A Longitudinal Study on the Life Satisfaction of Situational Change of the Discrimination Experience in Daily Living and Employment: Focusing on the Comparison Between Elderly Persons with Disabilities and Non-elderly Persons with Disabilities

Abstract

This study was aimed to examine the effect of change in daily life discrimination experiences and employment status on life satisfaction in elderly and non-elderly people with disabilities. Forthis purpose, the sample consists of 3,710 individuals drawn from 3rd~8th waves of the Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled (PSED). The results of this study were summarized as follows: (1) constant non-discrimination and change to non-discrimination experiences were positively associated with life satisfaction of the disabled regardless of age. On the other hands, constant discrimination experiences were natively related to life satisfaction for both groups, whereas change to discrimination experiences had no relationship. (2) Maintaining employment and becoming employed were likely to increase life satisfaction for the non-elderly, however, only remaining employed was positively related to life satisfaction for the elderly. (3) Becoming unemployed and maintaining unemployment were negatively associated with life satisfaction of the non-elderly, however, for the elderly, only maintaining unemployment had negative impact on their life satisfaction. These findings were discussed in terms of implication to improve life satisfaction of people with disabilities by reducing daily life discrimination experiences or promoting employment.