Greater perceived control is often associated with better responses to life's stressors. One reason for this link may be that greater perceived control is related to the ability to resolve these stressful experiences. Using longitudinal data from the National Study of Daily Experiences (N = 1766, Mage = 56.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe identified patterns of health and functioning in a national sample of dementia family caregivers experiencing chronic pain ( = 273). Utilizing latent profile analysis of the 29-item Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS-29), we identified three discrete groups: an average group (48%), a low health challenges group (30%), and a high health challenges group (22%). Women were more likely to be in the high (vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Both age and gender have been identified as unique moderators of the association between negative interpersonal interactions and affective and physiological stress responses to these interactions. However, evidence is lacking on intersectional effects, with limited data on how gender differences in affective and physiological responses to interpersonal stress vary by age. The present study tests the hypothesis that age and gender interact to moderate the associations between acute exposure to negative interpersonal stressors and concurrent stress responses in daily life, assessed with measures of negative mood and ambulatory blood pressure (ABP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Chronological age is a particularly well-known indicator of variability in systemic inflammation. Other pertinent aspects of age (or "age proxies") - subjective or epigenetic age - may offer nuanced information about age and inflammation associations. Using the Midlife in the United States Study, we explored how chronological, subjective, and epigenetic age were associated with inflammation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnxiety Stress Coping
July 2025
Objective(s): Stressful and positive experiences may inform subjective perceptions of cognition; however, much of the literature focuses on stressful experiences. The COVID-19 pandemic provided an unprecedented opportunity to examine individual differences related to both minor (weekly) and larger (life) stressful and positive experiences, and subjective cognitive functioning during a worldwide, chronic stressor. The current studies examined these associations in two samples of older adults which used two different time scales - weeks and months.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Most studies examining age differences in coping across adulthood come from cross-sectional studies and focus on the broader categories of problem- and emotion-focused coping. We aimed to establish a factor structure for coping items used in a national, longitudinal study of aging (MIDUS) and examine age patterns in coping strategies over 10 years.
Method: We performed exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and factorial invariance testing.
Objectives: Loneliness is associated with maladaptive cognitions, yet little is known about the association between loneliness and intrusive thinking during older adulthood. Links between loneliness and intrusive thoughts may be particularly strong among individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), who may have greater difficulty regulating emotion and intrusive thoughts. In contrast, having close relationships (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAging Ment Health
December 2024
Objectives: Daily noteworthy events have implications for physical and mental health, but less is known about the role daily events have for self-reported cognition and whether the involvement of close social partners differentiates these associations. The current study examined how daily positive and negative noteworthy events relate to subjective memory and attentional difficulties and whether close social partners moderated associations.
Method: We used data from a 100-day microlongitudinal web-based study of 104 older adults (N=7,051; =63.
Objective: The current study examined how average daily loneliness (between-persons [BPs]), intraindividual variability in loneliness across days (within-persons [WPs]), and loneliness stability informed physical health symptomatology.
Method: We utilized daily diary data from a national sample of 1,538 middle-aged adults ( = 51.02; 57.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci
April 2024
Objectives: Theoretical perspectives on aging suggest that when people experience declines in later life, they often selectively focus on maintaining aspects of their lives that are most meaningful and important to them. The social domain is one of these selected areas. The current study examines people's reports of control over their daily stressors over 10 years, predicting that the declines in control that are often observed in later life will not be observed for stressors involving interpersonal conflict and tensions with social partners.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: There have been major changes in military service over the past 50 years. Most research on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among combat Veterans comes from help-seeking Vietnam and WWII cohorts; results from more recent cohort comparisons are mixed. The present study addressed these gaps by exploring cohort differences among Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and Post-9/11 combat Veterans from a life course perspective.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe goal of this study was to examine whether family involvement and gender moderated daily changes in affect associated with interpersonal stressors. Adults ( = 2022; = 56.25, Median = 56, = 12.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychol Aging
September 2023
The COVID-19 pandemic has been observed to negatively affect older adults' psychological health compared with prepandemic levels. However, older adults' coping efficacy may differ depending on their age, and little is known about effects of fluctuations in pandemic severity. Two longitudinal studies tested the hypothesis that pandemic severity would affect psychological health and be moderated by age.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current study examines daily stress processes as risk factors for comprised mental health in midlife and later life, specifically for gender differences in depression risk. Using data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study and the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE), we examine (1) gender differences in depression; (2) the prospective effects of differential exposure and affective responses on 10-year depression status; (3) gender differences in daily stress-depression links. Furthermore, we explore whether the protective factor of help-seeking behavior moderates the effects of daily stress on depression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: We analyzed whether marital status and experiences of marital loss or gain were associated with self-perceptions of aging (SPA), a major psychosocial mechanism of healthy aging.
Method: We used data from 7028 participants of the Health and Retirement Study. Participants reported their marital status and their positive and negative SPA on two occasions 4 years apart.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci
April 2022
Objectives: To examine how self-perceptions of aging (SPA) moderated within- and between-persons perceived stress associations with physical health symptoms.
Methods: A community-dwelling sample of 103 adults (Meanage = 63, range = 52-88) participated in an online microlongitudinal study for 100 days (Noccasions = 7,064). Participants completed baseline surveys consisting of SPA, social connections, and demographics followed by 100 daily surveys including information about daily stress perceptions and physical health.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci
November 2021
Objectives: To examine stressor characteristics (i.e., stressor resolution) and individual differences (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that daily stress processes, including exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors, are associated with response time inconsistency (RTI), an indicator of processing efficiency and cognitive health. Furthermore, we considered daily stress-cognitive health associations at the level of individual differences and within-persons over time.
Methods: Participants were 111 older adults (mean = 80 years, range = 66-95 years) enrolled in a measurement burst study where assessments of response time-based cognitive performance, stressful experiences, and affect were administered on each of 6 days for a 2-week period.