The effects of daily co-occurrence of affect on older adults’ reactivity to health stressors

Objectives: The present study examined age differences among older adults in the daily co-occurrence of affect and its potential role in buffering the negative effects of health stressors.

Design: Participants were from the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study and included 249 young-old adults (age = 60–79 years, M = 71.6) and 64 old-old adults (age = 80–89, M = 82.9) who completed questionnaires assessing stressors, physical health symptoms, and positive and negative affect for eight consecutive days.

Results: An independent samples t-test showed young-old and old-old adults did not significantly differ in their mean levels of daily co-occurrence of affect. The between-person relationships among stressors, health and daily co-occurrence of affect revealed that neither stressors nor health were significantly related to daily co-occurrence of affect. However, results from a multilevel model revealed a three-way cross-level interaction (health stressor × age group × co-occurrence of affect) where old-old adults with higher levels of co-occurrence of affect were less emotionally reactive to health stressors than young-old adults.

Conclusion: These findings provide support for the assertion that co-occurrence of affect functions in an adaptive capacity and highlight the importance of examining domain-specific stressors.     

Feeling bad about progress does not lead people want to change their health behaviour

Objective: When do people decide to do something about problematic health behaviours? Theoretical models and pragmatic considerations suggest that people should take action when they feel bad about their progress – in other words, when they experience negative progress-related affect. However, the impact of progress-related affect on goal striving has rarely been investigated.

Design and Methods: Study 1 (N = 744) adopted a cross-sectional design and examined the extent to which measures of progress-related affect were correlated with intentions to take action. Study 2 (N = 409) investigated the impact of manipulating progress-related affect on intentions and behaviour in an experimental design.

Results: Study 1 found that, while engaging in health behaviours had the expected affective consequences (e.g. people felt bad when they were not eating healthily, exercising regularly or limiting their alcohol consumption), it was feeling good rather than bad about progress that was associated with stronger intentions. Study 2 replicated these findings. Participants induced to feel good about their eating behaviour had marginally stronger intentions to eat healthily than participants led to feel bad about their eating behaviour.

Conclusion: The findings have implications for interventions designed to promote changes in health behaviour, as well as theoretical frameworks for understanding self-regulation.     

Effects of daily maladaptive coping on nightly sleep in mothers

Objective: We examined effects of daily rumination and suppression in response to stressors on objective and subjective sleep among mothers.

Design: Participants were 183 mothers, including chronically stressed mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder (M-ASD; n = 92) and age-matched mothers of neurotypical children (M-NT; n = 91). In an intensive longitudinal design, participants provided reports of daily rumination and suppression, nightly objective actigraphy-defined sleep and nightly subjective sleep quality for seven consecutive days at baseline, 9 months and 18 months.

Main Outcome Measures: Total sleep time, sleep fragmentation, sleep onset latency, and subjective sleep quality.

Results: Among M-NT with above average depressive symptoms, higher daily rumination was associated with shorter total sleep time. Rumination was associated with more sleep fragmentation among M-NT at the trend level. Rumination was not associated with sleep onset latency among M-NT, or with any sleep outcomes among M-ASD. Suppression was not associated with any sleep outcomes.

Conclusion: We provide novel evidence of the effect of rumination on objectively measured sleep duration among M-NT. Coping was not related to sleep among M-ASD. Given the prevalence of poor sleep among mothers, future work should examine modifiable factors perpetuating sleep disturbance.     

‘I feel better when…’: An analysis of the memory-experience gap for peoples’ estimates of the relationship between health behaviours and experiences

Objective: People often overestimate how strongly behaviours and experiences are related. This memory-experience gap might have important implications for health care settings, which often require people to estimate associations, such as “my mood is better when I exercise”. This study examines how subjective correlation estimates between health behaviours and experiences relate to calculated correlations from online reports and whether subjective estimates are associated with engagement in actual health behaviour.

Design: Seven-month online study on physical activity, sleep, affect and stress, with 61 online assessments.

Main Outcome Measures: University students (N = 168) retrospectively estimated correlations between physical activity, sleep, positive affect and stress over the seven-month study period.

Results: Correlations between experiences and behaviours (online data) were small (r = ?.12–.14), estimated correlations moderate (r = ?.35–.24). Correspondence between calculated and estimated correlations was low. Importantly, estimated correlations of physical activity with stress, positive affect and sleep were associated with actual engagement in physical activity.

