Volunteering as an Avenue for Improving Views of Aging

项目摘要/摘要 新出现的证据表明，态度和信念会对个人健康产生重大影响。态度 在预测晚年的认知和身体健康以及长寿方面，关于衰老的信息尤为重要。 虽然对衰老的负面看法被发现对老年人的健康和福祉有害，但积极的 随着个人年龄的增长，对衰老的看法对健康具有保护作用。尽管个人的态度和信仰 实验室研究表明，在文化年龄刻板印象的背景下，关于衰老的问题在整个生命周期中都会发展 老年人对衰老的看法可以通过刻板印象的方式暂时改变，这种方式直接 对行为和生理过程的影响。研究尚未调查是否有这样的生活方式 从长远来看，老年人可以用来改善自己对衰老的态度的策略。这样做的目的是 提案是调查通过志愿服务为社区做出贡献的行为是否可以改善 老年人对衰老的看法，最终会增强他们的健康。目标1将考察志愿服务是否 随着时间的推移，人们对衰老的看法有所改善。鉴于有证据表明 晚年在社会和情感上有意义的目标，志愿服务的社会价值和生成能力 提供一个有希望的环境，使老年人能够感觉到对他们的社区有价值和重要，以及 潜在地减少描绘晚年社会角色丧失的负面年龄刻板印象。因此，我们预测老年人 与年龄匹配的非志愿者相比，志愿者对老龄化的看法将有所改善 一群人。目标2将研究人们对衰老的积极看法的增加是否会增强 志愿服务。越来越多的证据表明，老年志愿者比非志愿者更健康 事实上，随着时间的推移，志愿服务可能会改善认知和身体健康。vt.给出 积极的老龄化观点与健康之间的纵向关联，我们预测，改善的老龄化观点 随着时间的推移，将增强与志愿服务相关的健康益处。了解潜在的关系 在志愿服务中，对衰老和个人健康的态度可以帮助建立一个更积极的 老年人和整个社会对老龄化的看法，并最终增强我们老龄化的健康 人口。

Project Summary/Abstract Emerging evidence suggests that attitudes and beliefs can have a strong impact on individual health. Attitudes about aging are particularly important in predicting late-life cognitive and physical health, and longevity. Whereas negative views of aging are found to be detrimental to older adults’ health and well-being, positive views of aging are protective for health as individuals become older. Although individuals’ attitudes and beliefs about aging develop across the life span in the context of cultural age stereotypes, laboratory studies show that older adults’ views of aging can be altered temporarily through stereotype priming in ways that have direct impact on behavior and physiological processes. Research has yet to investigate whether there are lifestyle strategies older individuals can use to improve their own attitudes about aging in the long-term. The goal of this proposal is to investigate whether the act of contributing to the community through volunteerism can improve older individuals’ views of aging, and ultimately, enhance their health. Aim 1 will examine whether volunteering is associated with improvements in views of aging over time. Given evidence of increased prioritization of socially and emotionally meaningful goals in later life, the social value and generative qualities of volunteerism present a promising context in which older adults can feel valuable and important to their communities, and potentially reduce negative age stereotypes depicting late-life social role loss. Thus, we predict that older adult volunteers’ views of aging will improve relative to those of an age-matched non-volunteering comparison group. Aim 2 will examine whether increases in positive views of aging enhance the health benefits of volunteering. Growing evidence suggests that older adult volunteers are healthier than their non-volunteering counterparts, and that volunteering may, in fact, improve cognitive and physical health over time. Given longitudinal associations between positive views of aging and health, we predict that improved views of aging will enhance the health benefits associated with volunteering over time. Understanding potential relationships among volunteerism, attitudes about aging, and individual health can contribute to building a more positive view of aging among both older people and society at large, and, ultimately, enhance the health of our aging population.