Self-Compassion and Psychological Well-Being in Older Adults

Self-compassion refers to a kind and nurturing attitude toward oneself during situations that threaten one’s adequacy, while recognizing that being imperfect is part of being human. Although growing evidence indicates that self-compassion is related to a wide range of desirable psychological outcomes, little research has explored self-compassion in older adults. The present study investigated the relationships between self-compassion and theoretically based indicators of psychological adjustment, as well as the moderating effect of self-compassion on self-rated health. A sample of 121 older adults recruited from a community library and a senior day center completed self-report measures of self-compassion, self-esteem, psychological well-being, anxiety, and depression. Results indicated that self-compassion is positively correlated with age, self-compassion is positively and uniquely related to psychological well-being, and self-compassion moderates the association between self-rated health and depression. These results suggest that interventions designed to increase self-compassion in older adults may be a fruitful direction for future applied research.     

Predicting Well-Being From Personality in Adolescents and Older Adults

The relationship between personality and well-being is dynamic and therefore should be examined within aging perspective. In study presented here we compared the prediction of well-being from personality in two samples?C223 adolescents attending high-school (16?C19?years; M?=?16.94, SD?=?0.51) and 134 older adults (54?C90?years; M?=?77.20, SD?=?7.39) living in retirement home or at home. Different aspects of well-being were included in the study. Subjective well-being was measured with Index of Well-Being, but also self-esteem and loneliness were included as measures of psychological well-being. Personality (measured with FFPI; Hendriks et al. in Pers Individ Dif 27:307?C325, 1999) significantly predicted indicators of well-being (Self-Esteem, Loneliness and Index of Well-Being) in both samples, with emotional stability and extraversion as most pronounced predictors. Personality explained more variance of well-being in adolescents than in older adults, and more variance in eudaimonic than hedonic aspects of well-being.     

Symbolic Attachment Security and Eudemonic Well-Being in Older Adults

According to attachment theory, the appraisal that an attachment figure is available, caring, and responsive facilitates psychological and social adjustment. Although the theory is regarded as a lifespan theory of development, little research has addressed the correlates of attachment in late adulthood. Symbolic attachment figures such as God may be particularly important for older adults because they have often lost loved ones, including former attachment figures. This study tested whether secure attachment to God was associated with psychological flourishing in older adults. A community sample of 106 adults (mean age = 75) completed measures of attachment to God and psychological well-being. In regression analyses controlling for age, sex, education, and self-rated religiosity, secure (non-anxious) attachment to God predicted positive relationships with others, self-acceptance, environmental mastery, and personal growth. Avoidant attachment did not predict any of the well-being indices. Results are discussed in the context of attachment theory and positive psychology.     

Multi-Level Intervention to Prevent Influenza Infections in Older Low Income and Minority Adults

In this paper we describe a successful multi-level participatory intervention grounded in principles of individual and group empowerment, and guided by social construction theory. The intervention addressed known and persistent inequities in influenza vaccination among African American and Latino older adults, and associated infections, hospitalizations and mortality. It was designed to increase resident ability to make informed decisions about vaccination, and to build internal and external infrastructure to support sustainability over time. The intervention brought a group of social scientists, vaccine researchers, geriatricians, public health nurses, elder services providers and advocates together with senior housing management and activist African American and Latino residents living in public senior housing in a small east coast city. Two buildings of equal size and similar ethnic composition were randomized as intervention and control buildings. Pre and post intervention surveys were conducted in both buildings, measuring knowledge, attitudes and peer norms. Processes and outcomes were documented at four levels: Influenza Strategic Alliance (macro and exo levels), building management (meso level), building resident committee (meso level) and individual residents. The Influenza Strategic Alliance (I.S.A.) provided ongoing resources, information and vaccine; the building management provided economic and other in-kind resources and supported residents to continue flu clinics in the building. The V.I.P. Resident Committee conducted flu campaigns with flu clinics in English and Spanish. The vaccination rate in the intervention building at post test exceeded the study goal of 70% and showed a significant improvement over the control building. The intervention achieved desired outcomes at all four levels and resulted in a significant increase in influenza vaccination, and improvements in pro-vaccination knowledge, beliefs, and understanding of health consequences.     

Nostalgia,Gratitude, or Optimism: The Impact of a Two-Week Intervention on Well-Being During COVID-19

Research indicates that brief 2-min positive psychology interventions (PPIs) increase well-being during COVID-19 lockdowns. The present study extended this to assess the effectiveness over two-weeks. Participants (n?=?150) were randomly allocated to one of three PPIs; nostalgia, gratitude, best possible self (BPS), or control. The interventions were slightly adapted for the lockdown and were completed three times, every seven days over two-weeks. Well-being measures were completed immediately after the first intervention (T1), after the next two interventions (T2?T3) and at one-week follow-up (T4) (but no baseline measure of well-being was taken). At T1, participants in the nostalgia, gratitude, and BPS intervention had higher self-esteem than those in the control intervention. At T1 and T2, participants in the gratitude and BPS intervention reported higher social connectedness than participants in the nostalgia and control intervention. Then at follow-up (T4), participants in the nostalgia, gratitude, and BPS intervention had lower fear of COVID-19 than those in the control intervention. Overall, the results show the benefits of nostalgia, gratitude and optimism, compared to the control, during lockdown.

