Growing old, frailty, and care of the elderly.
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Qurʾān
القرآن6 shownVerses named for this subject by hand come first. The rest are found by the subject’s own Arabic and English senses and are shown as lexical matches, not as anchors anyone has confirmed.
Qur'ān 16:70English sense: old age | Arabic sense: ارذل العمر
وَٱللَّهُ خَلَقَكُمۡ ثُمَّ يَتَوَفَّىٰكُمۡۚ وَمِنكُم مَّن يُرَدُّ إِلَىٰٓ أَرۡذَلِ ٱلۡعُمُرِ لِكَيۡ لَا يَعۡلَمَ بَعۡدَ عِلۡمࣲ شَيۡـًٔاۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمࣱ قَدِيرࣱ
It is God who has created you and in time will cause you to die. Some of you will be reduced, in old age, to a most abject state, so that, after having knowledge, they will know nothing at all: God is truly all knowing and all powerful
Qur'ān 30:54Arabic sense: شيب | English sense: grey hair
۞ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِي خَلَقَكُم مِّن ضَعۡفࣲ ثُمَّ جَعَلَ مِنۢ بَعۡدِ ضَعۡفࣲ قُوَّةࣰ ثُمَّ جَعَلَ مِنۢ بَعۡدِ قُوَّةࣲ ضَعۡفࣰ ا وَشَيۡبَةࣰۚ يَخۡلُقُ مَا يَشَآءُۚ وَهُوَ ٱلۡعَلِيمُ ٱلۡقَدِيرُ
It is God who creates you weak, then gives you strength, then weakness after strength, together with your grey hair: He creates what He will; He is the All Knowing, the All Powerful
Qur'ān 22:5Arabic sense: ارذل العمر
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِن كُنتُمۡ فِي رَيۡبࣲ مِّنَ ٱلۡبَعۡثِ فَإِنَّا خَلَقۡنَٰكُم مِّن تُرَابࣲ ثُمَّ مِن نُّطۡفَةࣲ ثُمَّ مِنۡ عَلَقَةࣲ ثُمَّ مِن مُّضۡغَةࣲ مُّخَلَّقَةࣲ وَغَيۡرِ مُخَلَّقَةࣲ لِّنُبَيِّنَ لَكُمۡۚ وَنُقِرُّ فِي ٱلۡأَرۡحَامِ مَا نَشَآءُ إِلَىٰٓ أَجَلࣲ مُّسَمࣰّ ى ثُمَّ نُخۡرِجُكُمۡ طِفۡلࣰ ا ثُمَّ لِتَبۡلُغُوٓاْ أَشُدَّكُمۡۖ وَمِنكُم مَّن يُتَوَفَّىٰ وَمِنكُم مَّن يُرَدُّ إِلَىٰٓ أَرۡذَلِ ٱلۡعُمُرِ لِكَيۡلَا يَعۡلَمَ مِنۢ بَعۡدِ عِلۡمࣲ شَيۡـࣰٔ اۚ وَتَرَى ٱلۡأَرۡضَ هَامِدَةࣰ فَإِذَآ أَنزَلۡنَا عَلَيۡهَا ٱلۡمَآءَ ٱهۡتَزَّتۡ وَرَبَتۡ وَأَنۢبَتَتۡ مِن كُلِّ زَوۡجِۭ بَهِيجࣲ
People, [remember,] if you doubt the Resurrection, that We created you from dust, then a drop of fluid, then a clinging form, then a lump of flesh, both shaped and unshaped: We mean to make Our power clear to you. Whatever We choose We cause to remain in the womb for an appointed time, then We bring you forth as infants and then you grow and reach maturity. Some die young and some are left to live on to such an age that they forget all they once knew. You sometimes see the earth lifeless, yet when We send down water it stirs and swells and produces every kind of joyous growth
Qur'ān 14:39English sense: old age
ٱلۡحَمۡدُ لِلَّهِ ٱلَّذِي وَهَبَ لِي عَلَى ٱلۡكِبَرِ إِسۡمَٰعِيلَ وَإِسۡحَٰقَۚ إِنَّ رَبِّي لَسَمِيعُ ٱلدُّعَآءِ
Praise be to God, who has granted me Ishmael and Isaac in my old age: my Lord hears all requests
Qur'ān 15:54English sense: old age
قَالَ أَبَشَّرۡتُمُونِي عَلَىٰٓ أَن مَّسَّنِيَ ٱلۡكِبَرُ فَبِمَ تُبَشِّرُونَ
He said, ‘How can you give me such news when old age has come to me? What sort of news is this?’
