Notre Dame Study of Resiliency in Later Life

描述(申请人提供)：尽管有大量的理论研究来建立新的理解，但老龄化研究中的问题仍然越来越复杂、错综复杂和多样化。对这些途径的全面理解需要一个广泛的综合框架，以满足：(A)需要可靠和以理论为导向的健康和福祉衡量标准；(B)需要对生活挑战进行概念性和经验性的表述；(C)需要研究设计，将不同分析层面的信息联系起来；(D)需要对复杂的动态变化敏感的创新统计方法；(E)需要综合量化和定性数据来源的战略。拟议的研究旨在通过三种机制收集此类数据：(1)调查数据--每年收集五波数据(收集了300名受试者)；(2)“数据突发”--在56天内(300名受试者的1、3和5岁)收集了三次每日日记数据；(3)两次(2岁和4岁)收集了25名参与者的生活故事访谈数据。对个体内变异和变化的过程进行建模有助于：(A)揭示不同个体之间合理一致的长期得失轨迹在个体内可能有多么大的差异(目标1)；(B)阐明这些复杂的个体内变化轨迹是如何被选择性的个体差异变量勾勒出来的(目标2)；(C)将发育发育的个体内差异与表现出短期变异性的时间现象的各个方面分开(目标3)；(D)展示个体间差异的维度如何可用于解释重要的、适应性的个体内过程(目标4)；以及(E)通过使用生活故事(目标5)，阐明个人发展如何融入多种背景(例如，生物、家庭、历史、社会和文化)。拟议研究的结果将提供晚年复原力和幸福感的综合模型，这将有助于为将无残疾年限扩大到更大部分人口的干预努力提供信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although there is a good body of theoretical research to build new understanding, questions in aging research remain increasingly complex, intricate, and diverse. Comprehensive understanding of these pathways requires a broad integrative framework that addresses (a) the need for reliable and theory-driven measures of health and well-being, (b) the need for conceptual and empirical formulations of life challenges, (c) the need for study designs that link information at different levels of analysis, (d) the need for innovative statistical methodologies that are sensitive to complex dynamic changes, and (e) the need for strategies that integrate quantitative and qualitative sources of data. The proposed research is designed to collect such data through three mechanisms: (1) survey data-five waves collected on a yearly basis (collected on 300 subjects); (2) "data bursts"-daily diary data collected three times for a 56-day period (years 1, 3, and 5 on 300 subjects); and, (3) life story interview data collected twice (years 2 and 4) on 25 of the participants. Modeling processes of intraindividual variability and change can help to (a) reveal how long-term trajectories of gains and losses that are reasonably consistent across different individuals may differ dramatically within individuals (Aim 1); (b) elucidate how these complex trajectories of intraindividual changes are contoured by selective individual differences variables (Aim 2); (c) separate intraindividual differences in developmental growth from aspects of temporal phenomena that exhibit shorter-term variability over time (Aim 3); (d) demonstrate how dimensions of interindividual differences may be used to explain important, adaptive intraindividual processes (Aim 4); and (e) clarify, through the use of life stories (Aim 5), how individual development is embedded in multiple contexts (e.g., biological, familial, historical, social, and cultural). The results of the proposed research will provide an integrated model of resilience and well being in later life that will help inform intervention efforts to extend disability-free years to larger segments of the population.