     

The Effectiveness of a Spiritually-Based Intervention to Alleviate Subsyndromal Anxiety and Minor Depression Among Older Adults

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a spiritually-based intervention in the alleviation of subsyndromal anxiety and minor depression in an elderly population. Twenty-two residents of six continuing care communities diagnosed with minor depression participated in this study. There was a significant decrease in anxiety and a trend toward decreased depression. In addition, participants who continued to use the Prayer Wheel had a decrease in depression scores, while those who did not had an increase in depression scores. These findings suggest that use of the Prayer Wheel may promote psychological well-being among older adults.     

Dynamic Factor Analysis of Worldviews/Religious Beliefs and Well-Being among Older Adults

Intraindividual patterns of time-lagged relationships among self-reports of worldviews/religious beliefs, self-concept, and physical and psychological well-being were investigated. Participants were older adults (mean age = 77 years) who were measured weekly covering a total of 25 weeks. Dynamic Factor Models were fitted to multivariate repeated measures data pooled over subsets of participants. The results showed significant time-lagged cross-factor relationships suggesting that worldviews/religious beliefs had a significant direct effect on self-concept and physical health over 2 weeks. For each factor series, there were substantial autoregressive effects indicating persisting effects of factors on themselves over 1 or 2 weeks. A link between worldviews/religious beliefs and physical health was found in the time-lagged structure of within-person variability. The findings underscore the need to study both intraindividual change and interindividual differences in intraindividual variability to obtain a better understanding of behavior and behavioral development.

The Use of a Personal Trainer to Enhance Participation of Older Adults with Severe Disabilities in a Community Water Exercise Class

Inclusive instruction was provided for three older adults with profound mental retardation in a water exercise class at a local YMCA. The older adults were taught to exercise through the use of systematic prompting. A multiple baseline design across participants with an embedded reversal was used to evaluate the impact of a personal trainer. The three participants performed the exercise, but regressed without the assistance of the trainer, as demonstrated by the reversal. Data collected during peer prompting and maintenance conditions indicated that the participants continued to exercise at levels higher than baseline but lower than with a personal trainer.     

Attitude of Gratitude: Exploring the Implementation of a Gratitude Intervention with College Athletes

This study explored the implementation of a 90-min Attitude of Gratitude workshop among 51 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I student-athletes. Levels of state gratitude, psychological distress, life satisfaction, sport satisfaction, athlete burnout, and perceived available support in sport were measured the week before, immediately after, and 4 weeks postintervention. Significant increases in well-being (state gratitude, sport satisfaction, social support) and significant decreases in ill-being (psychological distress, athlete burnout) were observed postintervention. Results of this pilot study warrant further exploration of gratitude interventions in applied sport psychology. Limitations, practical implications, and recommendations for future research are discussed in light of the current findings.

Lay Summary: Fifty-one NCAA Division I athletes participated in a one-time “Attitude of Gratitude” workshop. Following the workshop, student-athletes scored higher on measures of well-being and lower on measures of ill-being as compared to their baseline scores. Results encourage further exploration of positive psychology interventions such as gratitude in the sport context.     

Nursing Home Adaptation in Visually Impaired Older Adults Using a Narrative Approach1,2

This study used a narrative approach to examine the difficulties that older visually impaired people experience when adapting to life in a nursing home. The interview data were collected from one blind aged person (n = 1), focusing on the adaptation process from moving into the nursing home to the present and maintaining context of narrative that included the life history. Subcategories were extracted based on a framework of temporal coherence, causal coherence, thematic coherence, and situational coherence. This study revealed three factors related to adaptation to life in a nursing home for a visually impaired person, including psychological adaptation: becoming accustomed to life in the facility after changes in the living environment, having gratitude and maintaining “moderating human relationships,” and participating in activities connected to one's purpose in life. He was able to psychologically adapt and came to accept his death through an awareness of aging.     

Gratitude,Social Cognition,and Well-Being in Emerging Adolescents

The authors explored Canadian emerging adolescents' social and moral reasoning skills (empathy, theory of mind), and their perceptions of gratitude, self-competencies, and well-being (spiritual, emotional). As part of a larger five-year longitudinal study, the authors describe results of Year 2 (2016–2017) data from 46 ninth-grade students (33 girls; M_age?=?13.5?years, SD?=?5.436 years) from eight schools (Ontario, Canada). Students’ perceptions of gratitude, spirituality, self-compassion, competencies, and well-being were measured by self-report questionnaires. Significant positive correlations were found among adolescents’ perceptions of gratitude, self-competencies, and emotional and spiritual well-being. Differently valenced patterns of associations were found among students’ perceptions of gratitude (appreciation for others and sense of abundance), self-compassion, and existential well-being, and spiritual comfort, and omnipresence. Simple appreciation was the only aspect of gratitude to show significant positive relations with religious well-being. Significant positive correlations were found between gratitude (sense of abundance) and self-compassion, whereas significant negative correlations were found between self-compassion and empathy, theory of mind, existential well-being, and religious well-being. Implications for theory and educational applications are discussed.     