Qur'ān 2:266English sense: old age
أَيَوَدُّ أَحَدُكُمۡ أَن تَكُونَ لَهُۥ جَنَّةࣱ مِّن نَّخِيلࣲ وَأَعۡنَابࣲ تَجۡرِي مِن تَحۡتِهَا ٱلۡأَنۡهَٰرُ لَهُۥ فِيهَا مِن كُلِّ ٱلثَّمَرَٰتِ وَأَصَابَهُ ٱلۡكِبَرُ وَلَهُۥ ذُرِّيَّةࣱ ضُعَفَآءُ فَأَصَابَهَآ إِعۡصَارࣱ فِيهِ نَارࣱ فَٱحۡتَرَقَتۡۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمُ ٱلۡأٓيَٰتِ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَفَكَّرُونَ
Would any of you like to have a garden of palm trees and vines, graced with flowing streams and all kinds of produce, which, when you are afflicted with old age and feeble offspring, is struck by a fiery whirlwind and burnt down? In this way God makes His messages clear to you, so that you may reflect on them
Tafsīr
التفسير6 shownCommentary on the verses above, at most two editions per verse.
en-al-jalalayn on 16:70en-al-jalalayncommentary on an ayah this subject surfaced
And God has created you when you were nothing then He takes you in death when your terms of life are concluded; and there are some among you who are relegated to the most abject stage of life that is the most diminished because of old-age and senility so that he knows nothing after having possessed some knowledge. ‘Ikrima said ‘Whoever recites the Qur’ān will not come to such a predicament’. God is Knowing of how to manage the affairs of His creation Powerful in doing what He will.
en-tafisr-ibn-kathir on 16:70en-tafisr-ibn-kathircommentary on an ayah this subject surfaced
And Allah created you and then He will cause you to die; and among you there are some who are sent back to senility, so that they know nothing after having known (much). Truly, Allah is Knowing, capable of all things (70)
In Man there is a Lesson
Allah tells us that He is controlling the affairs of His servants. He is the One Who created them out of nothing, then He will cause them to die. But there are some of them that He allows to grow old, which is a physical weakness, as Allah says:
اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُم مِّن ضَعْفٍ ثُمَّ جَعَلَ مِن بَعْدِ ضَعْفٍ قُوَّةً
(Allah is He Who created you in (a state of) weakness, then gave you strength after weakness, then after strength gave (you) weakness)(30:54)
لِكَيْ لَا يَعْلَمَ بَعْدَ عِلْمٍ شَيْئًا
(so that they know nothing after having known.) meaning, after he knew things, he will reach a stage where he knows nothing because of weakn
en-asbab-al-nuzul-by-al-wahidi on 22:5en-asbab-al-nuzul-by-al-wahidicommentary on an ayah this subject surfaced
O people, if you are in doubt about the Uprising, surely We created you of dust, then of a sperm drop, then of a blood clot, then of a lump of flesh, fully created and not fully created, that We might make clear to you. The composition of the Adamic body in the first creation is a clear argument against the deniers of the Uprising. He is saying, “I am the Lord who created a body and figure with such comeliness, a stature and form with such beauty, from that feeble sperm drop in that firm settledness. He says, “Did We not create you of feeble water, then put it in a firm settledness?” [77:20-21]. If you ponder this body, you will find an exemplar of all the created and newly arrived things in the celestial and terrestrial worlds. Just as He arranged the seven spheres in heaven, so also He composed seven parts in this body-water and dust, and then flesh, skin, veins, sinews, and bones. Jus
en-al-jalalayn on 30:54en-al-jalalayncommentary on an ayah this subject surfaced
God is the One Who created you from a state of weakness from a ‘base fluid’ cf. Q. 328 then He ordained after a second weakness which is the weakness of the period of childhood strength that is the strength of youth then after strength He appointed weakness again and grey hair the weakness of old age and the grey hairs of decrepitude read vocalised as du‘f ‘weakness’ in all three places. He creates what He will of weakness and strength youth and grey hairs and He is the Knower of how to manage His creatures the Omnipotent.
