@article {6462, title = {Associations Among Individuals{\textquoteright} Perceptions of Future Time, Individual Resources, and Subjective Well-Being in Old Age.}, journal = {J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci}, volume = {72}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May 01}, pages = {388-399}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: Perceptions of future time are of key interest to aging research because of their implications for subjective well-being. Interestingly, perceptions about future time are only moderately associated with age when looking at the second half of life, pointing to a vast heterogeneity in future time perceptions among older adults. We examine associations between future time perceptions, age, and subjective well-being across two studies, including moderations by individual resources.

METHOD: Using data from the Berlin Aging Study (N = 516; Mage = 85 years), we link one operationalization (subjective nearness to death) and age to subjective well-being. Using Health and Retirement Study data (N = 2,596; Mage = 77 years), we examine associations of another future time perception indicator (subjective future life expectancy) and age with subjective well-being.

RESULTS: Consistent across studies, perceptions of limited time left were associated with poorer subjective well-being (lower life satisfaction and positive affect; more negative affect and depressive symptoms). Importantly, individual resources moderated future time perception-subjective well-being associations with those of better health exhibiting reduced future time perception-subjective well-being associations.

DISCUSSION: We discuss our findings in the context of the Model of Strength and Vulnerability Integration.

}, keywords = {Affect, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Attitude, depression, Female, Forecasting, Health Status, Humans, Male, Personal Satisfaction}, issn = {1758-5368}, doi = {10.1093/geronb/gbv063}, url = {http://psychsocgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/10/05/geronb.gbv063.abstract}, author = {Christiane A Hoppmann and Frank J Infurna and Ram, Nilam and Denis Gerstorf} } @article {8783, title = {Health sensitivity: Age differences in the within-person coupling of individuals{\textquoteright} physical health and well-being.}, journal = {Developmental Psychology}, volume = {52}, year = {2016}, month = {Jan-01-2016}, pages = {1944 - 1953}, abstract = {Well-being and physical health are central indicators of quality of life in old age. Research from a between-person difference perspective finds that people in better health than their peers also report higher well-being than their peers. However, we know very little about whether changes in one domain are accompanied by changes in the other domain, particularly at the within-person level. In the present study, we introduce the construct of health sensitivity, that is, how susceptible an individuals{\textquoteright} well-being is to changes in physical health. In doing so, we used 9-wave longitudinal data covering 17 years from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 21,689; 50{\textendash}109 year olds; 55\% women) and applied multilevel modeling to examine the covariation of central indicators of well-being (depressive affect) and health (functional limitations) simultaneously at both the between-person and within-person level. At the within-person level, we found evidence of health sensitivity{\textemdash}on occasions when a typical person experienced more functional limitations than usual, he or she also reported more depressive affect{\textemdash}and that health sensitivity decreased with age. Survival analysis revealed that health sensitivity was related to mortality hazards, controlling for mean levels of health and well-being. We discuss the theoretical importance of examining within-person associations between health and well-being and consider practical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)}, keywords = {Age differences, Health Conditions and Status, Marriage, Mortality, Older Adults}, issn = {0012-1649}, doi = {10.1037/dev0000171}, url = {http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/dev0000171}, author = {Sch{\"o}llgen, Ina and Morack, Jennifer and Frank J Infurna and Ram, Nilam and Denis Gerstorf} } @article {8688, title = {Personality trait development at the end of life: Antecedents and correlates of mean-level trajectories.}, journal = {J Pers Soc Psychol}, volume = {111}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 09}, pages = {411-29}, abstract = {

