The interactive effect of subjective age and subjective distance-to-death on psychological distress of older adults

Objectives: Subjective age refers to how young or old people experience themselves to be, while subjective distance-to-death reflects how far or close they experience themselves to be from their death. The present study examined whether subjective age and subjective distance-to-death interact in predicting psychological distress.

Method: A sample of 1073 community-dwelling older adults at the age range of 50–86 (M = 58.1, SD = 5.3) evaluated their subjective age, subjective distance-to-death, psychological distress, and rated several measures of physical health.

Results: After controlling for background characteristics and physical health indices, perceiving death as far and reporting younger subjective age predicted lower psychological distress. The combination of feeling close to death and older subjective age was related to the highest ratings of psychological distress. Moreover, the effect of subjective distance-to-death on psychological distress was mitigated by younger subjective age.

Conclusion: The findings underscore the importance of an integrative view of two time perspectives – one that focuses on time since birth and another that concerns time left till death – to psychological distress of older adults.     

Can the past keep life pleasant even for old-old trauma survivors?

Objectives: This study examined the relative effect of positive and negative autobiographical aspects in later life as a function of the traumatic experience of the Holocaust and age.

Method: Old (age ≤80) and old-old (age >80) participants who were identified as Holocaust survivors (n = 225), and comparison of pre-war (n = 103) and post-war (n = 254) European-descent immigrants referred to their past in a biographical interview. The participants depicted personally perceived outstanding life periods defined as anchor periods (Shmotkin, D. (2005). Happiness in face of adversity: Reformulating the dynamic and modular bases of subjective well-being. Review of General Psychology, 9, 291–325). They rated their happiness and suffering during major anchor periods (‘the happiest period’ and ‘the most miserable period’) as well as their life satisfaction.

Results: The findings suggest that even after massive trauma and under accelerating decline associated with old-old age, the past can keep life pleasant, as indicated by the stronger association of past happiness, compared to that of past suffering, with life satisfaction. Nevertheless, past suffering was associated with life satisfaction among the Holocaust survivors and manifested a stronger effect among most of the old-old participants.

Conclusion: Holocaust survivors demonstrated a greater difficulty to compensate for age-related losses while the comparison groups showed a greater optimization of satisfaction through narrative means in old-old age.     

Trauma‐Related Context Increases Sleep Disturbances in People with Acute Stress Disorder Symptoms

In this study, we addressed how sleep is related to acute stress disorder (ASD) symptoms, and how the presence of a trauma related‐context moderates this relationship. This study (N = 140) was carried out during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, during which 70% of Israelis were exposed to missile attacks. Findings show that participants with clinical ASD symptom levels reported more sleep disturbances than participants without clinical ASD symptom levels. More critically, this effect was only evident among respondents who had a reinforced security room in their houses. While reinforced security rooms offer protection against indirect missile damage, their relevance is salient in negative traumatic situations, which individuals with a clinical level of ASD are more sensitive to. Conversely, in houses without a reinforced security room, there was no difference in subjective sleep reports between individuals with or without clinical levels of ASD symptoms. Results are discussed in reference to trauma being activated by context and the ensuing effects on sleep. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reciprocal relationships between the will-to-live and successful aging

Abstract

Objectives: The search for concomitants and predictors of successful aging is of theoretical and practical importance. In this study, we assessed the reciprocal relationships between the will-to-live (WTL) and both objective and subjective successful aging (SA) among older adults.

Methods: Interviews were conducted with 1,216 randomly selected persons aged 75+ years (T1) and repeated with 1,019 of these participants one year later (T2). At each session, we collected data on WTL, subjective SA, and objective SA (medical conditions, disability, pain symptoms), and demographics. Using SEM techniques, we examined cross-lagged autoregressive relationships between WTL and both objective and subjective SA.

Results: Significant reciprocal relationships were found among WTL, objective SA, and subjective SA. Higher WTL at T1 predicted higher objective and subjective SA at T2 (i.e., fewer medical conditions, less disability, less pain symptoms and higher ratings of subjective SA). Higher objective and subjective SA at T1 predicted higher WTL at T2. Comparison of the bidirectional temporal relationship between WTL and SA showed that the effect of WTL on objective SA was as strong as the reverse effect, but the influence of WTL on subjective SA was stronger than the reverse effect. Finally, objective SA at T1 predicted subjective SA at T2, but the reverse effect was not significant.

Conclusion: WTL is an important precursor for both objective and subjective SA. It may also be maintained and further strengthened by successful aging. Policy makers and practitioners should consider WTL in their efforts to help older adults enhance and preserve SA.     

