Sex comparisons in life satisfaction and psychosocial adjustment scores with an older adult sample: examining the effect of sex role differences in older cohorts

The present study examined how sex and other individual-difference factors (i.e., age level, locus of control orientation, and self-actualization subscale scores) relate to older adults' scores on life satisfaction and psychosocial adjustment. Seventy-eight older adults (n = 39 females) were recruited from independent-living retirement communities located in Pennsylvania. Results indicated that females in the sample were not significantly different in mean life satisfaction scores but were significantly lower in mean psychosocial adjustment scores than males in the sample. There were no significant age-level differences in mean scores. Qualitative data from unstructured post-testing interviews revealed that women were more likely to express regret and sometimes frustration toward perceived "missed opportunities" in life (e.g., career) due to expected social roles of being a wife and mother in the decades ranging from the 1920s through the 1960s; these feelings of regret or frustration were not expressed by any of the males in the study.     

Life satisfaction and its related factors among institutionalized patients at a Hansen's disease sanatorium

We conducted a questionnaire survey on life styles and health status for 293 patients with Hansen's disease. They were admitted to the wards for disabled and physically able patients of Ohshima Seishoen, in Kagawa prefecture, in 1991. This institution is one of Japan's national leprosy sanitarians. We measured patients' life satisfaction with the Delighted-Terrible Scale. In this report, the distribution of life satisfaction and its associated factors were examined for 210(71.7%) respondents. Factors examined were length of treatment, physical health, and social aspects of life at the sanatorium. The major findings were as follows; 1. The patients aged under 60 had lower proportions of being satisfied with life than those aged 60 or older. The proportions of life satisfaction of the 40-59 age group were 17% for men and 22% for women, while for the 60 or older age groups were 33-44% for men and 41-45% for women. The proportions of life satisfaction in the 60 or older age groups were lower than those of community dwelling elderly persons. 2. We examined factors associated with life satisfaction for the respondents aged 60 or older. Dependence on activities of daily living (ADL) was associated with life satisfaction in some ADL items. Care and aid provided by the staff of the sanatorium may modify the relationship between ADL impairment and life satisfaction. For social aspects of life at the sanatorium, both having networks with family members and having resources other than family were associated with life satisfaction. Going out and positively spending their daily lives were associated with life satisfaction, too. These associations were significant for men. Similar patterns of association were observed for women, but were insignificant. This finding suggests that it is important for the health and medical care staff to pay attention to the social aspects of the life of elderly patients with Hansen's disease.     

Prediction of long-term survival of persons with spinal cord injury: An 11-year prospective study.

Compared the adjustment of 179 persons with spinal cord injury who were still alive in 1985 with those of 46 Ss known to have died by 1985 using 1974 and 1985 responses to a life-situation questionnaire. Survivors were rated as having better psychosocial and vocational adjustment, were more socially active, had a greater tolerance for sitting, and were more likely to be working or attending school. None of the items on the questionnaire related to recent medical history or life satisfaction discriminated between the 2 groups. Findings point to the need for more intensive psychological rehabilitation and for an expansion of counseling to include social skills training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Object-discrimination learning set acquisition in young cerebral palsied children in relation to tested and rated intelligence.

Explored object-discrimination learning set formation as a potential means of assessing the intelligence of children with neuromotor handicaps. 40 learning set problems were administered to the following groups, each containing 6 2-31/2 yr. old Ss: cerebral palsied (CP) children who tested as retarded but who were rated as not being retarded, CP children who tested and were rated as being retarded, nonhandicapped retardates, and nonhandicapped children with average intelligence. The CPs who were rated as not retarded performed like the normals; both were significantly better learners than the other 2 groups. The import of these findings for the future assessment of such children and the role that other variables play in such learning are discussed. (24 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term adjustment to physical disability: The role of social support, perceived control, and self-blame.

100 40–73 yr olds with spinal cord injuries were interviewed an average of 20 yrs after the disability occurred. Ss answered questions concerning perceived control, attributions of blame, and the nature of the social comparisons they made. Adjustment was measured by an index of psychological well-being, a life satisfaction index, and a depression scale. For all 3 outcome measures, Ss reported levels of well-being only slightly lower than population means of nondisabled persons of similar age. Controlling for health status and current income, it was found that persons who had high levels of social support, who were satisfied with their social contacts, and who felt they had high levels of perceived control reported high levels of well-being. Self-blame and the perceived avoidability of the cause of the disability correlated only moderately with the measures of adjustment, suggesting that there are important differences between coping successfully immediately after a traumatic event has occurred and coping successfully many years later. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effect of Social Comparison Information on the Life Satisfaction of Frail Older Persons.

