Guilt as a mediator between depressive symptoms and subjective age: A 17-year longitudinal study of Israeli ex-prisoners of war

Daily fluctuations in subjective age and depressive symptoms: the roles of attitudes to ageing and chronological age

Studies indicate that both subjective age-individuals' perception of their own age as older or younger than their chronological age, and attitudes to ageing are related to physical and mental health. Less is known about the possible dual effect of these two constructs of subjective views of ageing. In the current study, 334 participants (aged 30-90, M = 58.15) reported their daily subjective age and mental health along 14 consecutive days. Attitudes to ageing were measured at baseline. Results indicated that daily variation in subjective age was related to daily variation in depressive symptoms, such that people experienced more depressive symptoms at days they felt older. Furthermore, we found that attitudes to ageing (perceptions of losses, physical change, and psychological growth) moderated this relationship. The covariation between daily subjective age and daily depressive symptoms was stronger when attitudes to ageing were less favorable (e.g., high perceptions of losses and low psychological growth). The moderating effect of losses was especially prominent among older participants. This indicates that attitudes to ageing moderate the toll that feeling old takes on mental health, especially in older age. The results also emphasize the need to understand how different subjective views on ageing, measured in different time frames, operate interactively to shape individual's daily experiences.

The Association Between Views of Aging and Subjective Cognitive Complaints in Older Adults: Findings From Two Samples

This cross-sectional study examined whether views of aging (VoA) relate to subjective cognitive complaints in two separate cohorts of older adults. Ageist attitudes, attitudes to aging (psychological loss, physical change, and psychological growth), subjective age, and subjective successful aging were examined. A moderating effect of chronological age was also examined. Samples included 572 adults aged 50 or older (Sample 1; mean age = 67.63, SD = 11.39, 49.4% female) and 224 adults aged 65 or older (Sample 2; mean age = 81.50, SD = 6.61, 75.3% female). More negative VoA (higher ageist attitudes, lower psychological growth, lower physical change, older subjective age, and less successful aging) were associated with more subjective cognitive complaints after controlling for covariates. An increase in chronological age strengthened some of these associations. Findings suggest that improving dimensions of VoA may have a complementary positive effect on subjective cognitive complaints in older adults.

Trajectories of depression in aging veterans and former prisoners-of-war: The role of social support and hardiness

OBJECTIVES

Depression is a prevalent outcome of traumatic experiences, such as combat and war captivity. This study explores the heterogeneity of changes over time and assesses the contribution of trauma exposure (combat vs. war captivity), hardiness, and social support for depression trajectories.

METHODS

Two groups of Israeli veterans were assessed in 1991, 2003, 2008, and 2015: 149 former prisoners-of-war (ex-POWs) and 107 combat veterans. Protective factors were evaluated in 1991. Group-based trajectory modeling was conducted to identify latent trajectories of change.

RESULTS

Four trajectories of "resiliency" (62.8%), "delayed onset" (25.1%), "exacerbation" (6.2%), and "chronicity" (5.9%) were found. The majority of the resilient group were combat veterans whereas the clinical groups consisted primarily of ex-POWs. Lower hardiness and social support were related to more deleterious trajectories.

CONCLUSIONS

Spirals of loss involving hardiness and social support, normative experiences, and contextual factors may present explanations for the various depression trajectories.

The Toll of Feeling Older: Subjective Age Moderates the Associations between Anxiety Sensitivity and Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression during COVID-19 Pandemic

Objectives

The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing stressor that may have detrimental effects on mental health. Theoretical and empirical literature implies that individuals who are characterized by catastrophic appraisals of somatic cues, a tendency known as anxiety sensitivity, as well as by older subjective age, might be particularly vulnerable to depression and anxiety during the pandemic. Furthermore, subjective age might moderate the relations between anxiety sensitivity with depression and anxiety symptoms. Yet, research to date has not explored the contribution of both anxiety sensitivity and subjective age in explaining distress following stress in general, nor in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Method

Filling this gap, a convenience sample of 828 participants, (Mage = 43.98, SD = 14.06), filled questionnaires measuring background variables, COVID-19 related stressors, anxiety sensitivity, subjective age, and anxiety and depression symptoms during the pandemic.

Results

Positive associations were found between anxiety sensitivity and subjective age, on the one hand, and anxiety and depression symptoms, on the other. Furthermore, subjective age moderated the associations between anxiety sensitivity with depression and anxiety symptoms. Although higher levels of anxiety sensitivity were related to depression and anxiety during the pandemic, these associations were stronger among participants with an older subjective age.

Discussion

The findings are consistent with theories that view subjective age as an intra-individual construct involved in modulating important mental health outcomes in the context of coping with stress.

Day-to-Day Variability in Subjective Age and Ageist Attitudes and Their Association With Depressive Symptoms

Objectives

Evidence of daily fluctuations in subjective age and their association with older adults’ well-being was recently obtained. Yet, neither the simultaneous tracking of two daily views on aging (i.e., daily subjective age and daily ageist attitudes) nor their interactive effect on mental health (i.e., depressive symptoms) has been explored. We hypothesized that (a) at days on which older adults feel older or report high ageist attitudes they would report higher depressive symptoms, (b) combined older subjective age and high ageist attitudes will be associated with the highest daily depressive symptoms.

Method

Community-dwelling older adults (N = 134, mean age = 69.66) completed measures of subjective age, ageist attitudes, and depressive symptoms for 10 consecutive days.

Results

Daily older subjective age and higher ageist attitudes were related to higher depressive symptoms, but there was no combined effect of both on depressive symptoms. There was a significant three-way interaction between subjective age, ageist attitudes, and chronological age, demonstrating the interactive effect of subjective age and ageist attitudes on depressive symptoms only among the old-old respondents. Time-lagged analyses further showed that ageist attitudes during previous days predicted feeling older and more depressed on following days, but not vice versa.

Discussion

Results suggest that old-old individuals are more susceptible to a combination of negative views on aging on daily basis. Findings further support a daily assimilation process, whereby previous-day stereotypes are assimilated and manifested into one’s identity and mental health, so that one feels older and more depressed on subsequent days.

Impostorism, subjective age, and perceived health among aging veterans

RATIONALE

Aging veterans often suffer from increased vulnerability, manifested among other things in old subjective age and poor perceived health. Though research has documented the contribution of trauma related variables to these negative appraisals, their associations with impostorism (i.e., the subjective experience that one is less adequate than others perceive) remain unexamined.

OBJECTIVE

Filling this gap, this study explored the relations between impostorism and subjective age and perceived health among aging combat veterans.

METHOD

The study was conducted among 146 Israeli veterans of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Participants were assessed for combat exposure, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and health-related behaviors during middle adulthood (1991; T1), and for subjective age, perceived health, impostorism, PTSD symptoms, and depressive symptoms during old age (2018; T2).

RESULTS

The veterans' impostorism was associated with relatively old subjective age and poor perceived health, above and beyond the effects of age, health-related behaviors, combat exposure, depressive symptoms, and PTSD symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

The current results suggest that impostorism may contribute to veterans' stress and negatively affect their evaluations regarding age and health.