LIFE EVENTS AND DEMORALIZATION IN THE ELDERLY

这笔赠款要求再支持两年以上的分析和跟踪数据 一项赠款的收集现已进入其资助的第三个年头(NIA R01 AG04924， “老年人的生活事件和士气低落”)。对样本的访谈 最近残疾的和丧偶的老年人和匹配的 对照样本每月进行10个月和1个月的随访 6个月后的面试已经完成。这项研究的重点是 这些应激源与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， 这些结构中的组间差异； 旨在提高个人掌握能力的实验性干预也有 已经确定了。对发生和反应的初步评估 到了，既有重大的活动，也有日常的小活动。 一个新的理解压力和恢复的概念框架已经 取代了指导初始赠款的框架。两个班级 心理社会变量被研究作为心理健康的预测因素：风险 倾向于减少适应努力的充分性的因素、变量、 和阻力资源，促进恢复和减少的变量 脆弱性。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。 到目前为止，我们的方法都是回溯性的。然而，相当多的人 的受试者经历了疾病/伤害、丧亲和其他损失 项目过程中发生的事件，提供 前瞻性分析。然而，需要额外的后续行动才能确保 足够的时间和样本量。 作为这一框架的中心问题，仍有3组任务：(A) 通过重复测量来评估日常压力事件的表现 影响心理健康的稳定的或不断变化的来源；(B)移动的 除了我们最初对身体健康的单一等级评估之外， 104个条目(10个分量表)测量的潜在结构测定 身体健康的各个方面，并测试模型之间的关系 纵向和前瞻性的精神健康，以及(C) 评估社交网络的变化如何影响心理健康 随着时间的推移，个人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 A new conceptual framework for understanding stress and recovery has superseded the framework guiding the initial grant.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.