In this study, the authors examined the effects of social comparison on the life satisfaction of 455 community-dwelling older persons. These older persons were confronted with a fictitious interview with either an upward or a downward target. After downward comparison, older persons felt more satisfied with their lives than after upward comparison, especially those who had higher levels of frailty. These effects were only found with lower levels of identification. Apparently, downward comparison only serves its self-enhancing function on life satisfaction among frail older persons when they perceive the comparison target as different from themselves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relation of parental marital status and perceived family conflict to adjustment in White adolescents.

Examined 2 contrasting views of how divorce relates to the long-term adjustment of children. The physical-wholeness position views divorce as the salient explanatory variable to adversely affect children's later adjustment through the physical dissolution of the 2-parent family; the psychological-wholeness position views perceived current family conflict as the critical variable that influences adjustment, regardless of parental marital status. Results from 823 White adolescents (age 13–18 yrs) fail to support the physical-wholeness position; parental marital status was not significantly related to psychological adjustment or satisfaction with social life. However, results provide strong support for the psychological-wholeness position: Ss' psychological adjustment and satisfaction with social life were significantly related to level of perceived conflict in the family. It is suggested that divorce be conceptualized as a crisis situation rather than as a universally negative event. Use of conflict identification and resolution interventions to reduce family conflict may prevent future problems in child development. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life satisfaction in old age: Linking social psychology and history.

A life course perspective on aging assumes that adaptation is governed by factors beyond the immediate situation. Longitudinal data on 79 women from the 1900 generation of the Berkeley Guidance Study (J. Macfarlane, 1938) were used to examine how social and psychological factors interact over time in the course of successful aging, as expressed by life satisfaction. The consequences of adaptive resources in early adulthood varied in relation to social class. Intellectual skills in 1930 indirectly predicted life satisfaction in old age for Ss from the working class, whereas emotional health is more influential in the life satisfaction of Ss with higher class origins. Social activity in old age made a difference only in the lives of Ss from the working class. Finally, adaptation to old age was related to Ss' experiences with past stressful events. Middle-class Ss in 1930 showed gains attributable to Depression hardship, whereas the life satisfaction of Ss from the working class was diminished by such hardships. Several mechanisms are discussed that may link widely separated problem situations and life events across the life course. Results support the proposition that the influence of social change on life trajectories is contingent on what individuals bring to change situations. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sources of life satisfactions of the Terman gifted men.

A 1972 follow-up of the L. M. Terman study of gifted men, when the Ss' average age was 62, permitted measurement of 4 target variables for which antecedents could be sought: life-cycle satisfaction with occupation, satisfaction with family life, degree of work persistence into their 60's, and unbroken marriage vs a history of divorce. The recorded events and expressions of feelings obtained at decade intervals since 1922 were searched for predictors. Both occupational satisfaction and work persistence were best predicted by feelings of satisfaction, ambition, and good health expressed as early as age 30. Family-life satisfaction and success in marriage were predicted by good childhood social adjustment, good mental health in later years, retrospective (age 40) positive attitudes toward parents, and best of all, by the Terman Marital Happiness Test (taken at age 30). Implications for personality-development theory are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social network relationships as sources of maternal support and well-being.

Explored the social networks available to mothers of infants, focusing on the contribution of specific relationships to maternal well-being. 43 mothers (aged 21–39 yrs) of 13-mo-old infants were asked to position individuals who were close to them in a network diagram and to indicate which of those individuals provided support. The mother's relationship with her husband and with the infant's maternal grandparents, mother's well-being in terms of affect and life satisfaction, and infant temperamental difficulty and infant–mother attachment security were assessed. Results reveal that mothers reported an average of 13 persons in their networks, but support was provided primarily by the husband, followed by the infant's maternal grandmother (particularly when there was more than 1 child), and 1 or 2 other family members and friends. Maternal affect and life satisfaction were related to infant difficulty and to support from and satisfaction with the spouse. Negative maternal affect was related to anxious/resistant attachment. Results affirm the importance of spousal support for mothers of infants in intact families. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The prevalence and correlates of fear of falling in elderly persons living in the community

