广场舞组织氛围和老年人主观幸福感的关系:组织认同和自尊的中介作用

以366名参加广场舞活动的老年人为研究对象,探讨广场舞组织氛围对老年人主观幸福感的影响及其作用机制。结果表明：广场舞组织氛围能通过组织认同和自尊的中介作用对主观幸福感产生影响,且该中介作用包含了两条路径——自尊的单独中介作用以及组织认同—自尊的链式中介作用。因此可以通过改善广场舞组织氛围增强老年人主观幸福感,以促进老年人成功老化、积极老化、健康老化。     

Priming effects of age stereotypes on memory of older adults in Korea

This study examined priming effects of age stereotypes on memory of Korean older adults. Age stereotypes refer to general beliefs about older adults. Through a priming task, older participants were briefly exposed to positive or negative age stereotypes without awareness. Before and after the priming task, free‐recall tasks were given to participants to measure their memory performance. Changes in performance caused by the priming task were estimated as priming effects of age stereotypes. Participants showed better memory performance after they were exposed to positive stereotypes during the priming task (positive priming effects). In contrast, participants showed worse memory performance after they were exposed to negative age stereotypes during the priming task (negative priming effects). The magnitude of priming effects was similar in positive and negative stereotypes. This result suggests that the implicit activation of age stereotypes can change memory of Korean elderly in both positive and negative ways.     

Aging and decision‐making competence: an analysis of comprehension and consistency skills in older versus younger adults considering health‐plan options

Older adults need to maintain strong decision‐making capabilities as they age. However, we know little about how age‐related physical and psychological changes affect older adults' judgment and decision processes. This paper reports the results of research comparing older versus younger adults' performance on evaluation and choice tasks about health‐plan options. In particular, comprehension and consistency in judgments (across separate versus joint evaluation contexts) were examined. Results indicated that increasing age was related to greater comprehension errors and inconsistent preferences, even when covariates (education, income, gender, self‐perceived skill and health, decision style, and attitude toward delegation) were taken into account. Discussion of the results emphasizes difficulties in interpreting the meaning of age differences in performance on decision tasks and the need for research that ascertains the seriousness of the consequences of age differences in real‐life tasks. The implications for providing decision‐aiding interventions for older adults are highlighted. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Taking care of one's own: justice and family caregiving

This paper asks whether adult children have aduty of justice to act as caregivers for theirfrail, elderly parents. I begin (Sections I.and II.) by locating the historical reasons whyrelationships within families were not thoughtto raise issues of justice. I argue that thesereasons are misguided. The paper next presentsspecific examples showing the relevance ofjustice to family relationships. I point outthat in the United States today, the burden ofcaregiving for dependent parents fallsdisproportionately on women (Sections III. andIV.). The paper goes on to use Rawls'theoretical tool of the veil of ignorance toargue that caring for parents should not belinked to a person's sex and more generally,that there is no duty of justice to assume therole of caregiver for dependent parents(Sections V.). Although justice does notprovide the moral foundations for parent care,I show that it nonetheless places importantlimits on the instinct to care. I concludethat the voice of justice should be audible,and is intrinsically present, withinfamilies.     

The Church as an Agent of Help in the Battle Against Late Life Depression

Late life depression has become recognized as a serious mental health problem. Almost 1 in 6 elderly suffer (often in silence) with late life depression. New care delivery agents need to be uncovered and mobilized. Because older Americans' religious habits positively impact their sense of well-being and physical health, the church becomes an ideal medium to offer educational programming focused onprevention and early intervention. This article presents a proposal for how the church could become an agent of help to depressed elderly and their families.     

Examination of the Hamilton Scales in Assessment of Anxious Older Adults: A Replication and Extension

This study examined the original and reconstructed Hamilton scales in the assessment of anxiety and depression in a sample of older adults diagnosed with GAD (n = 82). Internal consistency of all scales appeared adequate. Results indicated improved construct validity with the reconstructed scales, which demonstrated reduced shared variance. However, construct validity examined through intercorrelations of the Hamilton scales with self-report measures of anxiety and depression was generally poor. Discriminant function analysis indicated that the reconstructed scales might have some clinical utility in differentiation of patients with and without coexistent depressive diagnosis (67% correct classification). In addition, two items from the Hamilton rating scale for depression (Work and Activities; Hopelessness) correctly classified patients with and without depression at a similar level as the Hamilton scale total scores (64–65% correct classification). These results suggest that the Work and Activities, and Hopelessness items may provide clinicians with useful screening questions for depression in anxious older adults.     