en-tafisr-ibn-kathir on 30:54en-tafisr-ibn-kathircommentary on an ayah this subject surfaced
Allah is He Who created you in weakness, then gave you strength after weakness, then after strength gave (you) weakness and grey hair. He creates what He wills. And He is the All-Knowing, the All-Powerful (54)
The Different Stages of Man
Here Allah points out how man passes through different stages of creation, one phase after another. He is originally created from dust, then from a Nutfah, then from a clot, then from a lump of flesh. Then he becomes bones, then the bones are clothed with flesh, then the soul is breathed into him. Then he emerges from his mother's womb, weak and thin and powerless. Then he grows up little by little, until he becomes a child, then he reaches the stage of puberty, then he becomes a young man, which is strength after weakness. Then he starts to get older, reaching middle age, then old age and senility, weakness after strength, so he loses his resolve, pow
en-al-jalalayn on 22:5en-al-jalalayncommentary on an ayah this subject surfaced
O mankind in other words O people of Mecca if you are in doubt about the Resurrection then lo! consider that We have created you that is We have created your origin — Adam — from dust then We created his progeny from a drop a sperm-drop then from a clot congealed blood then from a little lump of flesh mudgha a piece of flesh the size of what one would be able to chew mā yumdagh partly formed shaped complete in form and partly unformed that is uncomplete in form that We may make clear to you the perfect nature of Our power that you might then infer from this initial act of creation the reality of its future restoration. And We establish nuqirru marks a new grammatically independent sentence in the wombs whatever We will for a specified time that is until the time for it to come out then We bring you forth from the bellies of your mothers as infants and then We extend your life that you ma
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726 to 750 of 1,184Distract or reappraise? Age-related differences in emotion-regulation choice.
Does aging impact strategy choice with regard to regulating negative emotions? Based on the assumption that older adults are highly motivated to quickly defuse negative states, we predicted that older adults, relative to young adults, would show an increased preference for distraction (a cognitive disengagement strategy) over reappraisal (a cognitive engagement strategy) in the face of negative material. A stronger preference for distraction, in turn, should be associated with higher affective well-being at older ages, as it helps to avoid high physiological arousal. Young (19-28 years, n = 38) and older (65-75 years, n = 39) adults completed a laboratory task of emotion-regulation choice in which they viewed negative pictures of high and low intensity and chose between distraction and reappraisal to regulate their emotional response. Confirming predictions, age was associated with an in…
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)
The effect of ageing on fMRI: Correction for the confounding effects of vascular reactivity evaluated by joint fMRI and MEG in 335 adults.
In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research one is typically interested in neural activity. However, the blood-oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal is a composite of both neural and vascular activity. As factors such as age or medication may alter vascular function, it is essential to account for changes in neurovascular coupling when investigating neurocognitive functioning with fMRI. The resting-state fluctuation amplitude (RSFA) in the fMRI signal (rsfMRI) has been proposed as an index of vascular reactivity. The RSFA compares favourably with other techniques such as breath-hold and hypercapnia, but the latter are more difficult to perform in some populations, such as older adults. The RSFA is therefore a candidate for use in adjusting for age-related changes in vascular reactivity in fMRI studies. The use of RSFA is predicated on its sensitivity to vascular rather t…
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)
Marriage, Relationship Quality, and Sleep among U.S. Older Adults.
Sleep is a restorative behavior essential for health. Poor sleep has been linked to adverse health outcomes among older adults; however, we know little about the social processes that affect sleep. Using innovative actigraphy data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (N = 727), we considered the role of marriage, positive marital relationship support, and negative marital relationship strain on older adults' (ages 62-90) self-reported and actigraph-measured sleep characteristics. We found that married older adults had better actigraph-estimated but not self-reported sleep characteristics than the unmarried. However, among the married, those who reported more negative aspects of their marital relationship reported more insomnia symptoms, with the association reduced when psychosocial characteristics were added to the model. The married who reported more positive aspect…
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)
Savoring, resilience, and psychological well-being in older adults.