Conclusion: Estimation accuracy of relations between health behaviours and experiences is low. However, association estimates could be an important predictor of actual health behaviours. This study identifies and quantifies estimation inaccuracies in health behaviours and points towards potential systematic biases in health settings, which might seriously impair intervention efficacy.     

Subjective age and sleep in middle-aged and older adults

Objective: Chronological age is commonly used to explain change in sleep. The present study examines whether subjective age is associated with change in sleep difficulties across middle adulthood and old age.

Design: Participants were drawn from the second (2004–2005) and third (2013–2014) waves of the Midlife in the United States Survey (MIDUS, N = 2350; Mean Age: 55.54 years), the 2008 and 2014 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS, N = 4066; Mean Age: 67.59 years) and the first (2011) and fourth (2014) waves of the National Health and Aging Trends Survey (NHATS, N = 3541; Mean Age: 76.46). In each sample, subjective age, sleep difficulties, depressive symptoms, anxiety and chronic conditions were assessed at baseline. Sleep difficulties was assessed again at follow-up.

Main outcome measures: Sleep difficulties.

Results: An older subjective age at baseline was related to an increase in sleep difficulties over time in the three samples, and was mediated, in part, through more depressive symptoms, anxiety and chronic conditions. Feeling older was associated with an increased likelihood of major sleeping difficulties at follow-up in the three samples.

Conclusion: Subjective age is a salient marker of individuals’ at risk for poor sleep quality, beyond chronological age.     

Investigating the psychosocial determinants of physical activity in older adults: A qualitative approach

Objective: Despite the benefits of physical activity (PA), only one-third of older adults meet the recommended levels. The present study focused on psychosocial determinants of PA following retirement. Social cognitive theory (SCT) was used to better understand pre- and post-retirement adults’ thoughts about PA, the reasons why some individuals are more active than others, and how PA is incorporated into daily life after retirement.

Design: Seven focus groups of older adults (N = 37, M = 64, SD = 5.20; males = 20) representing a range of PA levels and retirement length participated in one of seven focus groups.

Results: Aligned with SCT, self-efficacy beliefs along with perceptions about barriers and benefits of PA were among the major determinants of PA. Findings highlighted the importance of social support, positive outcome expectations and self-regulatory strategies as motivators. The lack of structure in retirement was a hindrance to incorporating PA into daily routine but, when incorporated, PA provided a sense of purpose in the lives of retired individuals.

Conclusion: It is important to understand the meaning of retirement as a life transition and how it affects beliefs about PA to inform SCT-based health promotion interventions targeting individuals in retirement age.     

Reciprocal within-day associations between incidental affect and exercise: An EMA study

Previous research suggests that how people feel throughout the course of a day (i.e. incidental affect) is predictive of exercise behaviour. A mostly separate literature suggests that exercise can lead to more positive incidental affect.

Objective: This study examines the potential reciprocal effects of incidental affect and exercise behaviour within the same day.

Design: Fifty-nine low-active (exercise <60 min/week), overweight (BMI: 25.0–39.9) adults (ages 18–65) participated in a six-month print-based exercise promotion programme.

Main outcome measures: Ecological momentary assessment was used to record self-reported exercise sessions in real time and incidental affective valence (feeling good/bad) as assessed by the 11-point Feeling Scale at random times throughout the day.

Results: Use of a within-subjects cross-lagged, autoregressive model showed that participants were more likely to exercise on days when they experienced more positive incidental affect earlier in the day (b = .58, SE = .10, p < .01), and participants were more likely to experience more positive incidental affect on days when they had exercised (b = .26, SE = .03, p < .01), with the former association significantly stronger than the latter (t = 23.54, p < .01).

Conclusion: The findings suggest a positive feedback loop whereby feeling good and exercising are reciprocally influential within the course of a day.     

Does cognitive flexibility training enhance subjective mental functioning in healthy older adults?

