The relationship between sleep quality and physical activity is bidirectional, yet prior research on older adults has mainly focused on investigating whether increasing levels of physical activity ...leads to improvements in sleep quality. The current longitudinal study examined both directional relationships by assessing sleep quality and physical activity twice over a two-year period among 426 community-dwelling older adults (ages 61-100). A cross-lagged panel analysis that included age, gender, perceived stress, functional ability, and severity of chronic health conditions as covariates, revealed that better initial sleep quality predicted higher levels of later physical activity beyond the effects of prior physical activity; whereas initial physical activity did not predict later sleep quality after accounting for prior sleep quality. These findings highlight sleep quality as an important contributor to a physically active lifestyle among older adults.
In the current paper we examined whether women and men view gender discrimination as having changed over time, and if so: 1) how it has changed and 2) whether changes in anti-women bias are viewed as ...directly associated with changes in anti-men bias. Based on prior research (Norton and Sommers,
2011
; Sidanius and Pratto,
1999
), it was hypothesized that older men (35 years and older) compared to younger men (18–34 years of age) would hold a zero-sum view of gender discrimination trends in that older men would perceive increases in anti-men bias to accompany decreases in anti-women bias. Conversely, women, regardless of age, were expected to perceive changes in anti-women bias as unrelated to changes in anti-men bias. Results based on data from an online U.S. national sample (
n
= 499) supported the hypotheses for older men (
n
= 58), younger men (
n
= 160), older women (
n
= 96) and younger women (
n
= 185) and corroborated parallel past findings that the historically dominant social group (older men in this case) perceive any status gained by a socially subordinate group (women) as coming at the dominant group’s expense.
Objectives: Falls can have detrimental effects on older adults' psychological well-being, physical health, and survival rates. However, certain psychosocial mediators may lessen the negative impact ...of suffering a fall on health and well-being. Perceived control is a psychosocial factor that was examined as a mediator of the falls - health and well-being relationship in the current study.
Method: Participants were 232 community-dwelling older adults, age 68 or older who took part in a longitudinal study in 2008 and 2010 and completed measures of perceived control, self-rated health, health-care utilization, number of falls, depressive symptomology, and perceived stress. Survival was also tracked for seven years from 2008 through 2015.
Results: Older adults who suffered a fall had poorer health and well-being two years later compared to those who did not suffer a fall. Perceived control mediated the negative impact of falls on subsequent health and well-being outcomes two years later. Among older adults who experienced a fall, higher levels of perceived control predicted better subsequent health and well-being. Suffering one or more falls also predicted less likelihood of survival seven years later, beyond the effects of age, gender, marital status, and education.
Conclusion: Findings highlight the importance of assessing risk of falling and levels of perceived control in later life.
Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) was applied to explore the relationship between perceived risk of acute health crises and intent to exercise. Interviews of 351 community-living older adults ...assessed prior physical activity (PPA), all PMT components, and exercise intent. A multi-group structural equation model revealed gender differences in PMT predictors of exercise intent. PPA, age, self-efficacy, and response efficacy directly predicted men’s intent. Women’s PPA and age predicted PMT components of self-efficacy and response costs, which predicted intent. Findings have implications for devising interventions to enhance physical activity in later life by targeting different PMT components for older men and women.
Self-directed ageism is the application of stereotypic age-related beliefs to oneself, and is known to negatively impact health-related motivation (Levy, 2003; 2022). This study focused on the ...specific self-directed stereotype that 'age causes illness' and aimed to develop and test a multi-item measure to assess this implicit, limiting belief.
Survey data was collected from
= 347 adults in southeastern Idaho (ages 45-65 years old, 60% female). A variety of measures were used to assess the discriminant, convergent and predictive validity of the
scale including: socio-demographics (age, sex, education), psychosocial resources (personality, optimism, social support, depressive symptoms), health/aging expectations, and indicators of physical health.
The seven-item
scale is reliable and shows an expected pattern of discriminant and convergent correlations with relevant socio-demographic, psychosocial, and aging-related measures. The belief that 'age causes illness,' as assessed with this new scale, is related to both objective and subjective indicators of physical health.
The
scale is a brief screening tool, potentially applicable in behavioral health settings as an initial step toward discussion of the implicit, and often unchallenged, belief that age alone determines the onset, progression, and offset of illness.