Anxiety Disorders Among Older Primary Care Patients

Data from the 1997 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) were accessed to obtain information about naturalistic patterns of recognition, service utilization, and treatment for late-life anxiety in primary care. The NAMCS is a national probability sample survey of office visits to non-Federal, U.S. physicians engaged in patient care. The survey was conducted by the Division of Health Care Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Data are now in the public domain. For the current report, all cases indicating office visits for patients age 60 and older were selected (n = 7,687). Anxiety disorders were assigned for 1.3% (n = 99) of these visits, with anxiety disorder NOS the most frequent diagnosis. For 20.2% of these visits (n = 20), a coexistent depressive disorder also was diagnosed. Depression without coexistent anxiety was diagnosed for 2.3% of all visits (n = 176). These figures suggest that late-life anxiety may often go unrecognized and may be more difficult to detect than depression. Nevertheless, other data indicate that appropriate pharmacological treatment and mental health services or referrals are often provided when anxiety or depression is recognized. However, visits wherein these disorders are recognized require increased physician time, and significant proportions of patients in some groups may still not receive appropriate mental health care. Results are discussed in terms of the nature of usual care for late-life anxiety and the needs for future research.     

Interpreting Errors in Temporal Orientation in Older Hospital Patients

Normal variation in temporal orientation has been examined in community dwelling, healthy older subjects but not in elderly hospital patients. We examined the validity of errors in different aspects of temporal orientation as a guide to the presence or absence of cognitive impairment orientation in elderly hospital patients in 150 consecutive patients on the day after admission to an acute geriatric unit. Cognitive impairment (delirium or dementia or both) was diagnosed without reference to temporal orientation. Optimum cutoffs for error scores on the different aspects of temporal orientation (date/year/month/day of the week/time of day) were calculated to maximize the sum of sensitivity and specificity for detection of cognitive impairment. Of the 150 patients, 45 (30%) had cognitive impairment. The best cutoffs for detection of cognitive impairment were an error of more than 3 days in the date; any error in the year, month, or day of the week; and an error of more than 1 h in identifying the time of day. Error in identifying the year had the highest positive likelihood ratio (6.4 [95% confidence interval 4.0–10.3]) for detecting cognitive impairment and the lowest negative likelihood ratio (0.1 [0.04–0.3]) for the exclusion of cognitive impairment. Failure to identify the year correctly is the aspect of temporal orientation most closely related to cognitive impairment.     

Depression: Psychological Referrals in Nursing Homes

Studies in nursing homes have consistently shown the presence of mental health disorders. We assessed 300 nursing home residents (referred for psychological testing) to provide preliminary data on referral patterns, assess the cognitive and affective patterns of residents with different diagnoses, and present psychometric data on depression measures, including the Beck Depression Scale (BDI) (as a bivariate index) and the Mood Scale (a shortened version of the Geriatric Depression Scale). Results show that the referrals involved a compromised group of residents, both cognitively and affectively. Despite obvious mean differences, a MANOVA revealed that Major Depressive Disorder did not differ significantly from the Adjustment Disorder and Dementia groups on the bivariate BDI and Mood Scale; the dementia group was lower than the depression and adjustment groups on the MMSE. Patterns on depression inventories also identified a correct classification score of 4 on the BDI (89%) and 3 on the Mood Scale (79%). Discussion endorsed use of the bivariate BDI and addressed depression in these facilities.     

Elderly offenders in a maximum security mental hospital

Elderly offenders aged 60 and above constitute less than 8% of the population in a maximum security mental hospital. These offenders fall into 2 groups: 1) first admission at or after the age of 50 and 2) first admission before 50. Fewer first time offenders committed homicide in the first group than those in the second group. Neuropsychiatric disturbance and sex offending was common among male first time offenders in the first group; in contrast, schizophrenia and violent offending against persons was found more often in the second group. It is argued that elderly first time offenders should be given adequate neuropsychiatric assessment. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.