Regret resolution, aging, and adapting to loss

Both theory and empirical evidence suggest that people who have unresolved regrets experience lower levels of well-being than do those who resolve their regrets. In this study, the authors examined the role of regret resolution during bereavement by assessing whether (a) regret resolution would aid in adapting to the death of a loved one and (b) older adults would be more successful at resolving their bereavement-related regrets than would younger adults. Mixed models were run with longitudinal data from an age-heterogeneous sample of 147 men and women who were eventually bereaved after providing care for a loved one through a hospice. As expected, regret resolution contributed to adjustment as indicated by postloss patterns of depressive symptoms, well-being, and rumination; further, older adults were more likely to resolve their regrets than were younger adults. Implications for encouraging regret resolution early in bereavement are discussed.     

The relationship between identity, intimacy, and midlife well-being: findings from the Rochester Adult Longitudinal Study

The present study used longitudinal data on 182 adults between the ages of 20 and 54 (104 men, 78 women) from the Rochester Adult Longitudinal Study (RALS), assessed on four occasions, to test the hypothesis that identity and intimacy during the course of early and middle adulthood predict well-being at midlife. A cross-lagged panel model was estimated yielding the following findings: (a) Scores on both scales during the college years predicted midlife satisfaction-intimacy directly, and identity through the course of development from ages 20 to 54; moreover, identity in midlife, but not intimacy, was significantly linked with well-being at this same point in time; and (b) identity and intimacy unexpectedly did not predict one another over time, having been controlled for factor stability in identity and intimacy over time. The findings are discussed in terms of Erikson's psychosocial theory of development and the developmental moments and historical cohorts that characterize the present sample.     

Women’s Regrets About Their Lives: Cohort Differences in Correlates and Contents

In this paper we test hypotheses about the importance of life stage in moderating the relationship between acknowledging regrets and concurrent well-being, as well as how changes in women’s social roles during the post-war period affected the content of the regrets they develop. We examine the relationship between women’s life regrets and life satisfaction, and the content of life regrets, using data from 313 predominately white, college-educated women who graduated from the same university in the United States in 1951/2 (age 66), 1972 (age 46) and 1992 (age 26). Analyses revealed that the more types of regrets middle-aged and older women reported (the 1972 and 1951/2 cohorts respectively), the lower their life satisfaction; this pattern did not hold for the youngest women. In terms of the specific content of regrets, exact logistic regressions showed that women in the oldest cohort reported more regrets about prioritizing family over career compared with the later cohorts. Overall, few women reported regrets about prioritizing their careers over families; however, women in the middle cohort were most likely to report these regrets. Results are discussed in terms of both developmental and socio-historical frameworks.     

Regret and quality of life across the adult life span: the influence of disengagement and available future goals

Two studies examined the associations between life regrets and indicators of quality of life across the adult life span. Given that opportunities to undo regrets decline with age, regret intensity was expected to be inversely associated with subjective well-being and health among older adults. In addition, the research explored protective factors that have the potential to reduce older adults' regret intensity. It was suggested that being disengaged from undoing the consequences of regrets and having many future goals available may reduce older adults' intensity of regret and thereby contribute to a better quality of life. Across both studies, the findings demonstrate that older adults perceived reduced opportunities to undo the consequences of their regrets and that regret intensity predicted a reduced quality of life only among older adults. Furthermore, the findings support the adaptive value of disengagement and available future goals for managing life regrets in older adults.     

Regret appraisals, age, and subjective well-being

This study examined whether regrets are associated with age and subjective well-being in a sample of 176 participants ranging in age 19 to 82 years. Participants were asked to name unattained goals or events which they currently regret, and appraise these along a number of dimensions such as changeableness and consequences. The results showed that those who appraised their regret-related goals or events as having an impact on their present lives, reported a lower level of life satisfaction and more physical symptoms than those who appraised their regrets as having less consequence. There were also age differences in the regret appraisals. The older adults evaluated their regret-related goals or events as being less likely to change than did the younger adults.     

