Measuring Adults' Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC)

申请者描述(申请人提供)：本申请寻求两年的资金，以开发一个可靠和有效的自我报告问卷，以评估中老年人对年龄相关变化的认识(AARC)。Diehl和Wahl(2010)将AARC定义为“所有那些使人意识到他或她的行为、表现水平或生活体验方式随着年龄的增长而发生变化的经历”(第340页)。开发和验证这一测量工具对于经验性地建立AARC概念以及在后续研究中表明这一新概念具有超越传统的“主观衰老”和“年龄同一性”概念的解释价值至关重要。因此，这一申请符合探索/发展补助金(R21)机制，该机制“旨在通过为探索性和发展性研究项目的早期和概念阶段提供支持来鼓励这些项目”(PA-10-069)。拟议的项目有三个具体目标：1.开发用于测量成人AARC的问卷题库：这一目标建立在首席研究员在过去3年中所做的理论工作的基础上。这项工作于2008年获得美国老年医学学会颁发的社会老年学理论创新奖。首席调查员与AARC有关的经验工作现在侧重于为第一版多层面调查问卷建立一个详尽的题库。为建立这样一个项目库，将举办10个中老年焦点小组，问卷项目将从转录的焦点小组协议中得出，从而形成问卷的初始版本。2.建立新问卷的心理测量学特性：使用两个独立的成人样本来建立AARC问卷的心理测量学特性。最初的版本将提供给北科罗拉多州400名具有代表性的中老年人(年龄从40岁到90岁)。使用从该样本获得的数据，将建立信度(例如，内部一致性、重测信度)和效度(例如，预测效度和收敛效度)，并且表现较差的条目 将会被淘汰。然后，修订版的问卷将被提供给丹佛市地区600名中老年人中具有代表性的第二个样本。将进行额外的心理测量工作，以使用第二个样本的数据来完善问卷。3.为了在不同的环境中使用问卷的两种简短形式：使用两个样本的数据并应用项目反应理论(IRT)，将创建问卷的十个项目和五个项目版本。这些简短的表格将被设计用于大规模调查、生态瞬时评估研究和基于实验室的研究。这些简短的表格也非常适合在临床实践中使用。 公共卫生相关性：该应用程序建议开发一个多维问卷来测量成年人对年龄相关变化的认识(AARC)。从公共卫生的角度来看，拥有这样的衡量标准是相关的，因为成年人对衰老的自我感知是重要的现实生活结果的有力预测因素，例如预防性健康行为和发病率。然而，到目前为止，还没有复杂的方法可以多维地评估中老年人的AARC。这项新措施意义重大，因为它将丰富几个领域的健康相关研究，包括临床实践环境中的工作。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application seeks 2 years of funding to develop a reliable and valid self-report questionnaire to assess middle-aged and older adults' Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC). Diehl and Wahl (2010) defined AARC as "all those experiences that make a person aware that his or her behavior, level of performance, or ways of experiencing life have changed as a consequence of having grown older (i.e., chronological age)" (p. 340). Developing and validating this measurement instrument is essential for establishing the AARC concept empirically and for showing in subsequent studies that this new concept has explanatory value beyond the traditional concepts of "subjective aging" and "age identity." Thus, this application is consistent with the Exploratory/ Developmental Grant (R21) mechanism which "is intended to encourage exploratory and developmental research projects by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of these projects" (PA-10-069). The proposed project has three specific aims: 1.To develop the item pool for the questionnaire measuring adults' AARC: This aim builds on the theoretical work that the Principal Investigator has done over the past 3 years. This work was recognized in 2008 by an award from the Gerontological Society of America for theoretical innovation in social gerontology. The Principal Investigator's empirical work related to AARC is now focused on the generation of an exhaustive item pool for a first version of a multi-dimensional questionnaire. To generate such an item pool, 10 focus groups with middle-aged and older adults will be conducted and questionnaire items will be derived from the transcribed focus group protocols, resulting in an initial version of the questionnaire. 2. To establish the psychometric properties of the new questionnaire: The psychometric properties of the AARC questionnaire will be established using two independent samples of adults. The initial version will be given to a representative sample of 400 middle-aged and older adults (age range 40 to 90 years) in Northern Colorado. Using the data obtained from this sample, reliability (e.g., internal consistency, test-retest reliability) ad validity (e.g., predictive and convergent validity) will be established and poorly performing items will be eliminated. The revised version of the questionnaire will then be given to a second representative sample of 600 middle-aged and older adults in the Denver metropolitan area. Additional psychometric work will be performed to refine the questionnaire using the data from this second sample. 3. To generate two short forms of the questionnaire for use in different settings: Using the data from both samples and applying Item Response Theory (IRT), a ten-item and a five-item version of the questionnaire will be created. These short forms will be designed for possible use in large-scale surveys, ecological momentary assessment studies, and laboratory-based studies. These short forms are also highly desirable for use in clinical practice. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This application proposes the development of a multidimensional questionnaire to measure adults' Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC). Having such a measure is relevant from a public health perspective because adults' self-perceptions of aging are powerful predictors of important real-life outcomes, such as preventive health behaviors and morbidity. Yet, to date there are no sophisticated measures available that assess middle-aged and older adults' AARC in a multidimensional way. The new measure is significant because it would enrich health-related research in several areas, including work in clinical practice settings.