time Activities

Tytti P. Pasanen, Nina Tamminen, Tuija Martelin and Pia Solin
Additional contact information
Tytti P. Pasanen: Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Equality, Mental Health, FI-00271 Helsinki, Finland
Nina Tamminen: Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Equality, Mental Health, FI-00271 Helsinki, Finland
Tuija Martelin: Non-Discrimination and Gender Equality, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Equality, FI-00271 Helsinki, Finland
Pia Solin: Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Equality, Mental Health, FI-00271 Helsinki, Finland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 13, 1-15

Abstract: Living alone has become more common across Europe. Past research has consistently identified living alone as a risk factor for poor mental health while evidence on the positive dimension(s) of mental health has been scarce. Positive mental health has been associated with rather stable circumstantial factors, such as socio-economic characteristics and social relationships, and day-to-day activities in the form of leisure participation, in general populations. In this study, our objective was to assess these relationships among people living alone. We specified a structural equation model in a random sample of Finnish people living alone ( n = 884), with the circumstantial factors as (exogenous) explanatory variables, participation in various leisure activities as mediators, and positive mental health as the outcome. In the model, more frequent engagement in several leisure-time activities, including being in contact with family/friends and physical activity in nature, were positively associated with positive mental health. The circumstantial factors that most strongly explained both leisure participation and positive mental health were the number of friends, being in a relationship, and having no limiting illnesses. In conclusion, among Finnish people living alone, social and functional factors appear to be more strongly associated with leisure participation and positive mental health than socio-economic factors.

Keywords: single occupancy households; psychological well-being; leisure time; socio-economic status; social life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/6735/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/6735/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:13:p:6735-:d:580155

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().