Success,social comparison,and self-assessment: Parents' midlife evaluations of sons,daughters, and self

The literatures on sex-role socialization and social comparison theory were used to predict how parents would evaluate the life success of adult sons and daughters and how parents' assessments of themselves would be influenced by comparisons with these children. Although parents (N=215) did not report different levels of life success for 291 adult sons versus 251 adult daughters, parental well-being was more closely tied to assessments of sons' success. In addition, although parents' reported that both sons and daughters had exceeded their own life success, theparent-child comparison with daughters was the better predictor of parents' well-being. Findings are discussed in terms of parents' individual development, family processes at midlife, and cohort differences between parents and their children.     

Regret,Remorse and the Twilight Perspective

I examine the ‘momentous’ choices that one makes early in life – about career or spouse, for example – and I ask what it means to regret such choices at the end of one’s life (in one’s twilight). I argue that such regrets are almost meaningless because of the difficulty of imaginatively accessing a much earlier self. I then contrast long-term regret to remorse, and argue that the two are qualitatively different experiences because remorse involves another person as victim.     

Achieving ego integrity: Personality development in late midlife

Using data from two longitudinal studies of educated white women, we explored precursors and correlates of ego integrity versus despair, which is the last developmental stage in Erikson’s theory of adult development. The women comprising Study 1 graduated from Smith College in 1964 (N = 42); the women comprising Study 2 graduated from Radcliffe College also in 1964 (N = 50). In both studies, hierarchical regressions indicated that women who had resolved their regrets at age 53 achieved higher levels of ego integrity at age 62, and those who had resolved their regrets at age 62 also had higher concurrent levels of ego integrity. Further, in study 2, generativity at age 53 was found to predict ego integrity at age 62.     

Longitudinal Study of Life Events,Well-Being,Emotional Regulation and Depressive Symptomatology

Etiological research regarding adolescent depression is relatively recent and longitudinal studies are needed to explicate the mechanisms by which risk and protective factors impact the development of depression. This investigation evaluated the effects of time 1 predictors (e.g., depressive symptoms, life events, subjective well-being, and emotion regulation strategies) on depressive symptoms assessed at time 2 (1 year later). The sample comprised 182 Portuguese adolescents, aged 12–16. Time 1 depressive symptoms and psychological well-being were significant predictors of time 2 depressive symptoms. Time 1 rumination predicted time 2 depressive symptoms, but time 2 brooding mediated this effect. Time 1 life events did not predict time 2 depressive symptomatology. This study identified several factors that seem to play an important role in the development of depressive symptomatology. Previous depressive symptomatology and well-being had a significant effect in this process and the relationship between rumination in time 1 and depressive symptoms at time 2 (1 year later) was fully mediated by brooding at time 2. Given these results, implications for prevention and treatment of depression include addressing risk factors like early depressive symptoms, rumination and brooding, and increasing the protective effect of psychological well-being.     

Paths to Late Midlife Well-Being for Women and Men: The Importance of Identity Development and Social Role Quality

Theories of adult development suggest that personality development and social role involvements are sources of adult well-being for both men and women. However, previous research on this topic has focused mainly on (a) women, and (b) early stages of adulthood. We tested an alternative model for predicting late-midlife adults’ well-being, with role quality, number of roles, and healthy adaptation to late midlife (reflected in lower concern about aging) as mediators of the relationship between young adult identity development and well-being in late midlife. Results indicated that the model fit women’s experience very well, and men’s experience somewhat. Follow-up analyses indicated that the model fit men’s experience with respect to family role quality, but that young adult identity played a lesser role in men’s well-being in later midlife, and that problems in the late-midlife work role were reflected in concerns about aging for men, but not for women.     