Effects of Physical Exercise on Resources Evaluation,Body Self-Concept and Well-Being Among Older Adults

This study addressed the effects of a 14-week moderate physical activity program on resources evaluation, body self-concept and other health-related psychological variables among older adults. In a quasi-experimental design participants were divided into three groups and completed questionnaires twice, before ( t 1) and after ( t 2) the 14-week program. The experimental group participated in a supervised mixed exercise program of moderate intensity. The placebo attention control group took part in a foreign language course. The no intervention control group did not get any intervention/attention at all. The dependent variables were resources evaluation, body self-concept, trait anxiety, and psychosomatic complaints. Using the pretest data as covariates multivariate analyses of covariance revealed significant improvements in body self-concept in the experimental group compared to the control groups. No other significant differences could be detected. Results point to the positive effects of exercise on body self-concept even among older adults.     

Depression in Older Adults

The purpose of this article is to address selected aspects of depression in older adults. Specifically, symptoms, risk factors, diagnosis, and interventions for depression in older adults are reviewed.     

Existential Beliefs,Social Satisfaction,and Well-Being Among Catholic,Jewish, and Protestant Older Adults

Religiousness, spirituality, and existential beliefs are important sources of well-being yet neither their specific effects nor group variation in them is well understood. In a sample of more than 1,000 older adults, we found that certain existential beliefs or concerns (fear of God, death anxiety, belief in life after death, concerns about being mourned) are correlates of well-being in older adults and differed across religious groups. Protestants reported better well-being than Catholics and Jews. Differences in social satisfaction and existential concerns partially explained these differences, which were not explained by demographics. These results suggest the importance of studying well-being and religion in a way that appreciates the differences among religious groups and further of looking at the specific beliefs of different groups.     

老年人的朋友参照效应

采用自我参照效应范式探讨老年人朋友参照效应的特点。城市老年人和农村老年人各36人参加实验1, 结果表明：(1)城乡老年人都表现出朋友参照效应; (2)与农村老年人相比, 城市老年人朋友参照效应指标显著高于自我参照效应指标。城市教育程度较高与教育程度较低老年人各36人参加实验2, 结果发现, 与城市教育程度较低的老年人相比, 城市教育程度较高的老年人朋友参照效应指标高于自我参照效应指标, 表明教育程度对朋友参照效应有显著影响。由此推断, 老年人会将朋友包含于自我图式之内, 并且教育程度会影响朋友在自我图式中的地位。     

Alcohol as a Response to Stress in Older Adults: A Counseling Perspective

The authors explore the relationship between stress and alcohol use in older adults. The importance for the counselor to determine the client‐specific role of alcohol use, whether as a stress buffer or as a coping mechanism, is discussed.     

Self-Reported Cognitive Inconsistency in Older Adults

ABSTRACT

Insight into one's own cognitive abilities, or metacognition, has been widely studied in developmental psychology. Relevance to the clinician is high, as memory complaints in older adults show an association with impending dementia, even after controlling for likely confounds. Another candidate marker of impending dementia under study is inconsistency in cognitive performance over short time intervals. Although there has been a recent proliferation of studies of cognitive inconsistency in older adults, to date, no one has examined adults' self-perceptions of cognitive inconsistency. Ninety-four community-dwelling older adults (aged 70–91) were randomly selected from a parent longitudinal study of short-term inconsistency and long-term cognitive change in aging. Participants completed a novel 40-item self-report measure of everyday cognitive inconsistency, including parallel scales indexing perceived inconsistency 5 years ago and at present, yielding measures of past, present, and 5-year change in inconsistency. The questionnaire showed acceptable psychometric characteristics. The sample reported an increase in perceived inconsistency over time. Higher reported present inconsistency and greater 5-year increase in inconsistency were associated with noncognitive (e.g., older age, poorer ADLs, poorer health, higher depression), metacognitive (e.g., poorer self-rated memory) and neuropsychological (e.g., poorer performance and greater 5-year decline in global cognitive status, vocabulary, and memory) measures. Correlations between self-reported inconsistency and neuropsychological performance were attenuated, but largely persisted when self-rated memory and age were controlled. Observed relationships between self-reported inconsistency and measures of neuropsychological (including memory) status and decline suggest that self-perceived inconsistency may be an area of relevance in evaluating older adults for memory disorders.     

Multidimensional Retirement Planning Behaviors,Retirement Confidence,and Post-Retirement Health and Well-Being Among Chinese Older Adults in Hong Kong

Applied Research in Quality of Life - Maintaining health and well-being in later life is becoming increasingly crucial because of rapid population aging and prolonged years in retirement....