Gerontology Research Center, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, Univerisity of Jyvaskyla, P.O. Box 35 (viv 149), 40014, Jyväskylä, Finland. taina.rantanen@jyu.fi.
Population aging increases the need for knowledge on positive aspects of aging, and contributions of older people to their own wellbeing and that of others. We defined active aging as an individual's striving for elements of wellbeing with activities as per their goals, abilities and opportunities. This study examines associations of health, health behaviors, health literacy and functional abilities, environmental and social support with active aging and wellbeing. We will develop and validate assessment methods for physical activity and physical resilience suitable for research on older people, and examine their associations with active aging and wellbeing. We will examine cohort effects on functional phenotypes underlying active aging and disability.
For this population-based study, we plan to recruit 1000 participants aged 75, 80 or 85 years living in central Finland, by drawing personal details from the population register. Participants are interviewed on active aging, wellbeing, disability, environmental and social support, mobility, health behavior and health literacy. Physical activity and heart rate are monitored for 7 days with wearable sensors. Functional tests include hearing, vision, muscle strength, reaction time, exercise tolerance, mobility, and cognitive performance. Clinical examination by a nurse and physician includes an electrocardiogram, tests of blood pressure, orthostatic regulation, arterial stiffness, and lung function, as well as a review of chronic and acute conditions and prescribed medications. C-reactive protein, small blood count, cholesterol and vitamin D are analyzed from blood samples. Associations of factors potentially underlying active aging and wellbeing will be studied using multivariate methods. Cohort effects will be studied by comparing test results of physical and cognitive functioning with results of a cohort examined in 1989-90.
The current study will renew research on positive gerontology through the novel approach to active aging and by suggesting new biomarkers of resilience and active aging. Therefore, high interdisciplinary impact is expected. This cross-sectional study will not provide knowledge on temporal order of events or causality, but an innovative cross-sectional dataset provides opportunities for emergence of novel creative hypotheses and theories.
This study investigated the role of friendships and social acceptance in self-perceptions of appearance and depressive symptoms, comparing adolescents with and without a facial difference. Adolescents with a visible cleft (n=196) were compared with adolescents with a non-visible cleft (n=93), and with a comparison group (n=1832). Boys with a visible difference reported significantly more positive perceptions of friendships and less depressive symptoms than the comparison group. These results were interpreted in the context of indicators of emotional resilience. The objective measure of facial difference did not explain levels of depressive symptoms, while subjective measures did. Subjective ratings of appearance mediated the association between social acceptance and depressive symptoms in all samples. Gender did not contribute in explaining the paths between friendships, appearance, and depressive symptoms. The associations between perceptions of social acceptance, appearance, and emotional distress, support the possible utility of strengthening social experiences in preventing and treating appearance-concerns.
The present study addressed a fundamental gap between research and clinical work by advancing complex explanatory conceptualizations of coping action patterns that trigger and maintain daily negative affect and (low) positive affect. One hundred ninety-six community adults completed measures of perfectionism, and then 6 months later completed questionnaires at the end of the day for 14 consecutive days to provide simultaneous assessments of appraisals, coping, and affect across different stressful situations in everyday life. Multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) supported complex explanatory conceptualizations that demonstrated (a) disengagement trigger patterns consisting of several distinct appraisals (e.g., event stress) and coping strategies (e.g., avoidant coping) that commonly operate together across many different stressors when the typical individual experiences daily increases in negative affect and drops in positive affect; and (b) disengagement maintenance patterns composed of different appraisal and coping maintenance factors that, in combination, can explain why individuals with higher levels of self-critical perfectionism have persistent daily negative affect and low positive mood 6 months later. In parallel, engagement patterns (triggers and maintenance) composed of distinct appraisals (e.g., perceived social support) and coping strategies (e.g., problem-focused coping) were linked to compensatory experiences of daily positive affect. These findings demonstrate the promise of using daily diary methodologies and MSEM to promote a shared understanding between therapists and clients of trigger and maintenance coping action patterns that explain what precipitates and perpetuates clients' difficulties, which, in turn, can help achieve the 2 overarching therapy goals of reducing clients' distress and bolstering resilience.
About 7000 Swedish citizens were on Christmas holiday in the disaster area at the time of the South-east Asian tsunami in 2004, in many cases with children and adolescents in their families.
To investigate how adolescents experience a traumatic exposure to a natural disaster.
Twenty adolescents aged 16-19 years, who had experienced the 2004 tsunami and participated in a follow-up study 19 months post-disaster, were randomly selected and interviewed about their reactions, their life afterwards and their families. The study combines the face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with questionnaire data on mental health for 4910 Swedish adolescents and adults.
The themes that emerged inductively during the analysis of the interviews were psychological reactions during the catastrophe, the coping after, changes in self-image, worldview, role in the family, risk interpretation and altruism. The disaster had profound impact on family relations, social networks and plans for the future. Many felt strengthened by the experience and by their ability to cope in comparison with other family members, but also perceived isolation and lack of understanding. The general mental health status among the adolescents did not differ significantly from those of older age at the 19-month follow-up.
According to the adolescents', they experienced the tsunami-disaster differently than others around them. Their subjective interpretation of the event and its aftermath indicates resilience, especially among the young men. Future follow-up studies in larger samples of both symptoms and psychological functioning are warranted.