Implications of college-age narcissism for psychosocial functioning at midlife: Findings from a longitudinal study of women

Positive and negative implications of two types of college-age narcissism on psychosocial functioning at midlife were studied in a longitudinal sample of women. Both types were scored with self-report measures when the women were, on the average, age 21. Throughout the first half of their adult life, high scorers on covert narcissism presented themselves as lacking in confidence and having low morale; high scorers on overt narcissism described themselves as wanting admiration, being independent, and being forceful. Positive outcomes associated with covert narcissism included the development of insight and of a differentiated sense of the self and, in the case of overt narcissism, entailed an involvement in high-status and creative work careers. At midlife, high scorers on covert narcissism experienced negative affect and feelings of being neglected, whereas high scorers on overt narcissism experienced family conflict and problems with impulse control. The personality characteristics associated with both types of narcissism remained stable from the early 20s to early 50s.     

Forty years on: teachers' assessments of children's personality traits predict self-reported health behaviors and outcomes at midlife.

A life span health-behavior model was investigated in this longitudinal study of personality influences on health. Teachers assessed 963 elementary schoolchildren on traits that formed scales assessing the dimensions of the five-factor (Big Five) model of personality. Smoking, alcohol use, body mass index (BMI), and self-rated health were assessed 40 years later in midlife. Childhood personality traits were significantly associated with all 4 outcomes, and the effects were consistently larger for women than men. For men and women, childhood Conscientiousness was associated with less adult smoking and better adult self-rated health and, for women only, with lower adult BMI. Mediation analyses suggested that the effects of Conscientiousness on self-rated health were partially mediated by smoking and BMI. These findings add to the growing evidence that childhood personality traits predict adult health outcomes and are discussed in terms of future testing of the life span health-behavior model.     

Self-appraisal, life satisfaction, and retrospective life choices across one and three decades.

This research investigated the relationship of a self-appraisal of having lived up to one's intellectual abilities at midlife (average age of 49 years) with life satisfaction and retrospective life choices 1 and 3 decades later among 383 participants in the Terman Study of the Gifted. Study 1 showed that participants who reported living up to their intellectual abilities were higher in satisfaction with occupational success, satisfaction with family life, and joy in living 11 years later. Study 2 showed that participants who reported living up to their abilities were higher in overall life satisfaction and were less likely to report that they would make different life choices in work or family life 3 decades later. In an integrative structural equation model, the relation between the midlife self-appraisal of having lived up to intellectual abilities and overall satisfaction at age 80 was mediated by life satisfaction discrepancy at age 61.     

THE MIDDLE AGES: CHANGE IN WOMEN'S PERSONALITIES AND SOCIAL ROLES

It has been argued that the predominant focus of midlife personality development is generativity; other research has found that social roles influence both its onset and its expression. In this article, we examine women's midlife personality development and its relationship to career and family commitments. Results for a sample of 90 women indicated that commitment to particular social projects in early midlife was associated with different patterns of identity, intimacy, and generativity levels at age 62. In addition, women who added social projects to existing projects during adulthood expressed similar levels of identity, intimacy, and generativity at age 62 as women whose social project commitments had stayed the same. For smaller subsamples of women in the study, longitudinal analyses assessed changes in personality development within middle age as well as the relationship between personality and the maintenance or addition of social projects. These results highlight important variation among women who followed different adult life paths.     

What Dutch women of different ages regret most

The present study examined the relationship between age, regret, well-being, and three categories of current interpretation of regretted events (not having come to terms, putting the best face on it, and coming to terms) in a large sample (n = 3579) of women varying in age from 16 to 81. Although the occurrence of regret was not related to age, its interpretation was: with age, both a growing number of women interpreted their regret experience as something they could not come to terms with also a growing number of women were able to do so. In addition, as women were more able to come to terms with their regrets, they reported higher well-being.     

Longitudinal analysis of midlife generativity, intergenerational roles, and caregiving

Items from the California Adult Q-Sort (CAQ) were used to assess psychosocial generativity (E. H. Erikson, 1950) in a sample of educated women at midlife. CAQ scores measured at age 43 demonstrated convergent validity with an inventory measure of generativity assessed at age 53. According to other longitudinal analyses, women who attained a generative stance at age 43 reported greater investment 10 years later in intergenerational roles (e.g., daughter, mother) but not nonintergenerational ones (e.g., friend, sister). Generative women also reported less subjective burden in caring for aging parents and more knowledge about community elder care programs. Further evidence suggests that participants felt embedded in a reciprocal caregiving network in which they themselves were the recipients of care.     