Objectives: Guided by Fredrickson's broaden and build theory of positive emotions and Zautra's dynamic model of affect, the current study examines the relation between savoring positive experiences (i.e., the ability to notice and regulate positive feelings) and psychological well-being for older adults with higher and lower levels of resilience.
Method: A sample of 164 (74% female) older adults living in a large metropolitan area participated in this study. Participants were recruited from a continuing care retirement community and community centers in the surrounding area. Participants completed a survey measuring savoring, resilience, happiness, depression, and satisfaction with life.
Results: In older adults, greater ability to savor positive experiences and higher resilience both predicted greater happiness, lower depression, and greater satisfaction with life (i.e., greater psychol…
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)
Internet use and well-being in older adults.
The Internet has become an important social context in the lives of older adults. Extant research has focused on the use of the Internet and how it influences well-being. However, conflicting findings exist. The purpose of the study was to develop an integrative research model in order to determine the nature of the relationships among Internet use, loneliness, social support, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being. Specifically, loneliness and social support were tested as potential mediators that may modify the relationship between Internet use and indicators of well-being. Data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS) were used, and the association among Internet use, social support, loneliness, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being was explored. The sample consisted of 5,203 older adults (aged 65 years and older). The results indicated that higher levels of …
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)
The association of relationship quality and social networks with depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among older married adults: Findings from a cross-sectional analysis of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).
Background: Important associations have been found between social relationships and various mental health outcomes. However, limited data exists for these associations among older adults especially in terms of relationship quality in partnerships. This study aimed to examine the associations of positive and negative partner interactions and social networks with depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation.
Methods: Nationally-representative, cross-sectional data of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) was analyzed. The analytical sample consisted of 4988 community dwelling adults aged >50 years in spouse/partner relationships. Information on sociodemographics and social relationships were assessed using standard questions. Validated scales for depression and anxiety, and a single-item question for suicidal ideation were used to assess mental health outcomes. Multivariable logistic…
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)
Increasing opportunities for the productive engagement of older adults: a response to population aging.
"Productive aging" puts forward the fundamental view that the capacity of older adults must be better developed and utilized in activities that make economic contributions to society-working, caregiving, volunteering. It is suggested that productive engagement can lead to multiple positive ends: offsetting fiscal strains of a larger older population, contributing to the betterment of families and civil society, and maintaining the health and economic security of older adults. Advocates claim that outdated social structures and discriminatory behaviors limit participation of older adults in these important social roles as well as prevent the optimization of outcomes for older adults, families, and society. We ask two important questions: (a) How can we shape policies and programs to optimally engage the growing resources of an aging population for the sake of society and older adults them…
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Krause N (2015)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usAdvances in life course research9 citations Assessing the relationships among race, religion, humility, and self-forgiveness: A longitudinal investigation.
Social and behavioral scientists have shown a growing interest in the study of virtues due, in part, to the influence of positive psychology. The underlying premise in this research is that adopting key virtues promotes a better quality of life. Consistent with this orientation, the purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between humility and self-forgiveness over time. The analyses are organized around three issues. First, it is proposed that older Blacks will be more humble than older Whites and older Blacks will be more likely to forgive themselves than older Whites. Second, it is hypothesized that, over time, more humble older people are more likely to forgive themselves than individuals who are less humble. Third, it is proposed that greater involvement in religion is associated with greater humility and greater self-forgiveness. Data from a nationwide longitudinal surve…
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Working memory training and transfer in older adults: effects of age, baseline performance, and training gains.
Recent studies suggest that working memory training may benefit older adults; however, findings regarding training and transfer effects are mixed. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of a process-based training intervention in a diverse sample of older adults and explored possible moderators of training and transfer effects. For that purpose, 80 older adults (65-95 years) were assigned either to a training group that worked on visuospatial, verbal, and executive working memory tasks for 9 sessions over 3 weeks or to a control group. Performance on trained and transfer tasks was assessed in all participants before and after the training period, as well as at a 9-month follow-up. Analyses revealed significant training effects in all 3 training tasks in trained participants relative to controls, as well as near transfer to a verbal working memory task and far transfer to a fl…
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Confidant network types and well-being among older europeans.