Declining cognitive abilities in older adults can contribute to significant changes in socioemotional health and substantially reduce their perception of well-being. Whereas much attention has been dedicated to creating cognitive training programs to improve cognitive health in old age, there is little emphasis on the consequences of such interventions for subjective mental functioning. We created a randomized controlled trial in which we evaluated the effects of an adaptive computerized cognitive flexibility training. Healthy older adults (60–80 years old) were assigned to one of three conditions (frequent or infrequent switching or active control group) and performed 58 half-hour sessions within a period of 12 weeks. We measured effects on subjective cognitive failures and executive dysfunctioning, everyday functioning, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and quality of life, before, and after training. Additionally, participants’ proxies rated their cognitive failures and executive dysfunctioning. Subjective cognitive failures and executive dysfunctioning improved 4 weeks posttraining in all groups, although effect sizes were low (?_p² = .058 and .079, respectively) and there were no differences between groups (all p’s > .38). No significant changes in subjective reports were seen directly after training, which was the case in all groups. Proxies did not report any functional changes over time, yet their evaluations were significantly more favorable than those of the participants, both pretraining (p < .0005) and posttraining (p = .004). Although we found no evidence of improvement on subjective mental functioning, we adduce several factors that encourage further research into the effects of computerized cognitive training on subjective performance.     

Zooming into daily life: within-person associations between physical activity and affect in young adults

Objective: Negative affect in daily life is linked to poorer mental and physical health. Activity could serve as an effective, low-cost intervention to improve affect. However, few prior studies have assessed physical activity and affect in everyday life, limiting the ecological validity of prior findings. This study investigates whether daily activity is associated with negative and positive evening affect in young adults.

Design: Young adults (N = 189, Mdn = 23.00) participated in an intensive longitudinal study over 10 consecutive days.

Main Outcome Measures: Participants wore accelerometers to objectively assess moderate-to-vigorous physical activity continuously throughout the day and reported their affect in time-stamped online evening diaries before going to sleep.

Results: On days when participants engaged in more activity than usual, they reported not only less depressed and angry evening affect but also more vigour and serenity in the evening.

Conclusion: Young adults showed both less negative and more positive affect on days with more activity. Physical activity is a promising health promotion strategy for physical and mental well-being.     

Gratitude across the life span: Age differences and links to subjective well-being

Abstract

Gratitude has been described as an adaptive evolutionary mechanism that is relevant to healthy psychological and interpersonal outcomes. Questions remain as to whether the presence and benefits of gratitude are consistent from young adulthood to old age; prior research has yielded mixed evidence. We examined the magnitude and direction of age differences in gratitude in three samples (combined N = 31,206). We also examined whether gratitude was associated with greater/lesser well-being at different periods in the life course. We found that the experience of gratitude was greatest in older adults and least in middle aged and younger adults. Further, we found that the associations between gratitude and subjective well-being remained relatively constant across the lifespan. Findings are discussed from a developmental perspective.     

Disease controllability moderates the effect of coping efficacy on positive affect

Objective: This study aims to test experimentally whether coping strategies (approach- vs. avoidance-oriented coping) have differential effects under conditions of high or low stressor controllability.

Design: Undergraduates (62 women, 30 men) participated in a 2 × 2 experimental study where they were introduced to a fictitious disease (tisomerase enzyme deficiency) said to be either controllable or uncontrollable and an approach- or avoidance-oriented coping behaviour induction.

Main Outcome Measures: Changes in positive and negative affect.

Results: A significant disease control x coping interaction on positive affect (f² = .07, p = .011) revealed that approach-coping condition participants had higher positive affect than avoidance-coping condition participants when disease control was high (d = .94, p = .003), but not when it was low (d = .11, p = .93). The experimental conditions did not significantly influence negative affect.

Conclusion: Results demonstrate that disease control moderates the salubrious effects of approach-oriented coping on positive affect. For controllable, but not uncontrollable, health stressors, promoting problem-focused approach-oriented coping strategies may be recommended.     

Age and pre quit-day attrition during smoking cessation treatment

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to replicate the finding that younger age predicts higher pre quit-day attrition. Our second aim was to explain this relation by examining empirically and theoretically informed age-related risk factors for low smoking cessation treatment engagement. 136 participants (M _age = 44.2 years, SD = 11.3 years; age = 22–64 years) were randomized to 15-weeks of either 1) an exercise intervention (n = 72) or 2) a wellness education control condition (n = 64). First, a logistic regression analysis was employed to test whether younger adults were more likely than older adults to drop prior to quit date. Next, we assessed whether smoking related health concerns, social expectancies, and/or perceived severity of craving affected the strength of the relation between age and attrition, by adding these three variables to the logistic regression along with age. The logistic regression model indicated that younger age and treatment condition were significantly related to the odds of dropping from treatment prior to the scheduled quit date. Further, health concerns, social expectancies, and/or perceived severity of cravings did not account for the effect of age on pre quit-day attrition. These findings highlight the importance of identifying empirically and theoretically informed variables associated with the pre quit-day attrition problem of young smokers.     

