Abstract
This study examined the relationship between ongoing cumulative chronic stressors (OCCSs) and optimism and pessimism during the second half of life. The sample comprised of 7166 participants who completed the 2006 Health and Retirement Study's (HRS) psychosocial questionnaire. The association between OCCSs and optimism and pessimism was evaluated among the individuals in the second half of life. The number of OCCSs was associated with both optimism and pessimism. However, the interaction between OCCSs and age was associated with pessimism alone. The relationship between "very upsetting" OCCSs and pessimism was significant among midlife and young old, but not among old-old participants. A larger number of OCCSs in the second half of life has a deleterious association with optimism and pessimism; however, it may be that the large sample allowed small effects to become significant. Nevertheless, the association between OCCSs and pessimism is regulated by age. Old-old participants maintain a stable level of pessimism, which is not related to the number of "very upsetting" OCCSs that they reported. Implications of the results are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 674-689 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Anxiety, Stress and Coping |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The Health and Retirement Study is funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA U01AG009740) awarded to the University of Michigan. I would like to thank Amit Shrira and Menachem Ben-Ezra for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.
Funding Information:
The current study used data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The HRS is a nationally representative sample of individuals 50 years and older residing in the USA (http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu/). The in-person core interview is part of an ongoing longitudinal study that began in 1992 and has tracked respondents approximately every two years subsequently. The HRS is sponsored by the National Institute of Aging and is conducted at the University of Michigan. This study is reviewed and approved by the University of Michigan’s Health Sciences IRB. Participants take part in a biennial in-person core interview that covers a range of topics. Baseline data for the present study were collected in 2006. Overall, 18,469 individuals responded to the 2006 HRS core questionnaire, with half (8899) of these individuals randomly chosen to receive a new ‘‘module’’ that includes a self-report psychosocial questionnaire called the ‘‘Leave-Behind Participant Life Style Questionnaire’’ (see Clarke, Fisher, House, & Weir, 2007 for further information); 8568 people were found physically and cognitively eligible to complete it (DeLeire & Kalil, 2010). The Leave-Behind module used in this study includes a wide range of psychosocial measures that were not part of the original questionnaire.
Keywords
- chronic stressors
- cumulative stress
- optimism
- pessimism
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Psychiatry and Mental health