Threats to Belonging-Stressful Life Events and Mental Health Symptoms in Aging Men-A Longitudinal Cohort Study.

Objectives: Stressful life events, especially relationship events, are frequent in adult life. We investigated the impact of a variety of stressful life events on symptoms of depression, anxiety, and hostility. Methods: We analyzed data from a large prospective cohort study of men (n = 1,437) in the Boston area (assessed in 1985, 1988, and 1991). Main outcomes were measures of depression, anxiety and hostility symptoms. We used the Elders Life Stress Inventory (ELSI) to measure stressful life events in the past 12 months and examine their association with symptoms of depression, anxiety and hostility. First, we analyzed the association of stressful life events with symptom changes; second, we categorized stressful life events into finance/work, health, relationships, loss, living situations events; and third, we estimated the specific association between relationship events and depression, anxiety and hostility symptoms using multilevel models. Results: The most frequent stressful life events were health, relationship, and financial events. Depression, anxiety, and hostility symptoms were relatively stable among men who did not experience these life events. However, those who reported life events in the past 12 months had a greater increase in symptoms of depression (+0.05; 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.10) and of hostility (+0.05; 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.09) than those who did not. Additionally, we found a significant decrease in hostility (-0.05; 95% CI: -0.08 to -0.01) in those experiencing no life events. Conclusion: Relationship events were more important than any other type of events, and were significantly associated with increased depression and hostility in aging men. Although the effects were small, the results point to a need to understand better the impact of relationships on psychopathology in the aging population

Do Cherished Children Age Successfully? Longitudinal Findings From the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study

Although early adversity has been linked to worse mental and physical health in adulthood, few studies have investigated the pathways through which positive and negative dimensions of early experiences can jointly influence psychological well-being in later life. This study examined: (a) profiles of early experiences across multiple domains, (b) the relations of these profiles to hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in later life, and (c) whether midlife social support mediated these relations. We first conducted latent class analysis of early experiences using data from 1,076 men in the VA Normative Aging Study who completed the Childhood Experiences Scale (age: M = 69, SD = 7). Analyses yielded 3 profiles of early experiences, labeled as cherished (strong support and some losses), harshly disciplined (harsh parental discipline, low positive reinforcement, and nonnormative stressors), and ordinary (few stressors and low parental attention). Next, we applied structural equation modeling to data on a subset of this sample assessed 7 years later on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being (n = 496; age: M = 76, SD = 7). In general, the cherished group reported stronger qualitative social support in midlife than the harshly disciplined and ordinary groups, which in turn was related to greater hedonic (life satisfaction, positive affect) and eudaimonic (competence, positive relations with others) well-being in later life. The cherished group also reported higher autonomy than the ordinary group, but this association was independent of midlife social support. Our findings suggest that experiencing adversity in the context of a nurturing early environment can promote successful aging through the maintenance of supportive relationships in midlife.This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association and can be found at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pag0000050 This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.Keywords: early adversity, latent class analysis, eudaimonic well-being, successful aging, hedonic well-bein

Attentional bias for threat in older adults: Moderation of the positivity bias by trait anxiety and stimulus modality

Socioemotional selectivity theory suggests that emotion regulation goals motivate older adults to preferentially allocate attention to positive stimuli and away from negative stimuli. This study examined whether anxiety moderates the effect of the positivity bias on attention for threat. The authors employed the dot probe task to compare subliminal and supraliminal attention for threat in 103 young and 44 older adults. Regardless of anxiety, older but not young adults demonstrated a vigilant–avoidant response to angry faces. Anxiety influenced older adults’ attention such that anxious individuals demonstrated a vigilant–avoidant reaction to sad faces but an avoidant–vigilant reaction to negative words

Lifespan Psychosocial Stressors, Optimism, and Hemodynamic Acute Stress Response in a National Sample

ObjectiveTo understand the association between psychosocial stressors and cardiovascular health by evaluating: (a) lifespan patterns of childhood and adulthood stressors in relation to hemodynamic acute stress reactivity and recovery and (b) the role of optimism in these associations.MethodParticipants (n = 1,092, 56% women, 21% racial/ethnic minority, Mage = 56.2) were from the Midlife in the United States Study II Biomarker Project. Lifespan profiles of psychosocial stressor exposure (low lifespan exposure, high childhood only, high adulthood only, persistent exposure) were constructed from responses to the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and a life events inventory. Optimism was measured with the Life Orientation Test-Revised. Hemodynamic acute stress reactivity to and recovery from cognitive stressors were assessed using a standardized laboratory protocol involving continuous measurements of systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) and baroreflex sensitivity (BRS).ResultsCompared with the low lifespan exposure group, the high childhood- and persistent-exposure groups showed lower BP reactivity, and to a lesser extent, slower BP recovery. Persistent exposure was also associated with slower BRS recovery. Optimism did not modify the association between stressor exposure and any hemodynamic acute stress responses. However, in exploratory analyses, greater stressor exposure across all developmental periods was indirectly associated with reduced BP acute stress reactivity and slower recovery via lower optimism levels.ConclusionsFindings support childhood as a unique developmental period wherein high adversity exposure may exert an enduring influence on adulthood cardiovascular health by limiting individuals' capacity to cultivate psychosocial resources and altering hemodynamic responses to acute stressors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Neuroticism, Worry, and Cardiometabolic Risk Trajectories: Findings From a 40‐Year Study of Men