Neurophysiological characteristics of acts of remembering in the process of positive ageing / Características neurofisiológicas de los actos de recuerdo en el proceso de envejecimiento positivo

Abstract

‘Acts of remembering’ refer to the conscious cognitive process that facilitates recognition of socioculturally relevant events. This study presents an analysis of the differences and similarities between the morphological characteristics and architecture of Event-Related Potentials associated with the visual recognition of cultural events, by comparing a group of older adults (n = 15) with a group of young adults (n = 17). The results show similar modulations in the N1, P2, P300 and N400 components while a differential modulation appears in N200, a component that has been associated with attentional processes. Two ways of interpreting the results are put forward: one suggests that with age come greater difficulties for cognitive processing and the other suggests that older adults have a particular interest in this type of material.     

Effects of stress management and relaxation training on the relationship between diabetes symptoms and affect among Latinos

Objective: Stress management and relaxation (SMR) interventions can reduce symptoms of chronic disease and associated distress. However, there is little evidence that such interventions disrupt associations between symptoms and affect. This study examined whether SMR dampened the link between symptoms of hyperglycemia and proximal levels of affect. We predicted that during periods of increased hyperglycemia, individuals receiving SMR training, relative to controls, would demonstrate smaller increases in negative affect.

Design: Fifty-five adult Latinos with type 2 diabetes were randomised to either one group session of diabetes education (DE-only; N = 23) or diabetes education plus eight group sessions of SMR (DE + SMR; N = 32). After treatment, participants reported five diabetes symptoms and four affective states twice daily for seven days using a bilingual telephonic system.

Results: Mean age = 57.8 years, mean A1c = 8.4%, and ¾ was female with less than a high school education. Individuals receiving DE + SMR, compared to DE-only, showed a weaker positive within-person association between daily diabetes symptoms and nervous affect. Groups also differed on the association between symptoms and enthusiasm. Age moderated these associations in most models with older individuals showing less affect reactivity to symptoms.

Conclusions: Findings provide partial support for theorised mechanisms of SMR.     

Passion,vitality and life satisfaction for physically active old adults

In Arabic world, few studies are interested in psychological factors influencing the physically active old adults. The specific goals of the present research are the following: (i) test the factor structure and invariance tests for gender and physical activities for the Arabic version of the passion scale; (ii) test a model that describes a mediator role of subjective vitality in the relationships between passion and life satisfaction (iii) test the presence of differences for gender, physical activity practice, education level and age on passion. Two studies were conducted with 551 physically active Egyptian old adult (n = 354; n = 197). Passion, Subjective vitality and Life Satisfaction scales were administered. Passion scale composed of two subscales (harmonious and obsessive). Strong support for the complete invariance between groups. Subjective vitality was a mediator in the relationships between harmonious passion and life satisfaction. Education level and age had an effect on passion subscales.     

Episodes of momentary resilience in daily life are associated with HRV reductions to stressful operations in firefighters: an ambulatory assessment approach using bayesian multilevel modeling

ABSTRACT

Background: Resilience is discussed to constitute a protective buffer against stress, thus fostering health. Methods: This study aimed to assess resilience both via traditional questionnaire and in everyday life on a momentary basis, and to relate these measures to autonomic functioning (heart rate variability, HRV) in 38 male firefighters during a weekday. Stressful operations, non-stressful operations and routine work at the firestation were coded during 24 hours. Momentary negative affect, feelings of resilience, and HRV were recorded via ecological momentary assessment. Findings: Questionnaire-assessed resilience was significantly positively associated with aggregated momentary resilience (r = .58, p < .001), but unrelated to HRV. However, controlling for multiple confounders (e.g., age, smoking, bodily movement, waist-to-height ratio) momentary resilience was associated with attenuated HRV and lower negative affect during stressful encounters only. Discussion: The findings suggest that momentary feelings of resilience are accompanied by vagal withdrawal to stress, possibly indicating psychological flexibility and adaptive responding to stress.     

