LIFE EVENTS AND DEMORALIZATION IN THE ELDERLY

这笔赠款要求支持2年以上的分析和后续数据 现在是资助的第三年（NIA R 01 AG 04924， “老年人的生活事件和道德败坏”）。样品采访 最近残疾和失去配偶的老年人， 每月进行一次对照样本，持续10个月和1次随访 6个月后，面试结束。研究的重点是 这些压力源和心理健康之间的关系。分析 决定了心理健康和社会支持的潜在结构， 这些结构中的群体间差异; 旨在提高个人掌握能力的实验性干预也有 确定了发生率和反应的初步评估 到，无论是大事还是日常小事都有演出。 一个新的理解压力和恢复的概念框架， 取代了指导初始赠款的框架。两类 心理社会变量被研究为心理健康的预测因素： 倾向于降低适应努力充分性的因素和变量， 和阻力资源，这些变量可以促进恢复， 易损性.迄今为止的分析表明，残疾和丧亲 导致了截然不同的复苏模式。不同的风险和资源 影响适应的因素似乎取决于 压力源 迄今为止，我们的方法是回顾性的。然而，大量 的受试者经历了疾病/伤害、丧亲和其他损失 项目实施过程中，提供以下能力： 前瞻性分析。然而，需要额外的随访，以确保 足够的时间和样本量。 作为这一框架的核心问题，仍有三组任务： 通过反复测量，评估日常压力事件如何影响 作为对心理健康的稳定或变化的影响来源;（B）移动 超越了我们最初对身体健康的单一尺度评估， 确定104个项目（10个分量表）的潜在结构， 身体健康的各个方面，并测试该模型的关系 （c）在精神健康方面，无论是纵向的还是前瞻性的， 评估社交网络的变化如何影响心理健康， 个体随时间进入和离开社交网络。

This grant requests support of 2 more years of analyses and followup data collection for a grant now in its 3rd year of funding (NIA R01 AG04924, "Life Events and Demoralization in the Elderly"). Interviews on samples of recently disabled and conjugally bereaved older adults and matched control samples have been conducted monthly for 10 month and 1 followup interview 6 months later has been completed. The research has focused on the relationships between these stressors and mental health. Analyses have determined the latent structure of mental health and social support, intergroup differences in those structures; the effects of an experimental intervention aimed at improving personal mastery also have been determined. Initial assessment of the occurrence of, and reaction to, both major and everyday small events have been performed. A new conceptual framework for understanding stress and recovery has superseded the framework guiding the initial grant. Two classes of psychosocial variables are studied as predictors of mental health: Risk Factors, variables which tend to reduce adequacy of adaptation efforts, and Resistance Resources, variables which enhance recovery and reduce vulnerability. Analyses to date indicate that disability and bereavement lead to very different patterns of recovery. Different risk and resource factors appear to influence adaptation depending upon the nature of the stressor. Our methods to date have been retrospective. However, significant number of our subjects experienced illness/injury, bereavement and other loss events during the course of the project, providing the capability of prospective analyses. However, an additional followup is needed to insure adequate time passage and sample sizes. As central issues in this framework, 3 sets of tasks remain: (a) assessing, through repeated measures, how everyday stressful events act as stable or changing sources of influence on mental health; (b) moving beyond our initial single-scale assessment of physical health by determining the latent structure of 104 items (10 subscales) measuring various aspects of physical health, and testing that model's relationship with mental health, both longitudinally and prospectively, and (c) assessing how changes in social networks effect mental health as individuals enter and leave social networks over time.