ADVANCING CONCEPTUAL AND ANALYTIC APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF ACTIVITIES AND AGING

描述（由申请人提供）：参与活动是晚年幸福的理论讨论和实证分析的核心。尽管它具有重要的理论作用，但在统计模型中对多活动变量的测量和使用的关注并不多。确定一种调查多种活动的简约方法对于理解“整个人”的参与非常重要。本研究的目的是：1)探索从概念上和经验上将离散的活动测量整合为可测试的活动域和参与模式的方法；2)探索衍生的活动域和参与模式作为活动前因和结果研究中的中间变量的表现。专家小组将协助确定最佳措施、分析方法和数据集，以支持我们团队未来的研究，并就使用这些特定数据集中的活动项向该领域提出建议。我们将使用三个国家数据集来完成这项探索性工作，每个数据集都包括离散的活动测量（健康与退休研究、美国人不断变化的生活和美国的中年）。我们在每个数据集上重复一组方法来探索可能的方法。我们使用以变量为中心的方法（因子分析）和以人为中心的方法（潜在类别分析）来巩固活动测量。在这三个数据集中，我们将确定活动的潜在前因和结果，并探索测量方法如何在统计模型中工作。我们将使用结构方程模型和一般混合模型来测试与活动域和活动模式的衍生测量相关的因素，以及领域和模式与幸福结果的关系。建议的工作成果包括：1)一组确定的活动项目，这些活动项目在MIDUS、HRS和ACL数据集中的活动域中具有经验因素；2)每个数据集中存在的一组已识别的参与模式；3)关于活动域和参与模式如何在指定活动的前因和结果的统计模型中运作的知识。这些产品将用于研究团队的后续工作。普特南博士将利用这项发展工作来研究老年残疾人的活动参与度，莫罗-豪厄尔博士将利用它来研究生产性活动和福祉结果的独特作用。此外，这些产品将通过同行评审的文章和会议报告与其他研究人员分享。因此，我们的研究结果将有利于其他使用MIDUS、HRS和ACL的研究人员，所有这些都是由NIA部分资助的，是公开的，广泛使用的，并且包括大量具有代表性的老年人样本。最终，这项工作将以更全面和系统的方式推进对晚年活动和幸福结果的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Engagement in activity has been central to theoretical discussions and empirical analysis of well-being in later life. Despite its important theoretical role, there has not been very much attention paid to the measurement and use of multiple activity variables in statistical models. Determining a parsimonious means of investigating multiple activities is important to understanding engagement of the "whole person." The aims of this study are: 1) to explore ways to conceptually and empirically consolidate discrete activity measures into testable activity domains and engagement patterns and 2) to explore the performance of the derived activity domains and engagement patterns as intermediate variables in the study of antecedents and outcomes of activities. An Expert Panel will assist in determining optimal measures, analytical methods, and data set(s) to support our team's future research and in making recommendations to the field about use of the activity items in these specific data sets. We will accomplish this exploratory work using three national data sets that each includes discrete activity measures (Health and Retirement Study, Americans' Changing Lives, and Midlife in the US). We repeat one set of methods on each data set to explore possible approaches. We use a variable-centered approach (factor analysis) and a person-centered approach (latent class analyses) to consolidate activity measures. In each of the three data sets, we will identify potential antecedents and outcomes of activities and explore how the measurement approaches work in statistical models. We will use structural equation modeling and general mixture modeling to test factors associated with the derived measures of activity domains and activity patterns, as well as the relationships of domains and patterns with well-being outcomes. Products of the proposed work include: 1) an identified set of activity items that empirically factor together in activity domains in MIDUS, HRS, and ACL data sets; 2) an identified set of engagement patterns that exist in each of these data sets; and 3) knowledge about how activity domains and engagement patterns operate in statistical models specifying antecedents and outcomes of activity. These products will be used in the research team's subsequent work. Dr. Putnam will use this development work to study activity engagement of individuals aging with disability, and Dr. Morrow-Howell will use it to study the unique role of productive activities and well-being outcomes. Also, these products will be shared with other researchers through peer-reviewed articles and conference presentations. Thus, our findings will benefit other researchers who use the MIDUS, HRS, and ACL, all of which are funded in part by the NIA, are publicly available, are widely used, and include large, representative samples of older adults. Ultimately, this work will advance the study of activities and well-being outcomes in later life in a more holistic and systematic way.