OBJECTIVES: Fear of falling has been recognized as a potentially debilitating consequence of falling in elderly persons. However, the prevalence and the correlates of this fear are unknown. METHODS: Prevalence of fear of falling was calculated from the 1-year follow-up of an age- and gender-stratified random sample of community-dwelling elderly persons. Cross-sectional associations of fear of falling with quality of life, frailty, and falling were assessed. RESULTS: The prevalence of fear increased with age and was greater in women. After adjustment for age and gender, being moderately fearful of falling was associated with decreased satisfaction with life, increased frailty and depressed mood, and recent experience with falls. Being very fearful of falling was associated with all of the above plus decreased mobility and social activities. CONCLUSIONS: Fear of falling is common in elderly persons and is associated with decreased quality of life, increased frailty, and recent experience with falls.     

Communal behaviors and psychological adjustment of family caregivers and persons with spinal cord injury.

Objective: Examined the influence of mutual communal behaviors on the adjustment reported by persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) and their family caregivers. Previous research has found that persons who have a history of mutually communal behaviors in relationships may react differently to relationship changes after an acquired physical disability than dyads with few communal behaviors. Method: Family caregivers and persons with SCI were administered measures of mutual communal behaviors, depression, and life satisfaction. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relations among caregivers' communal behaviors and care recipients' communal behaviors, depression, and life satisfaction. Results: Caregiver and care recipient reports of communal behaviors were not significantly correlated. Significant paths indicated that care recipients' communal behavior scores were positively associated with their life satisfaction, and care recipients' depression was inversely associated with their life satisfaction. Caregivers' communal behavior scores were unrelated to their self-reported adjustment. Conclusions: Caregiver-care recipient dyads may differ in their perceptions of communal behaviors in their relationships. Although care recipient reports of communal behavior may be related to their life satisfaction, communal behaviors may not serve a similar function among caregivers of persons with SCI. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The life satisfaction chart: perceptions of the course of subjective experience

The Life Satisfaction Chart is presented as a method for studying perceptions of the course and determinants of life satisfaction. Analyses of reports from forty-five men and forty-six women in the Oakland Growth Study indicated the following: (1) Early-maturing boys, particularly in the working class, recollected their early adolescence as more satisfying than did the late-maturing boys, while early-maturing girls remembered early adolescence as less satisfying. (2) Upward social mobility was associated with an increase in reported life satisfaction for both sexes, but at a statistically significant level for men only. Unexpectedly, both men and women who were upwardly mobile recollected their childhoods as less satisfying than did the downwardly mobile. (3) Women rated above the mean in physical attractiveness during high school did not recall their teen-age years as more satisfying than those below the mean. The top quartile, however, did recollect these years as more satisfying than the bottom quartile. (4) Both men and women rated high on use of the defense mechanism of denial reported higher levels of retrospective life satisfaction.     

Problems in the care of mentally handicapped adults in general hospitals

The care of the mentally handicapped with their special needs and problems represents (despite written nursing theories and conceptions) a situation of stress and burden in the everyday life of a general hospital. The nursing staff organises their work with the mentally retarded often only on the basis of common sense without any specific professional knowledge. This analysis shows that a professional attitude has to deal with different phenomenon such as perception, communication, human dignity, but also with feelings of disgust when working with patients and being confronted with their problems. It is important to have basic knowledge on the mentally handicapped to understand their specific needs. This knowledge is essential in order to accept and tolerate mentally retarded people as a part of our social life.     

Read-out times from iconic memory in normal and retarded adolescents

The method limits was used to obtain an estimate of read-out times for a sample of 12 normal and 12 retarded subjects matched on chronological age. The procedure required tachistoscopic presentation of a stimulus array (2, 4, or 6 digits) for a variable duration, followed by a post-stimulus. The subject's task was to recall the digit indicated by the cue. The results indicated that read-out time (a) increased as the number of digits increased, (b) was longer for retardates relative to normals, and (c) decreased with practice for both intelligence groups. The implications of a read-out deficit in retarded individuals were discussed.     

Cognitive controls and mental retardation.