Factors Predicting Risk for PTSD Among Highly Exposed Civilians: Two Longitudinal Studies

The impact of exposure to constant, prolonged, life threatening, war-related stress is understudied. Previous studies did not examine stressors with an objective history of exposure to a traumatic event such as armed conflict. A set of predictors were assessed in two longitudinal studies. The studies included a civilian population (Study 1, N = 194; Study 2, N = 26) that was exposed to war-related stress. Both groups had a documented objective history of the stressor. A set of logistic regression models in Study 1 and an hierarchical multiple regression in Study 2 were conducted in order to assess the relationship between various predictors from the aforementioned domains and PTSD symptoms. In Study 1, having an elevated risk for clinical level of ASD led to a higher probability of elevated risk for clinical level of PTSD (odds ratio = 7.772, 95 % CI 1.225–49.300; p < .01). Similar results were found in Study 2, where ASD symptoms were the best predictor of PTSD symptoms (standardized β = .644; t = 3.183; p < .01). Whereas ASD was a moderate predictor of PTSD in studies which focused mainly on the impact of a single traumatic event, ASD was a major and potent predictor of PTSD in the current studies which focused on prolonged traumatic exposure to war-related stress.     

Emotional complexity and its effect on psychological distress as a function of chronological age and subjective distance-to-death

Objectives: In light of mixed evidence regarding the associations between age, emotional complexity, and psychological distress, this study examined emotional complexity and its effect on psychological distress as a function of age and subjective distance-to-death.

Method: A sample of 188 participants (age range = 29–100) rated their subjective distance-to-death and psychological distress, and reported their emotions across 14 days.

Results: Emotional complexity was unrelated to age, but negatively related to feeling closer to death. Moreover, emotional complexity was negatively related to psychological distress among those feeling closer to death.

Conclusion: Results suggest that when death is perceived to be nearer, emotional complexity is hampered, yet becomes relevant in buffering psychological distress.     

Perceptions of aging among middle-aged offspring of traumatized parents: the effects of parental Holocaust-related communication and secondary traumatization

Objectives: Traumatized parents may transmit anxieties of physical deterioration and demise to their offspring. These anxieties can amplify negative perceptions of the aging process when the offspring enter old age. The current study examined how middle-aged offspring of Holocaust survivors (OHS) recount trauma-related communication by their parents, and how these reports are related to offspring's perceptions of their aging process.

Method: The study included 450 respondents at the age range of 50–67 (mean age = 57.5, SD = 4.6): 300 OHS and 150 comparisons. Participants reported parental communication of the Holocaust, completed measures of subjective successful aging, aging and death anxieties, and reported secondary traumatization assessing symptoms, developed as a result of a close and continuous relationship with a traumatized parent.

Results: Latent profile analysis identified two profiles of parental Holocaust-related communication: intrusive and informative. Offspring who reported intrusive parental communication about the Holocaust perceived themselves as aging less successfully and were more anxious of aging and death than comparisons. Offspring who reported informative parental communication and comparisons did not differ in perceptions of aging. Secondary traumatization mediated these group differences, meaning, intrusive parental communication was related to higher secondary traumatization, which in turn was related to less favorable perceptions of aging.

Conclusion: These findings allude to the possibility that secondary traumatization mold negative perceptions of the aging process among middle-aged offspring of traumatized parents. Mental health practitioners may help OHS process fragmented and intrusive remnants of parental trauma, thereby diminishing secondary traumatization, and promoting more adaptive perceptions of aging.     

Older Adults Exposed to Ongoing versus Intense Time-Limited Missile Attacks: Differences in Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Objective: The potentially different psychological effects of ongoing trauma vis-à-vis an intense time-limited exposure to trauma have not been examined in older adults. Therefore, this study examined posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and their health concomitants in two groups of older adults in Israel: those exposed to ongoing missile attacks and those exposed to an intense time-limited period of missile attacks. Method: In the third administration of the Israeli component of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE-Israel), 297 older adults reported ongoing exposure to missile attacks due to the Israel–Gaza conflict (mean age = 66.97), while 309 older adults reported exposure to an intense period of missile attacks during the Second Lebanon War (mean age = 66.63). Participants completed measures of PTSD symptoms, and physical, cognitive, and mental health. Results: Older adults with ongoing exposure reported higher PTSD symptom level relative to those with intense time-limited exposure. The groups also differed in health variables related to PTSD symptoms. Namely, impaired physical and cognitive health were related to a higher level of PTSD symptoms in ongoing exposure, while impaired mental health was related to a higher PTSD symptom level following intense time-limited exposure. Conclusions: The findings suggest that physical and cognitive health involves resources that are vital for daily survival when living under ongoing warfare threat, whereas mental health involves resources that are needed in dealing with psychological effects of warfare trauma. Accordingly, different interventions may be necessary when helping older adults exposed to ongoing versus intense time-limited trauma.