后悔内容的影响因素研究：基于中美的初步比较

后悔内容的研究由于缺乏理论总结长期处于后悔研究的主流之外。Roese和Summerville（2005）通过元分析发现美国人的后悔出现在12个生活领域,在此基础上,他们提出解释后悔内容的机会理论,该理论的核心观点是机会导致了后悔。而Beike、Markman和Karadogan（2009）的观点刚好相反,他们认为失去的机会才会产生后悔。我们将中国人的后悔和美国人的后悔进行比较后,发现中国人后悔出现的生活领域和美国人既有相似性也有差异。该结果提示,除了（失去的）机会之外生活领域的重要性可能也是解释后悔内容的一个重要因素     

Changes in Neuroticism Following Trauma Exposure

Using longitudinal data, the present study examined change in midlife neuroticism following trauma exposure. Our primary analyses included 670 participants (M_age = 60.55; 65.22% male, 99.70% Caucasian) who completed the NEO Personality Inventory at ages 42 and 50 and reported their lifetime exposure to traumatic events approximately 10 years later. No differences in pre‐ and post‐trauma neuroticism scores were found among individuals who experienced all of their lifetime traumas in the interval between the personality assessments. Results were instead consistent with normative age‐related declines in neuroticism throughout adulthood. Furthermore, longitudinal changes in neuroticism scores did not differ between individuals with and without histories of midlife trauma exposure. Examination of change in neuroticism following life‐threatening traumas yielded a comparable pattern of results. Analysis of facet‐level scores largely replicated findings from the domain scores. Overall, our findings suggest that neuroticism does not reliably change following exposure to traumatic events in middle adulthood. Supplemental analyses indicated that individuals exposed to life‐threatening traumas in childhood or adolescence reported higher midlife neuroticism than individuals who experienced severe traumas in adulthood. Life‐threatening traumatic events encountered early in life may have a more pronounced impact on adulthood personality than recent traumatic events.     

Personality at midlife: stability, intrinsic maturation, and response to life events

Although developmental theories and popular accounts suggest that midlife is a time of turmoil and change, longitudinal studies of personality traits have generally found stability of rank order and little or no change in mean levels. Using data from 2,274 men and women in their 40s retested after 6 to 9 years, the present study examined two hypotheses: (a) that retest correlations should be no higher than about .60 and (b) that there should be small decreases in Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness, and small increases in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. The study also explored the effects of recalled life events on subsequent personality scores. Results did not support the first hypothesis; uncorrected retest correlations uniformly exceeded .60. This was true for all personality traits, including facets of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness not previously included in longitudinal studies. The hypothesized decreases in Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness were found, but Conscientiousness showed a small decrease instead of the predicted increase. Life events in general showed very little influence on the levels of personality traits, although some effects were seen for changes in job and marital status that warrant further research.     

Life transitions and mental health in a national cohort of young Australian women

Young adulthood, a time of major life transitions and risk of poor mental health, may affect emotional well-being throughout adult life. This article uses longitudinal survey data to examine young Australian women's transitions across 4 domains: residential independence, relationships, work and study, and motherhood. Changes over 3 years in health-related quality of life, optimism, depressive symptoms, stress, and life satisfaction, were examined in relation to these transitions among 7,619 young adult participants in the nationally representative Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. Positive changes in mental health occurred for women moving into cohabitation and marriage, whereas reductions were observed among those experiencing marital separation or divorce and those taking on or remaining in traditionally "feminine" roles (out of the workforce, motherhood). The data suggest that women cope well with major life changes at this life stage, but reductions in psychological well-being are associated with some transitions. The findings suggest that preventive interventions to improve women's resilience and coping might target women undergoing these transitions and that social structures may not be providing sufficient support for women making traditional life choices.