Purpose of the study: To derive a typology of confidant networks among older adults in Europe and to examine them in relation to country differences and well-being (CASP-12).
Design and methods: The study population was composed of persons aged 65 and older in 16 countries from the 4th wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (N = 28,697). K-means cluster analysis was applied to data from a newly implemented name-generating network inventory. CASP-12 scores were regressed on network type controlling for country and potential sociodemographic and health confounders.
Results: Six prototypical confidant network types were discerned, including proximal and distal family-based networks of varying configurations, as well as friend-based and other-based network types. Regional country differences in network type constellations were observed. Better well-being was found to b…
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Working memory load-dependent brain response predicts behavioral training gains in older adults.
In the domain of working memory (WM), a sigmoid-shaped relationship between WM load and brain activation patterns has been demonstrated in younger adults. It has been suggested that age-related alterations of this pattern are associated with changes in neural efficiency and capacity. At the same time, WM training studies have shown that some older adults are able to increase their WM performance through training. In this study, functional magnetic resonance imaging during an n-back WM task at different WM load levels was applied to compare blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses between younger and older participants and to predict gains in WM performance after a subsequent 12-session WM training procedure in older adults. We show that increased neural efficiency and capacity, as reflected by more "youth-like" brain response patterns in regions of interest of the frontoparietal WM …
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Identifying the barriers and facilitators to optimal hearing aid self-efficacy.
Objective: Many older adults with hearing impairment are not confident in their ability to use hearing aids (i.e. experience low hearing aid self-efficacy), which has been found to be a barrier to hearing help-seeking and hearing aid use. This study aimed to determine what factors were associated with achieving adequate hearing aid self-efficacy.
Design: A retrospective research design was employed wherein hearing aid self-efficacy was the primary outcome. Explanatory variables included personal demographics, visual disability, and experiences related to participants' hearing ability and hearing aids.
Study sample: A total of 307 older adults with hearing impairment participated in the study (147 non hearing aid owners and 160 hearing aid owners).
Results: Non-hearing aid owners were more likely to report adequate hearing aid self-efficacy if they reported no visual disability, had exper…
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Depressive symptoms are associated with allostatic load among community-dwelling older adults.
The allostatic load model has been used to quantify the physiological costs of the body's response to repeated stressful demands and may provide a useful, integrative perspective on the various correlates of late-life depressive symptoms. We interviewed 125 Rochester, NY adults, ranging in age from 67 to 94 years. We employed an allostatic load score as a measure of multisystem dysfunction in hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis function, immune function, anabolic activity, and cardiovascular activity. Overall, affective, and somatic depressive symptom scores were computed using the 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Multiple linear regression models were used to estimate associations between allostatic load scores and affective, somatic, and overall depressive symptoms. Among our sample of mean age 76.1 years, the one-week prevalence of clinically significant depr…
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When the mind wanders: age-related differences between young and older adults.
Interest in mind wandering (MW) has grown in recent years, but few studies have assessed this phenomenon in older adults. The aim of this study was to assess age-related differences between young, young-old and old-old adults in MW using two versions of the sustained attention to response task (SART), one perceptual and one semantic. Different indicators were examined (i.e., reported MW episodes and behavioral indices of MW such as response time latency and variability, incorrect response and omission errors). The relationship between MW, certain basic mechanisms of cognition (working memory, inhibition and processing speed), cognitive failures and intrusive thoughts in everyday life was also explored. Findings in both versions of the SART indicated that older adults reported a lower frequency of MW episodes than young adults, but some of the behavioral indices of MW (response time varia…
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)
"The we's have it": evidence for the distinctive benefits of group engagement in enhancing cognitive health in aging.
