Eudaimonia, Aging, and Health: A Review of Underlying Mechanisms

The Role of Autobiographical Resilience Memories in Emotion Regulation: An Account of Age Differences in Mnemonic and Positive Reappraisal

A lifetime of resilience through emotionally challenging experiences may benefit older adults, lending to emotion regulation mastery with time. Yet the influence of autobiographical experiences on momentary reappraisal, the reinterpretation of negative stimuli as more positive, has never been empirically tested. This online study examined the extent to which associating life memories of resilience with novel negative scenarios enhanced reappraisal efficacy and reduced difficulty to reappraise. Younger and older adults reappraised negative images by associating reappraisals to freely selected autobiographical resilience memories, cued autobiographical resilience memories, or by finding situational silver linings without mnemonic association (control). Changes in image emotional intensity ratings revealed no difference across reappraisal conditions for younger adults, while older adults most effectively down-regulated emotional intensity using the control reappraisal strategy. Older adults found autobiographical memories more helpful for mood regulation and less difficult to implement, and identified greater similarities between novel negative scenarios and their memories than younger adults. Surprisingly, greater similarity between resilience memories and negative images was associated with lower reappraisal efficacy for both age groups. Findings demonstrate the age-equivalent benefits of utilizing reappraisals associated with past narratives of resilience and suggest a sacrifice of immediate hedonic benefit for disproportionately greater subjective benefits with age.

Self-reported sense of purpose in life and proxy-reported behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia in the last year of life

Objectives:Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are among the most challenging aspects of dementia for individuals living with dementia and their caregivers. Identifying factors associated with resilience to BPSD may inform interventions to reduce them. The present research examines whether purpose in life is associated with BPSD in the last year of life.Method:Participants from the Health and Retirement Study were selected if they reported on their sense of purpose, had evidence of a memory impairment, died across the follow-up, and a proxy completed the End of Life survey that included BPSD (N = 2473). Self-reported sense of purpose was tested as a predictor of the sum of symptoms and each indivdual symptom in the last year of life.Results:Purpose in life was associated with fewer BPSD overall. Of the individual symptoms, purpose was associated with less risk of psychological symptoms, specfiically less depression, periodic confusion, uncontrolled temper, but not with motor or perceptual symptoms.Conclusion: These results are consistent with growing evidence that purpose is associated with better cognitive outcomes. Purpose may be a useful target of intervention to improve outcomes across the spectrum of dementia.

Sense of purpose in life and motivation, barriers, and engagement in physical activity and sedentary behavior: Test of a mediational model

Purpose in life is associated with greater engagement in physical activity. The present research (N = 3473) addresses whether motivations and barriers to physical activity mediate this relation concurrently and prospectively early in the coronavirus pandemic. Higher purpose was associated with greater intrinsic, identified, and external motivation for physical activity and fewer barriers. Intrinsic motivation was a robust mediator of the relation between purpose and more physical activity and less sedentary behavior reported concurrently and prospectively; identified motivation mediated the relation with physical activity. Purpose in life is associated with being more physically active through both greater enjoyment and valuing its benefits.

Cross-lagged relationships between sense of purpose in life, memory performance, and subjective memory beliefs in adulthood over a 9-year interval

OBJECTIVES

Previous studies have found a positive association between having a sense of purpose in life and memory functioning in old age. We extend these findings by examining the relationships between sense of purpose, memory performance, and subjective memory beliefs over time in a large sample of adults in mid to later adulthood.

METHOD

We used data from 3633 participants of the second and third wave of the MIDUS study. Cross-lagged panel analysis investigated the relationships between the variables at the two points, which were approximately 9 years apart, while controlling for gender, age, education, positive and negative affect, and self-rated health.

RESULTS

Sense of purpose in life, memory performance, and subjective memory beliefs were all cross-sectionally related to each other at both times. Longitudinally, sense of purpose was a positive predictor of subjective memory beliefs. Memory performance and subjective memory beliefs positively predicted each other over time. Furthermore, all three variables showed correlated changes over time. Exploratory analyses suggest that the covariates of affect and self-rated health are possible mediators or confounders in respectively the relationship between subjective memory beliefs and later sense of purpose, and sense of purpose and later objective memory performance.

CONCLUSION

Our findings underscore once more the relevance of sense of purpose in life as a predictor of positive late life functioning, as it is related to both performance-based and subjective cognitive outcomes. More work is needed to understand mechanisms underlying the purpose-memory association in order to develop and implement purpose interventions.

Psychological Resources and Biomarkers of Health in the Context of Chronic Parenting Stress

Background

Epidemiological studies link psychological resources to better physical health. One reason may be that psychological resources are protective in stressful contexts. This study tested whether indeed psychological resources are protective against biological degradation for healthy mid-life women under the chronic stress of caring for a child with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis (“caregivers”).

Methods

We tested whether five types of psychosocial resources (i.e., eudaimonic well-being, autonomy, purpose in life, self-acceptance, and mastery) were associated with biological indices of aging in a sample of mid-life women stratified by chronic stress; half were caregivers (n = 92) and half were mothers of neurotypical children (n = 91; controls). Selected stress and age related biological outcomes were insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), systemic inflammation (IL-6, CRP), and cellular aging (leukocyte telomere length). We tested whether each resource was associated with these biomarkers, and whether caregiving status and high parenting stress moderated that relationship.

Results

All the psychological resources except mastery were significantly negatively associated with insulin resistance, while none were related to systemic inflammation or telomere length. The relationships between eudaimonic well-being and HOMA-IR, and self-acceptance and HOMA-IR, were moderated by parental stress; lower resources were associated with higher insulin resistance, but only for women reporting high parental stress. The well-known predictors of age and BMI accounted for 46% of variance in insulin resistance, and psychological resources accounted for an additional 13% of variance. 

Conclusion

These findings suggest that higher eudaimonic well-being and greater self-acceptance may be protective for the metabolic health of mid-life women, and particularly in the context of high parenting stress. This has important implications given the rising rates of both parental stress and metabolic disease, and because psychological interventions can increase eudaimonic well-being and self-acceptance.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12529-021-10007-z.