Stressors Arising in Highly Valued Roles and Change in Feeling Close to God Over Time

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to see if exposure to stressful life events changes the way older people feel about their relationship with God. Data from a nationwide, longitudinal study of older adults suggest that older people who encounter stressful life events believe their relationship with God has grown closer over time. There are, however, two important qualifications. First, stressors arising in roles that older people value highly appear to have a greater effect than events that are encountered in roles that are less important. Second, stressors emerging in highly valued roles affect the way older African Americans, but not older Whites, view their relationship with God.     

Trauma history as a resilience factor for patients recovering from total knee replacement surgery

Research concerning the impact of trauma history on individuals' ability to cope with subsequent events is mixed. While many studies find that trauma history increases vulnerability for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain, others reveal that there are benefits associated with moderate levels of stress (e.g. development of coping skills).

Objective: The present study investigated whether the experience of prior traumatic stressors would serve as a risk or resilience factor based on physical and emotional outcomes among patients recovering from total knee replacement surgery (TKR).

Design: 110 patients undergoing unilateral, TKR completed surveys before surgery, as well as one and three months following the procedure.

Results: Contrary to hypotheses, patients who reported more prior traumas experienced less severe pain and functional limitations at one- (β = ?.259, p = .006) and three-month follow-up assessments (β = ?.187, p = .04). A similar pattern emerged when specific types of traumas (e.g. interpersonal) were examined in relation to physical recovery. Further, patients’ trauma history was negatively related to symptoms of post-traumatic stress three-months following surgery (e.g. Avoidance: β = ?.200, p = .037).

Conclusion: Trauma history represents a source of resilience, rather than vulnerability, within the context of arthroplastic surgery.     

Brain drawings following traumatic brain injury (TBI) and links to illness perceptions and health outcomes – Findings from a population-based study

Objective: Individuals’ illness perceptions predict health behaviours and influence functional outcomes. This study examined associations between a novel assessment of illness perceptions, in the form of adult’s brain drawings after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and questionnaire measures of illness perceptions, quality of life and post-concussive symptoms.

Design: Population-based, prospective longitudinal study examining 245 adults with predominantly mild TBI with high risk of complications.

Main outcome measures: Participants were asked to draw pictures of what they thought their brain looked like before injury and at baseline and one month post-injury. Drawing characteristics (height, width and percentage damage at one month) were examined in relation to each outcome of interest at six months.

Results: Greater damage at one month was associated with more negative illness perceptions (rs = .23), poorer mental health (rs = ?.21), and more total post-concussive symptoms (rs = .27 to r = .35) at six months. The extent of damage depicted reduced over time (p < .001). No associations were found between the amount of damage drawn and injury severity, nor the height or width of drawings and injury severity or illness perceptions.

Conclusion: Drawings post-TBI offer a simple, cost- and time-effective way to begin discussions and improve understanding of peoples’ illness perceptions.     

Preliminary evidence of attenuated blood pressure reactivity to acute stress in adults following a recent marital separation

Objective: This study explores cardiovascular reactivity during an acute-stress task in a sample of recently separated adults.

Design: In a cross-sectional design, we examined the association between adults’ subjective separation-related distress and changes in heart rate and blood pressure across the acute-stress laboratory paradigm in a sample of 133 (n = 49 men) recently separated adults.

Main outcome measures: Heart rate (HR) and Blood pressure (BP) were recorded across a resting baseline period, a math stressor task, and a recovery period.

Results: Multilevel analyses revealed that adults who reported greater separation-related distress exhibited higher initial BP and a slower linear increase in BP across the study period. In addition, adults reporting greater separation-related distress evidenced significantly slower declines in diastolic blood pressure (DBP) following the acute-stress task. HR reactivity was not moderated by separation-related distress.

Conclusions: In recently separated adults, preliminary evidence suggests that the context of the stressors may reveal differential patterns of problematic reactivity (exaggerated or blunted responding). Greater emotional intrusion and hyperactivity symptoms may index increased risk for blunted cardiovascular reactivity to general stressors. This pattern of reactivity is consistent with models of allostatic load that emphasise the deleterious effect of hyporesponsivity to environmental demands.