American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) adolescent and adult men experience a range of health disparities relative to their non-AIAN counterparts and AIAN women. Given the relatively limited literature on early development in tribal contexts, however, indicators of risk during early childhood specific to AIAN boys are not well-known. The current article reviews sources of strength and challenge within AIAN communities for AIAN children in general, including cultural beliefs and practices that support development, and contextual challenges related to socioeconomic and health disparities and historical trauma affecting the AIAN population as a whole. The research literature on early development is reviewed, highlighting what this literature reveals about early gender differences. The article concludes with calls to action on behalf of AIAN boys that align with each of the five tiers of R. Frieden's (2010) Public Health Pyramid.
Examining American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) resilience using the life course framework could inform public health strategies that support favorable health outcomes, despite adversity (e.g., discrimination, historical loss, comorbidity). A systematic review of peer-reviewed literature published from 1970 to 2015 yielded eight articles on AI/AN life course and resilience. A content analysis identified three themes. AI/AN resilience is 1) an ongoing, dynamic process, 2) evident within linked lives and life transitions, and 3) accessed through cultural knowledge and practice. Resilience research could change the paradigm of AI/AN health research to guide asset-based approaches across the life course.
Anxiety symptoms mediate the relationship between exposure to stressful negative life events and depressive symptoms: A conditional process modelling of the protective effects of resilience.
Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway; Research School of Psychology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Electronic address: frederick.anyan@ntnu.no.
Resilience has provided a useful framework that elucidates the effects of protective factors to overcome psychological adversities but studies that address the potential contingencies of resilience to protect against direct and indirect negative effects are lacking. These obvious gaps have also resulted in oversimplification of complex processes that can be clarified by moderated mediation associations. This study examines a conditional process modelling of the protective effects of resilience against indirect effects.
Two separate samples were recruited in a cross-sectional survey from Australia and Norway to complete the Patient Health Questionnaire -9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Stressful Negative Life Events Questionnaire and the Resilience Scale for Adults. The final sample sizes were 206 (females=114; males=91; other=1) and 210 (females=155; males=55) for Australia and Norway respectively. Moderated mediation analyses were conducted across the samples.
Anxiety symptoms mediated the relationship between exposure to stressful negative life events and depressive symptoms in both samples. Conditional indirect effects of exposure to stressful negative life events on depressive symptoms mediated by anxiety symptoms showed that high subgroup of resilience was associated with less effect of exposure to stressful negative life events through anxiety symptoms on depressive symptoms than the low subgroup of resilience.
As a cross-sectional survey, the present study does not answer questions about causal processes despite the use of a conditional process modelling.
These findings support that, resilience protective resources can protect against both direct and indirect - through other channels - psychological adversities.
We describe an evidence-based approach to enhancing the resilience of healthcare workers in preparation for an influenza pandemic, based on evidence about the stress associated with working in healthcare during the SARS outbreak. SARS was associated with significant long-term stress in healthcare workers, but not with increased mental illness. Reducing pandemic-related stress may best be accomplished through interventions designed to enhance resilience in psychologically healthy people. Applicable models to improve adaptation in individuals include Folkman and Greer's framework for stress appraisal and coping along with psychological first aid. Resilience is supported at an organizational level by effective training and support, development of material and relational reserves, effective leadership, the effects of the characteristics of "magnet hospitals," and a culture of organizational justice. Evidence supports the goal of developing and maintaining an organizational culture of resilience in order to reduce the expected stress of an influenza pandemic on healthcare workers. This recommendation goes well beyond the provision of adequate training and counseling. Although the severity of a pandemic is unpredictable, this effort is not likely to be wasted because it will also support the health of both patients and staff in normal times.
Arctic peoples today find themselves on the front line of rapid environmental change brought about by globalizing forces, shifting climates, and destabilizing physical conditions. The weather is not the only thing undergoing rapid change here. Social climates are intrinsically connected to physical climates, and changes within each have profound effects on the daily life, health, and well-being of circumpolar indigenous peoples. This paper describes a collaborative effort between university researchers and community members from five indigenous communities in the circumpolar north aimed at comparing the experiences of indigenous Arctic youth in order to come up with a shared model of indigenous youth resilience. The discussion introduces a sliding scale model that emerged from the comparative data analysis. It illustrates how a "sliding scale" of resilience captures the inherent dynamism of youth strategies for "doing well" and what forces represent positive and negative influences that slide towards either personal and communal resilience or vulnerability. The model of the sliding scale is designed to reflect the contingency and interdependence of resilience and vulnerability and their fluctuations between lowest and highest points based on timing, local situation, larger context, and meaning.
This paper uses individual-level longitudinal data on working-age Finns to examine the health effects of economic fluctuations during a period of economic decline (1989-1996) and recovery (1997-2007) in Finland. We used a nationally representative, longitudinal sample formed by linking population, employment and mortality registers (n = 698,484; 7,719,870 person-years). We implemented a region fixed-effect model that exploits within-regional variations over time in the unemployment rate to identify the effect of economic fluctuations on mortality, controlling for individual employment transitions. Unemployment rates increased from 5.2 % in 1989 to 19.8 % in 1996, declining gradually thereafter and reaching 9.7 % in 2007. Results indicate that these large fluctuations in the economy had no impact on the overall mortality of most working age Finns. The exception was highly educated men, who experienced an increase of 7 % (Rate ratio = 1.07, 95 % confidence interval 1.04, 1.10) for every one-point increase in the regional unemployment rate during the period 1989-1996 due to increased mortality from cardiovascular disease and suicide. This increase, however, was not robust in models that used the employment to population ratio as measure of the economy. Unemployment rates were unrelated to mortality among females, lower educated men, and among any group during economic recovery (1997-2007). For most Finns, we found no consistent evidence of changes in mortality in response to contractions or expansions in the economy. Possible explanations include the weak impact of the recession on wages, as well as the generous unemployment insurance and social benefit system in Finland.