Empirical evidence over the past 20 years has documented that key aspects of personality traits change during adulthood. However, it is essentially an open question whether and how traits change at the very end of life and what role health, cognitive performance, perceived control, and social factors play in those changes. To examine these questions, we applied growth models to 13-year longitudinal data obtained from now-deceased participants in the Berlin Aging Study (N = 463; age at baseline M = 85.9 years, SD = 8.4; 51\% men). Results revealed that neuroticism, on average, increases (about 0.3 SD in the last 10 years) and that this increase becomes even steeper at the end of life. In contrast, extraversion and openness decline rather steadily at the end of life (about -0.5 SD in the last 10 years). Additionally, poor health manifested as a risk factor for declines in extraversion and openness late in life but not neuroticism. Similar to earlier phases of life, better cognitive performance related to more openness. More loneliness was associated with higher neuroticism, whereas more social activity was associated with higher levels of extraversion and openness. Intriguing additional insights indicated that more personal control was associated with higher levels of extraversion and openness, whereas the feeling that one{\textquoteright}s life is controlled by others was associated with higher neuroticism but also with higher openness closer to death. We discuss potential pathways by which health, cognitive performance, control, and social inclusion resources and risk factors affect personality development late in life. (PsycINFO Database Record

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Anxiety Disorders, Berlin, Extraversion, Psychological, Female, Health Status, Human Development, Humans, Internal-External Control, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Neuroticism, Personality, Social Support}, issn = {1939-1315}, doi = {10.1037/pspp0000071}, author = {Wagner, Jenny and Ram, Nilam and Jacqui Smith and Denis Gerstorf} } @article {8205, title = {Historical improvements in well-being do not hold in late life: Birth- and death-year cohorts in the United States and Germany.}, journal = {Dev Psychol}, volume = {51}, year = {2015}, note = {Times Cited: 0 0}, month = {2015 Jul}, pages = {998-1012}, publisher = {51}, abstract = {