Devised a color-digit interference task and 2 sorting tasks as variants of the Stroop Color-Word Test and R. Gardner, et al. (see record 1961-02266-001) sorting tasks, respectively. These tasks proved applicable to a mentally retarded sample (n = 39) and provided reliable measures of 2 cognitive control dimensions (constricted-flexible control and equivalence range). As predicted, the main test scores were significantly more variable in retarded Ss than in normals (n = 32). Analyses of performance on the color-digit interference task indicated that retarded Ss were significantly slower than the normals on all parts of the task, particularly under conditions of distraction (whether inherent in the task or externally imposed). Low IQ retarded Ss were significantly slower than high IQ retarded Ss on all parts of the task. The extreme cognitive control test scores of the retarded Ss, the nature of the attentional deficit among these Ss, and the relevance of a cognitive control approach for the training of retarded persons are discussed. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Breastfeeding, dummy use, and adult intelligence

BACKGROUND: Several studies show that children who were breastfed as babies gain higher scores on intelligence tests than those who were bottlefed. Although these findings suggest that breastfeeding in early life may promote cognitive development, their interpretation is complicated by the current association between breastfeeding and higher social class. We investigated the relation between method of feeding in infancy and adult intelligence in a setting where breastfeeding was not linked with socioeconomic advantage. METHODS: We followed up 994 men and women, born between 1920 and 1930 in Hertfordshire, UK, for whom information on infant feeding had been recorded by health visitors. Intelligence was measured by the AH4 IQ test, taken on a computer. Factors significantly linked with IQ were investigated by multivariate analysis. FINDINGS: Study participants who had been exclusively breastfed gained slightly higher scores on the IQ test than those who had been exclusively bottlefed, or fed with both breast and bottle. IQ was lower in participants who had used a dummy (pacifier) in infancy, in those whose fathers were in manual occupations at the time of their birth, and in those whose mothers were young at the time they were born. Scores on the IQ test fell as the number of older siblings increased. In multivariate analysis, after adjustment for the effect of all other variables, no association was found between adult intelligence and method of feeding. Dummy use in infancy, number of older siblings, maternal age at birth of the participant, and father's occupational class remained independent predictors of adult intelligence. INTERPRETATION: The mechanisms that link type of feeding in early life with later intelligence may have more to do with the child's social environment that with the nutritional qualities of the milk.     

The assessment of competence in families with a retarded child.

60 families with retarded children were divided into 3 groups, based on age of the retarded child (6–8, 12–24, and 18–21 yrs). The families were observed by trained raters and compared with nonclinical families without handicapped children. Family reports from 45-min interviews were collected regarding feelings about the family's adaptation to the child and available support systems. Results indicate that most families were functioning well overall, despite speculations in older clinical literature about chronic family dysfunction. The older the retarded child, the more competent the family pattern; families with retarded children aged 6–8 yrs (school-entry age) and male retarded children were more dysfunctional. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social Problem-Solving Abilities and Psychological Adjustment of Persons in Low Vision Rehabilitation.

Objective: Tested the relations of social problem-solving abilities to distress, depression, and well-being and impairment reported by persons participating in a low vision rehabilitation program. Study Design: Correlational and multiple regression analyses. Setting: Outpatient low vision rehabilitation clinic. Participants: 25 men (M = 73.88 years old, SD = 11.94 years) and 29 women (M = 68.79 years old, SD = 17.25 years) participating in a comprehensive admitting examination. Main Outcome Measures: Emotional distress specific to the condition, depressive behavior, satisfaction with life, and functional ability. Results: A negative problem orientation significantly predicted depression and emotional distress; rational problem-solving skills predicted life satisfaction. Conclusions: A negative problem orientation toward problem solving predicts poor emotional adjustment reported by persons with low vision, and proactive problem-solving skills appear to promote optimal adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The chronic illness quality of life (CIQOL) model: Explaining life satisfaction in people living with HIV disease.

The chronic illness quality of life (CIQOL) model theorizes that life satisfaction in persons living with a chronic illness such as HIV disease is a function of illness-related discrimination, barriers to health care and social services, physical well-being, social support, and coping. The CIQOL model was evaluated using data from 275 persons living with HIV disease. Women reported less life satisfaction and confronted more barriers to health care and social services than men, and White participants reported higher perceptions of AIDS-related discrimination than non-White participants. The CIQOL model provided an excellent fit to study data (root-mean-square error of approximation = .03) and accounted for almost a third of the variance in life satisfaction scores. Barriers to health care and social services played a particularly prominent role in the model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)