Future anxiety and belongingness in young and older adults: An empirical study

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of the participants

Characteristic	Value
	n	%
Age, years (mean ± SD)
Young < 60	66.76 ± 3.74
Older adults ≥ 60	36.72 ± 10.12
Sex
Female	259	64.1
Male	145	35.9
Marital status
Married	267	66.1
Single	137	33.9
Education
Primary school	30	7.4
Secondary school	96	23.8
Bachelor’s degree	177	43.8
Postgraduate	101	25
Income status
More than expenses	79	19.6
Equals expenses	204	50.4
Less than expenses	121	30
Family structure
Nuclear	315	78
Extended	37	9.1
Living alone	52	12.9
Chronic disease
Yes	110	27.2
No	294	72.8
Social security
Yes	370	91.6
No	34	8.4
Social activity
Yes	175	43.4
No	229	56.6
Total	404	100
Score (mean ± SD)
The total score of FA	18.81 ± 7.59
The total score of GBS	4.35 ± 2.52
The total score of acceptance/inclusion	2.65 ± 1.43
The total score of rejection/exclusion	12.42 ± 3.68

FA: Future anxiety; GBS: General Belongingness Scale.

Table 2 Comparative analysis of Dark Future Scale and General Belongingness Scale scores across demographic characteristics

Effective factor	Total GBS	Acceptance/inclusion	Rejection/exclusion	DFA
Age
r	-0.147	-0.009	0.129	0.011
P value	0.003a	0.851	0.009	0.827
Sex, mean ± SD
Female	64.84 ± 13.45	32.35 ± 7.12	15.51 ± 7.40	18.96 ± 7.71
Male	60.59 ± 14.74	30.75 ± 7.89	18.15 ± 8.20	18.53 ± 7.39
t	2.944	2.091	-3.31	0.542
P value	0.003a	0.037	0.001a	0.584
Marital status
Married	64.84 ± 12.75	32.43 ± 6.94	15.58 ± 7.05	18.18 ± 7.77
Single	60.34 ± 15.93	30.51 ± 8.20	18.16 ± 8.85	20.03 ± 7.10
t	3.08	2.475	-3.183	-2.034
P value	0.002a	0.014	0.002a	0.02
Education
Primary school	49.66 ± 19.16	24.93 ± 9.34	23.26 ± 10.30	18.76 ± 9.23
Secondary school	62.31 ± 14.33	31.21 ± 7.45	16.90 ± 7.09	19.43 ± 7.68
Bachelor’s degree	64.59 ± 12.21	32.60 ± 6.67	14.81 ± 6.74	19.23 ± 7.01
Postgraduate	66.09 ± 12.83	32.91 ± 7.05	16.46 ± 7.79	17.49 ± 7.91
F	12.356	10.897	10.056	1.413
P value	0.000a	< 0.001a	< 0.001a	0.238
Income status
More than expenses	67.91 ± 11.42	33.96 ± 5.86	14.05 ± 6.35	16.39 ± 7.67
Equals expenses	63.04 ± 14.26	31.74 ± 7.52	16.69 ± 7.93	18.43 ± 7.57
Less than expenses	60.77 ± 14.63	30.42 ± 7.92	17.64 ± 8.12	21.02 ± 7.02
F	6.396	5.537	5.373	9.8
P value	0.002a	0.004a	0.005a	0.000a
Family structure
Nuclear	65.03 ± 12.52	32.70 ± 6.62	15.66 ± 7.14	18.53 ± 7.55
Extended	61.40 ± 13.61	29.97 ± 7.90	16.56 ± 7.14	20.43 ± 8.00
Living alone	54.26 ± 19.00	24.46 ± 9.82	21.19 ± 10.12	19.32 ± 7.50
F	14.361	13.03	11.792	1.169
P value	0.000a	< 0.001a	< 0.001a	0.312
Chronic disease, mean ± SD
Yes	60.92 ± 16.05	30.55 ± 8.23	17.62 ± 8.62	19.80 ± 7.52
No	64.21 ± 13.15	32.24 ± 7.08	16.02 ± 7.43	18.44 ± 7.60
t	-2.1	-2.036	1.841	0.667
P value	0.036	0.042	0.066	0.109
Social security
Yes	63.99 ± 13.78	32.08 ± 7.31	16.08 ± 7.67	18.61 ± 7.62
No	55.97 ± 15.07	28.50 ± 8.16	20.52 ± 8.04	20.91 ± 7.05
t	2.99	2.471	-3.09	-1.801
P value	0.005a	0.018	0.004a	0.079
Social activity
Yes	68.00 ± 10.45	34.24 ± 5.61	14.23 ± 6.14	17.44 ± 7.60
No	59.73 ± 15.37	29.90 ± 8.09	18.16 ± 8.48	19.85 ± 7.43
F	6.115	6.055	-5.179	-3.186
P value	0.000a	< 0.001a	< 0.001a	0.002a
Sample groups, years
Young < 60	64.05 ± 13.51	31.94 ± 7.28	15.88 ± 7.48	18.73 ± 7.44
Older adults ≥ 60	59.46 ± 16.20	30.92 ± 8.23	19.46 ± 8.74	19.23 ± 8.38
t	2.429	1.016	-3.429	-0.485
P value	0.010a	0.050a	0.013	0.216

^aP < 0.05 statistical significance.

r: Correlation analyses; F: One way ANOVA test, and Games-Howell post-hoc analysis; t: Independent t test; GBS: General Belongingness Scale; DFA: Dark future anxiety.

Table 3 Correlations between total General Belongingness Scale and the sub-scales

		Acceptance	Rejection	Total_GBS
Acceptance	Pearson Correlation	1	-0.702b	0.919b
	Sig. (2-tailed)		0.000	0.000
Rejection	Pearson Correlation	-0.702b	1	-0.926b
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.000		0.000
Total_GBS	Pearson Correlation	0.919b	-0.926b	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.000	0.000
	n	404	404	404

^bP < 0.01, correlation is significant (2-tailed).

GBS: General Belongingness Scale.