One key objective of life span research is to examine how individual development is shaped by the historical time people live in. Secular trends favoring later-born cohorts on fluid cognitive abilities have been widely documented, but findings are mixed for well-being. It remains an open question whether secular increases in well-being seen in earlier phases of life also manifest in the last years of life. To examine this possibility, we made use of longitudinal data obtained from the mid-1980s until the late 2000s in 2 large national samples in the United States (Health and Retirement Study [HRS]) and Germany (German Socio-Economic Panel [SOEP]). We operationally defined historical time from 2 complementary perspectives: birth-year cohorts based on the years in which people were born (earlier: 1930s vs. later: 1940s) and death-year cohorts based on the years in which people died (earlier: 1990s vs. later: 2000s). To control for relevant covariates, we used case-matched groups based on age (at death) and education and covaried for gender, health, and number of observations. Results from both countries revealed that well-being in old age was indeed developing at higher levels among later-born cohorts. However, for later-deceased cohorts, no evidence for secular increases in well-being was found. To the contrary, later-dying SOEP participants reported lower levels of well-being at age 75 and 2 years prior to death and experienced steeper late-life declines. Our results suggest that secular increases in well-being observed in old age do not manifest in late life, where "manufactured" survival may be exacerbating age- and mortality-related declines.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aging, Cohort Effect, depression, Epidemiologic Research Design, Female, Germany, Health Status, Health Surveys, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Propensity Score, United States}, issn = {1939-0599}, doi = {10.1037/a0039349}, author = {H{\"u}l{\"u}r, Gizem and Ram, Nilam and Denis Gerstorf} } @article {8131, title = {Longitudinal Associations of Subjective Memory With Memory Performance and Depressive Symptoms: Between-Person and Within-Person Perspectives}, journal = {Psychology and Aging}, volume = {29}, year = {2014}, note = {Times Cited: 0 0}, pages = {814-827}, publisher = {29}, abstract = {Clinical diagnostic criteria for memory loss in adults typically assume that subjective memory ratings accurately reflect compromised memory functioning. Research has documented small positive between-person associations between subjective memory and memory performance in older adults. Less is known, however, about whether within-person fluctuations in subjective memory covary with within-person variance in memory performance and depressive symptoms. The present study applied multilevel models of change to 9 waves of data from 27,395 participants of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; mean age at baseline = 63.78; SD = 10.30; 58 women) to examine whether subjective memory is associated with both between-person differences and within-person variability in memory performance and depressive symptoms and explored the moderating role of known correlates (age, gender, education, and functional limitations). Results revealed that across persons, level of subjective memory indeed covaried with level of memory performance and depressive symptoms, with small-to-moderate between-person standardized effect sizes (0.19 for memory performance and -0.21 for depressive symptoms). Within individuals, occasions when participants scored higher than usual on a test of episodic memory or reported fewer-than-average depressive symptoms generated above-average subjective memory. At the within-person level, subjective memory ratings became more sensitive to within-person alterations in memory performance over time and those suffering from functional limitations were more sensitive to within-person alterations in memory performance and depressive symptoms. We take our results to suggest that within-person changes in subjective memory in part reflect monitoring flux in one{\textquoteright}s own memory functioning, but are also influenced by flux in depressive symptoms.}, keywords = {Expectations, Health Conditions and Status, Methodology}, doi = {10.1037/a0037619}, author = {Hueluer, Gizem and Hertzog, Christopher and Ann M. Pearman and Ram, Nilam and Denis Gerstorf} } @article {8054, title = {Positive and Negative Social Exchanges and Cognitive Aging in Young-Old Adults: Differential Associations Across Family, Friend, and Spouse Domains}, journal = {Psychology and Aging}, volume = {29}, year = {2014}, note = {Times Cited: 0}, pages = {28-43}, publisher = {29}, abstract = {We examined how positive and negative social exchanges with friends, family, and spouses were related to cognitive aging in episodic and working memory, and perceptual speed. To do so, we used a large sample of cognitively intact young-old participants from the PATH Through Life Study ( PATH; aged 60 to 64 years at baseline, n = 1,618) who were assessed on 3 occasions over 8 years. Additional replication analyses were conducted using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), which provided data on episodic memory. The main analysis of PATH Through Life showed that positive exchanges with friends and family were associated with less decline in perceptual speed, with these associations attenuated by adjustment for physical functioning and depressive symptoms. Negative exchanges with spouses were associated with poorer working memory performance. Positive exchanges with friends were associated with better initial episodic memory in both PATH and HRS. More frequent negative exchanges with friends and family were associated with better episodic memory in the PATH sample. However, these findings were not replicated in HRS. Our findings provide indirect support for the role of social exchange quality in contributing to cognitive enrichment. However, the inconsistent pattern of results across cognitive and social exchange domains points to possibilities of reverse causality, and may also indicate that social exchange quality plays a less important role for cognitive enrichment than other psychosocial characteristics.}, keywords = {End of life decisions, Event History/Life Cycle, Health Conditions and Status, Methodology, Other, Retirement Planning and Satisfaction}, author = {Tim D Windsor and Denis Gerstorf and Pearson, Elissa and Lindsay H Ryan and Kaarin J. Anstey} } @article {7896, title = {Cohorts based on decade of death: no evidence for secular trends favoring later cohorts in cognitive aging and terminal decline in the AHEAD study.}, journal = {Psychol Aging}, volume = {28}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Mar}, pages = {115-27}, publisher = {28}, abstract = {