Aligned with research in the social capital and general health literature, a large body of evidence shows that older people who are more socially active have better cognitive integrity and are less vulnerable to cognitive decline. The present research addresses the question of whether the type of social engagement (group-based vs. individual) has differential effects on these cognitive health outcomes. Drawing on population data (N=3413) from three waves (i.e., Waves 3, 4 and 5) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, we investigated the independent contribution of group and individual engagement in predicting cognitive functioning four years later. Hierarchical linear regression was used entering age, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and physical health as covariates. The final model, controlling for initial cognitive function and social engagement (both group and individua…
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)
Age-related differences in altruism across adulthood: making personal financial gain versus contributing to the public good.
Four studies utilizing different methodological approaches investigated adult age-related differences in altruism (i.e., contributions to the public good) and the self-centered value of increasing personal wealth. In Study 1, data from the World Values Survey (World Values Survey Association, 2009) provided 1st evidence of a negative association between age and the self-reported wish to be rich. Ecological concerns, a form of contributing to the public good, were positively related to age. Study 2 investigated whether these values are expressed behaviorally when participants solved a complex problem that allowed striving for monetary gains or contributing to a public good. Confirming hypotheses, young adults' strategies were consistent with the aim of optimizing personal financial gain, and older adults' strategies with the aim to contribute to the public good. Studies 3 and 4 showed tha…
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Steinberg SI, Negash S, Sammel MD, Bogner H, Harel BT, Livney MG, McCoubrey H, Wolk DA, Kling MA, Arnold SE (2013)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usAmerican journal of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias127 citations Subjective memory complaints, cognitive performance, and psychological factors in healthy older adults.
Objective: To determine whether subjective memory complaints (SMCs) are associated with performance on objective cognitive measures and psychological factors in healthy, community-dwelling older adults.
Method: The cohort was composed of adults, 65 years and older with no clinical evidence of cognitive impairment (n = 125). Participants were administered: CogState computerized neurocognitive battery, Prospective Retrospective Memory Questionnaire, personality and meaning-in-life measures.
Results: SMCs were associated with poorer performance on measures of executive function (p = 0.001). SMCs were also associated with impaired delayed recall (p = 0.006) but this did not remain significant after statistical adjustment for multiple comparisons. SMCs were inversely associated with conscientiousness (p = 0.004) and directly associated with neuroticism (p < 0.001). Higher scores on SMCs were …
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The dynamic interplay of social network characteristics, subjective well-being, and health: the costs and benefits of socio-emotional selectivity.
This study investigated the interacting dynamics of different aspects of the social network, specifically network structure (size and frequency of contact), social activity engagement, and emotional support, and different aspects of health and subjective well-being in a representative sample of 2034 older adults across 6 years of development. The analysis, using latent change score models, revealed that older age at Time 1 was related to steeper declines in network structure and social engagement, but was unrelated to changes in emotional support. Furthermore, levels of social engagement and levels of emotional support predicted changes in functional health and life satisfaction with equal strength. Changes in social engagement were associated with changes in life satisfaction, positive affect, functional health, and subjective health. Changes in emotional support were only associated wi…
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Phillips WJ, Ferguson SJ (2013)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usThe journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences51 citations Self-compassion: a resource for positive aging.
Objectives: Self-compassion has been associated with psychological health in young and multigenerational samples. This study investigated whether self-compassion may be associated with subjective well-being (positive affect [PA] and negative affect [NA]) and psychological well-being (ego integrity and meaning in life) in older adults. It also assessed the structure of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003a) in older adults.
Method: A total of 185 adults aged 65 and older (M age = 73.42) completed several self-report measures, including the SCS.
Results: Path analysis revealed that self-compassion was significantly positively associated with PA, ego integrity, and meaning in life, and negatively associated with NA. Factor analyses indicated that the SCS structure identified among undergraduates was not observed in our older sample. Instead, two factors emerged which provided predicti…
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Volunteerism and positive aging in Hong Kong: a cultural perspective.