Background Anxiety is linked to elevated risk of cardiometabolic disease onset, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We examined the prospective association of 2 anxiety facets, neuroticism and worry, with cardiometabolic risk (CMR) trajectories for 4 decades. Methods and Results The sample comprised 1561 men from an ongoing adult male cohort. In 1975, healthy men (mean age, 53 years [SD, 8.4 years]) completed the Eysenck Personality Inventory‐Short Form neuroticism scale and a Worries Scale. Seven CMR biomarkers were assessed every 3 to 5 years. The CMR score was the number of biomarkers categorized as high‐risk based on established cut points or medication use. Using mixed effects regression, we modeled CMR trajectories over age and evaluated their associations with neuroticism and worry. Using Cox regression, we examined associations of neuroticism and worry with risk of having ≥6 CMR high‐risk biomarkers through 2015. CMR increased at 0.8 markers per decade from age 33 to 65 years, at which point men had an average of 3.8 high‐risk markers, followed by a slower increase of 0.5 markers per decade. Higher neuroticism (B=0.08; 95% CI, 0.02–0.15) and worry levels (B=0.07; 95% CI, 0.001–0.13) were associated with elevated CMR across time, and with 13% (95% CI, 1.03–1.23) and 10% (95% CI, 1.01–1.20) greater risks, respectively, of having ≥6 high‐risk CMR markers, adjusting for potential confounders. Conclusions By middle adulthood, higher anxiety levels are associated with stable differences in CMR that are maintained into older ages. Anxious individuals may experience deteriorations in cardiometabolic health earlier in life and remain on a stable trajectory of heightened risk into older ages

Pulmonary Function Affects Language Performance in Aging

Background Good pulmonary function (PF) is associated with preservation of cognitive performance, primarily of executive functions, in aging (Albert et al., 1995; Chyou et al., 1996; Emery, Finkel, & Pedersen, 2012; Yohannes & Gindo, 2013). The contribution of PF to older adults’ language abilities, however, has never been explored, to our knowledge. We addressed this gap by examining the effects of PF on older adults’ language functions, as measured by naming and sentence processing accuracy. We predicted similar effects as found for executive functions, given the positive associations between executive functions and sentence processing in aging (e.g., Goral et al., 2011). Methods Data were collected from 190 healthy adults aged 55 to 84 years (M = 71.1, SD = 8.1), with no history of neurological or psychiatric disorders. Procedure PF was measured prior to language testing. Measures included forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC). Language functions were assessed through performance on computer-administered lexical retrieval and sentence processing tasks. Sentence processing was measured using two auditory comprehension tasks: one, of embedded sentences (ES), the other, of sentences with multiple negatives (MN). Lexical retrieval was measured using the Boston Naming Test (BNT) and Action Naming Test (ANT). Performance was scored for percent accuracy. Additionally, lexical retrieval was evaluated with a phonemic fluency task (FAS), which also taps executive function abilities. Statistical Analyses Multiple regression was used to examine the association between pulmonary and language functions, adjusting for age, education, gender, history of respiratory illness, current level of physical activities, and current and past smoking. Results Better PF was associated with better sentence processing and lexical retrieval on naming tasks, but not with phonemic fluency, after adjusting for covariates. Higher FVC was associated with better ES performance (B = 6.64, SE = 2.43, p = .01). Higher FVC and FEV1 were related to better MN performance, but this did not reach statistical significance (FVC: B = 3.68, SE = 2.16, p = .09; FEV1: B = 4.92, SE = 2.64, p = .06). Higher FVC (B = 3.98, SE = 1.44, p = .01) and FEV1 (B = 4.79, SE = 1.75, p = .01) were associated with better ANT performance. The positive association between PF and BNT performance was marginally significant (FVC: B = 4.19, SE = 2.18, p = .06; FEV1: B = 3.51, SE = 2.66, p = .10). Discussion and Conclusion Better PF was associated with higher accuracy on sentence processing and naming-based lexical retrieval tasks, consistent with the conclusion that pulmonary function affects older adults’ language performance. Our findings support the emerging thesis that language changes in aging are influenced by health-related physiological and neural mechanisms (e.g., Albert et al., 2009; Cahana-Amitay et al., 2013). From a clinical perspective, these findings highlight the promise of targeting PF as an intervention for improving language abilities among the elderly

Early Life Stressor Exposure, Affective Reactivity, and Mortality: A Lesson on the Reliability of Affective Reactivity Measures

Exposure to higher levels of stressors in early life has been associated with increased mortality in later life. The present investigation tested affective reactivity to daily stressors as a potential mediator of this association. Exposure to stressors in childhood is theorized to sensitize individuals to stressors experienced later in life. One way that stress sensitization might manifest is through greater affective reactivity to daily stressors. In turn, greater affective reactivity to daily stressors has been associated with poorer health and increased mortality. The present research tested these preregistered hypotheses in a sample of 144 men from the VA NormativeAging Study, a longitudinal study of aging in men. Early life psychosocial stressors were assessed using retrospective questionnaires, negative and positive affective reactivity to daily stressors were assessed using daily diaries administered in adulthood, and mortality was assessed through database searches and participant mailings across up to 18 years. Partially consistent with our hypotheses, early life psychosocial stressors were associated with greater positive affective reactivity to daily stressors in later life. However, the positive affective reactivity variable demonstrated very poor between-person reliability, casting doubt on this finding.Contrary to our hypotheses, neither early life psychosocial stressors nor later life affective reactivity to daily stressors were significant predictors of mortality. We discuss implications of these findings and encourage researchers interested in affective reactivity to include more measurement occasions in their computation of affective reactivity scores and to report reliability estimates for affective reactivity measures