Studies of birth-year cohorts examined over the same age range often report secular trends favoring later-born cohorts, who are cognitively fitter and show less steep cognitive declines than earlier-born cohorts. However, there is initial evidence that those advantages of later-born cohorts do not carry into the last years of life, suggesting that pervasive mortality-related processes minimize differences that were apparent earlier in life. Elaborating this work from an alternative perspective on cohort differences, we compared rates of cognitive aging and terminal decline in episodic memory between cohorts based on the year participants had died, earlier (between 1993 and 1999) or later in historical time (between 2000 and 2010). Specifically, we compared trajectories of cognitive decline in 2 death-year cohorts of participants in the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old study that were matched on age at death and education and controlled for a variety of additional covariates. Results revealed little evidence of secular trends favoring later cohorts. To the contrary, the cohort that died in the 2000s showed a less favorable trajectory of age-related memory decline than the cohort that died in the 1990s. In examinations of change in relation to time to death, the cohort dying in the 2000s experienced even steeper terminal declines than the cohort dying in the 1990s. We suggest that secular increases in "manufacturing" survival may exacerbate age- and mortality-related cognitive declines among the oldest old.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Death, Epidemiologic Research Design, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Memory Disorders, Memory, Episodic, Time Factors, United States}, issn = {1939-1498}, doi = {10.1037/a0029965}, author = {H{\"u}l{\"u}r, Gizem and Frank J Infurna and Ram, Nilam and Denis Gerstorf} } @article {7857, title = {The Nature and Correlates of Change in Depressive Symptoms With Cancer Diagnosis: Reaction and Adaptation}, journal = {Psychology and Aging}, volume = {28}, year = {2013}, note = {Times Cited: 0}, pages = {386-401}, publisher = {28}, abstract = {Major life events trigger change processes in mental health. We examined how depressive symptoms change in conjunction with cancer diagnosis during adulthood and old age, and whether sociodemographic variables, cognitive and health resources, and cancer-specific mortality risks moderate event-related reaction and adaptation. Specifically, we applied multiphase growth models to prospective longitudinal data from 2,848 participants (age at diagnosis: M = 69, SD = 9.91; 46 women) in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) who reported receiving a cancer diagnosis while enrolled in the study. On average, individuals experienced a significant increase in depressive symptoms within 2 years of cancer diagnosis, still-elevated levels 2 years postdiagnosis, and smaller increases in depressive symptoms postdiagnosis relative to the increases observed prediagnosis. Better memory and lower cancer-specific mortality risks were protective against increases in depressive symptoms within 2 years of diagnosis and were associated with reporting fewer depressive symptoms 2 years postdiagnosis. Findings suggest that diagnosis-related changes in depressive symptoms are typically characterized by a multiphase pattern, but tremendous between-person differences also emerged within each phase. Follow-up analyses comparing a matched group (N = 2,272) who did not experience cancer provided an additional layer of evidence supporting our inferences. Results indicate that, on average, people adapt and adjust to the challenges accompanying a cancer diagnosis, and illustrate the utility of using natural experiments such as major life events as a paradigm for studying developmental change processes.}, keywords = {Event History/Life Cycle, Expectations, Health Conditions and Status, Methodology}, doi = {10.1037/a0029775}, author = {Frank J Infurna and Denis Gerstorf and Ram, Nilam} } @article {7605, title = {Dynamic links between memory and functional limitations in old age: longitudinal evidence for age-based structural dynamics from the AHEAD study.}, journal = {Psychol Aging}, volume = {26}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep}, pages = {546-58}, publisher = {26}, abstract = {

This study examined competing substantive hypotheses about dynamic (i.e., time-ordered) links between memory and functional limitations in old age. We applied the Bivariate Dual Change Score Model to 13-year longitudinal data from the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old Study (AHEAD; N = 6,990; ages 70 - 95). Results revealed that better memory predicted shallower increases in functional limitations. Little evidence was found for the opposite direction that functional limitations predict ensuing changes in memory. Spline models indicated that dynamic associations between memory and functional limitations were substantively similar between participants aged 70-79 and those aged 80-95. Potential covariates (gender, education, health conditions, and depressive symptoms) did not account for these differential lead-lag associations. Applying a multivariate approach, our results suggest that late-life developments in two key components of successful aging are intrinsically interrelated. Our discussion focuses on possible mechanisms why cognitive functioning may serve as a source of age-related changes in health both among the young-old and the old-old.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cognition, depression, Female, Health Status, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Memory, Memory Disorders, Memory, Episodic, Models, Statistical, Neuropsychological tests}, issn = {1939-1498}, doi = {10.1037/a0023023}, author = {Frank J Infurna and Denis Gerstorf and Lindsay H Ryan and Jacqui Smith} }