This study aims to examine factors related to volunteerism and explore the relationship between volunteerism and positive aging across three age groups. A total of 1,170 Hong Kong Chinese respondents aged between 15 years and 79 years were recruited for the study via a random household survey. Results found that age was negatively related to participation in voluntary work. Older adults aged 60 years to 75 years demonstrated the lowest volunteer participation rate compared with younger adults (aged 15 years to 39 years) and midlife adults (aged 40 years to 59 years). Paradoxically, older volunteers exhibited the highest frequency of volunteering, operationalized as spending 10 hours or more on volunteer work in the past month. Compared with younger and midlife adults, older adults were motivated to volunteer by societal concern and esteem enhancement. Participation in voluntary work was …
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)
Loneliness is associated with an increased risk of sedentary life in older Israelis.
Objectives: Both loneliness and insufficient physical activity are common in old age. This study investigated the association between loneliness and adherence to recommended guidelines of physical activity in a national sample of Israelis, and examined whether loneliness was a risk factor for insufficient physical activity independent of other variables.
Methods: A random sample of 1663 (799 men) older adults aged 65+ reported their physical activity routine, and based on official guidelines were categorized as sufficiently active, insufficiently active, and inactive. In addition, they were divided into lonely or not lonely based on a single question from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.
Results: Chi-square analyses indicated that loneliness, but not living alone, were inversely related to level of physical activity in both genders. Based on multinomial stepwise log…
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)
Aging and mental health in the decade ahead: what psychologists need to know.
Until relatively recently, most psychologists have had limited professional involvement with older adults. With the baby boomers starting to turn 65 years old in 2011, sheer numbers of older adults will continue to increase. About 1 in 5 older adults has a mental disorder, such as dementia. Their needs for mental and behavioral health services are not now adequately met, and the decade ahead will require an approximate doubling of the current level of psychologists' time with older adults. Public policy in the coming decade will face tensions between cost containment and facilitation of integrated models of care. Most older adults who access mental health services do so in primary care settings, where interdisciplinary, collaborative models of care have been found to be quite effective. To meet the needs of the aging population, psychologists need to increase awareness of competencies fo…
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)
Mind-wandering in younger and older adults: converging evidence from the Sustained Attention to Response Task and reading for comprehension.
One mechanism that has been hypothesized to contribute to older adults' changes in cognitive performance is goal neglect or impairment in maintaining task set across time. Mind-wandering and task-unrelated thought may underlie these potential age-related changes. The present study investigated age-related changes in mind-wandering in three different versions of the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), along with self-reported mind-wandering during a reading for comprehension task. In the SART, both younger and older adults produced similar levels of faster reaction times before No-Go errors of commission, whereas, older adults produced disproportionate post-error slowing. Subjective self-reports of mind-wandering recorded during the SART and the reading task indicated that older adults were less likely to report mind-wandering than younger adults. Discussion focuses on cognitive …
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)
Aging and mind wandering during text comprehension.
Mind wandering occurs when a person's stream of thought moves from the primary task to task-unrelated matters. Some theories of mind wandering suggest that it is caused by decreased attentional control associated with lower working memory (WM) capacity. Others suggest that it is caused by attention being directed toward internally generated thoughts and that it is associated with higher WM capacity. These ideas were assessed testing older adults because they have been argued to have reduced attentional control and lower WM capacity. The first account predicts that mind wandering should increase in older adults, while the second account predicts the opposite. Two experiments show that older adults exhibited a lower rate of mind wandering than younger adults. However, when using text interest as a covariate, the age difference in mind wandering disappeared. These results are further addres…
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)
Prefrontal mediation of age differences in cognitive reappraisal.
Despite cognitive and physical declines, it has been suggested that older adults remain able to regulate their emotions effectively. However, whether this is true for all emotion regulation processes has not been established. We hypothesized that cognitive reappraisal, a form of emotion regulation requiring intact cognitive control ability, may be compromised in older age, and that this age difference would be mediated by reduced activation in prefrontal cortex (PFC). Sixteen younger and 15 older adults used gaze-directed reappraisal to increase and decrease emotion in response to unpleasant pictures. This was compared with simply viewing the pictures. Relative to younger adults, older adults were less successful using reappraisal to decrease unpleasant emotion but more successful using reappraisal to increase unpleasant emotion. They also exhibited reduced activation in dorsomedial and …
matched on Aging (mesh), older adults (text)