Health‐related conspiracy beliefs are widespread, cover a variety of health topics, and can impact behavior. As such, understanding exactly how these beliefs impact health behavior is an important ...step in developing interventions to increase preventative health behaviors and individuals' overall health and well‐being. This review assesses two different widely endorsed health‐related conspiracy beliefs using two key health models, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1985) and the Health Belief Model (HBM; Rosenstock et al., 1988, https://doi.org/10.1177/109019818801500203), in order to determine how these beliefs may impact health behavior and possible avenues for intervention. Attitudes and subjective norms from the TPB, along with perceived severity, barriers, and benefits from the HBM, were the most salient to conspiracy beliefs. Future research should consider a mixed model approach that utilizes components from both theories in intervention planning and assessment.
Conspiracy beliefs and misinformation can impact health behaviors and initiatives. The current study used structural equation modeling to test integrated models comprised of the Theory of Planned ...Behavior (TPB) and Health Belief Model (HBM) within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic to determine how conspiracy beliefs may predict relevant behaviors. Based on a sample of 529 US and Canadian adults, two types of behaviors were assessed (i.e., vaccination status and subsequent booster willingness) using models based on two common COVID-19 conspiracy belief types (hoax and government). Overall, conspiracy beliefs predicted most factors of the TPB and HBM. Perceived susceptibility was a consistent mediator regardless of conspiracy type or outcome variable. Findings have implications for public health interventions and compliance with public health initiatives such as vaccination uptake.
Believing that reduced discrimination against women directly corresponds to increased discrimination against men, referred to as a zero-sum perspective (ZSP), may inhibit further attempts toward ...gender equality. Based on a sample of 313 men and women, we developed and tested both a general measure and a domain-specific measure of the ZSP of gender status then examined sociodemographics (age, education, political orientation, religious beliefs, and past experience with discrimination) and social dominance orientation as predictors of the ZSP of shifts in gender status. Hostile and modern sexism were examined as potential mediators of this relationship. Structural equation models were computed to examine predictive paths separately for men and women. Although some similarities were found, results showed important differences in predictive paths for women and men, and supported the expected mediating role of sexism in the relationships between sociodemographic predictors and the ZSP. Findings have implications for targeting intervention efforts to enhance a win-win or non-zero-sum perspective that may facilitate efforts toward reducing gender discrimination.
Objectives
Despite a common belief that health declines with age, many older adults remain optimistic about their future health. However, the longitudinal impact of personal and comparatively ...optimistic future health estimates (FHEs) is unclear.
Method
Among 408 older adults (Mage = 70.32 years), this study identified the prevalence, source, and two‐year stability of comparatively optimistic FHEs; examined demographic, psychosocial, and health correlates of comparative FHEs; and assessed the role of comparative FHEs in predicting eight‐year survival odds.
Results
Nearly half of participants were comparatively optimistic due to interpersonal pessimism more so than personal optimism. Regarding stability, comparative optimism declined over the two‐year period. Being younger and having more perceived control, dispositional optimism, and recent positive emotions were associated with better FHEs for oneself and a similar other. Beyond effects of age, gender, relationship status, and dispositional optimism, optimistic personal FHEs predicted eight‐year survival odds.
Conclusions
Findings have implications for predicting survival and advancing the conceptual understanding of comparative FHEs.
Statement of contribution
What is already known on the subject?
Previous research has demonstrated that older adults tend to believe diminished health accompanies increasing age. Despite this notion, older adults remain comparatively optimistic about their health.
What does this study add?
The longitudinal results of the current study indicated that nearly half of participants were categorized as comparative optimists, primarily due to interpersonal pessimism.
The current study demonstrated that there is little distinction between personal FHEs and those for a similar other in terms of demographic, psychosocial, and health correlates.
The current study identified factors that predicted eight‐year survival among older adults, such as being female, younger, in a committed relationship, and better personal FHEs.
Intradimensional discrimination training may cause peak shift, in which participants respond more frequently to a novel stimulus presented during a generalization test than the positive exemplar used ...in training. Previous research has shown that peak shift is most likely to occur in participants who have achieved an intermediate level of proficiency with the discrimination. We sought to examine whether discrimination learning and peak shift could be altered through variations in stimulus discriminability. An international sample of 117 adults were trained to discriminate one visual representation of risk from COVID-19 (S+) from a second level of risk (S-) that was either lesser or greater. In a high discriminability condition, a single indicator of risk (a bar length) was presented on each trial. In a moderate discriminability condition, participants were required to estimate a person’s risk from multiple risk indicators. In a low discriminability condition, participants were additionally required to consider risk mitigation factors when estimating a person’s risk. Peak shift was absent in the high discriminability condition but present in the moderate condition. The low discriminability condition produced either flat or monotonic generalization gradients. The results additionally demonstrate how presenting health risk information to people in relatively simple or relatively complex ways affects their ability to judge that information correctly.
