Delineating Terminal Change in Subjective Well-Being and Subjective Health: Brief Report

Palgi, Yuval; Shrira, Amit; Ben–Ezra, Menachem; Spalter, Tal; Shmotkin, Dov; Kavé, Gitit

doi:10.1093/geronb/gbp095

Cited by 57 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The amount of variance accounted for was higher in the mortality-related model of self-esteem change at the end of life (.16; AIC = 17774) compared to the age-related model (.09; AIC = 17804). Such results concur with previous reports that time-to-death provides for a more efficient description of between-person differences in late-life change (Palgi, et al, 2010). In follow-up analyses, we also included both age and mortality into one combined growth-curve model.…”

Section: Self-esteem Late In Life: Age-and Mortality-related Change Tsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Evidence for precipitous proximate-to-death declines that are often considerably steeper than the typical age-related effects has primarily accumulated in cognitive ability domains (for overviews, see Bäckman & MacDonald, 2006;Berg, 1996;Small & Bäckman, 1999). However, there is an increasing body of research showing that many aspects of well-being also show steep end-of-life declines (Berg et al, 2011;Diehr et al, 2002;Mroczek & Spiro, 2005;Palgi et al, 2010). There is even initial evidence to suggest that terminal decline is a highly pervasive phenomenon that affects many different domains, including those often considered relatively stable across old and very old age (Gerstorf, Ram, et al, 2012).…”

Section: Self-esteem Trajectories At the End Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

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The Nature and Correlates of Self-Esteem Trajectories in Late Life

Wagner¹,

Gerstorf²,

Hoppmann³

et al. 2013

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Is it possible to maintain a positive perspective on the self into very old age? Empirical research so far is rather inconclusive with some studies reporting substantial self-esteem declines late in life, whereas others report relative stability into old age. In this report, we examine long-term change trajectories in self-esteem in old age and very old age and link them to key correlates in the health, cognitive, self-regulatory, and social domains. To do so, we estimate growth curve models over chronological age and time-to-death using 18-year longitudinal data from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (N = 1,215; age 65-103 at first occasion; M = 78.8 years, SD = 5.9, 45% women). Results revealed that self-esteem was, on average, fairly stable with minor declines only emerging in advanced ages and at the very end of life. Examining the vast between-person differences revealed that lower cognitive abilities and lower perceived control independently related to lower self-esteem. Also, lower cognitive abilities were associated with steeper age-related and mortality-related self-esteem decrements. In our discussion, we consider a variety of challenges that potentially shape selfesteem late in life and highlight the need for more mechanism-oriented research to better understand the pathways underlying stability and change in self-esteem.Word count: 204

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Section: Self-esteem Late In Life: Age-and Mortality-related Change Tsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Self-esteem Trajectories At the End Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

The Nature and Correlates of Self-Esteem Trajectories in Late Life

Wagner¹,

Gerstorf²,

Hoppmann³

et al. 2013

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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“…Moreover, these studies also introduced a new perspective by analysing life satisfaction not merely as a function of chronological age (= distance from birth), but also as a function of 'distance from death', which is a variable presumably related to mortality processes. Distance from death explained more variance of change in life satisfaction than did chronological age (see also Palgi et al, 2010). Analyses with distance from death as independent variable also revealed two different stages of change in life satisfaction: A phase of slight decline occurring in a larger temporal distance from death ('preterminal decline') and a phase of a much steeper decline (thus, at least by factor 2) about four years before death ('terminal decline').…”

Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 88%

Subjective Well-being in Older Adults: Current State and Gaps of Research

Ferring¹,

Boll²

2010

Ageing, Health and Pensions in Europe

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Subjective well being (SWB) refers to an evaluation of an individual's life from his or her own perspective. It contrasts sharply with evaluations made from the point of view of external observers (researchers or policymakers), which are based on objective criteria related to health, education, income or other aspects (Diener, 2006). Recently, prominent SWB researchers have argued forcefully in favour of supplementing traditional objective indicators of well being or quality of life (such as economic indicators) with indicators of SWB (thus, people's evaluations and feelings about their lives). This should provide the public and politicians with more complete and relevant information for public discussion and political decision-making (see Diener, Kesebir and Lucas, 2008). In our opinion, these arguments apply with equal measure to the quality of life and SWB of older adults. The following list is an overview of policy questions about these issues. The list comprises five sets of questions that will in part be answered in later sections of the chapter: The next section presents some answers to the policy questions on the basis of existing research, and highlights where further research is needed to give satisfactory answers. Major progress in understandingThis section is comprised of five subsections: the first three provide a conceptual clarification of the term SWB, followed by a discussion of measurement issues. Subsequently, weRegulation of Subjective Well being in Older Adults 4 highlight the structure of SWB and the theoretical status of the concept in causal networks.On the basis of these explanations, the fourth subsection presents the main findings on the developmental course, on the causes and consequences of SWB in older adults and on what relevant interventions might involve. This is followed by a fifth subsection discussing models of SWB regulation in older adults. Conceptual clarification and measurement issuesAs mentioned above, SWB refers to an evaluation of an individual's life from his or her own perspective, which contrasts with evaluations made from the point of view of external observers (including researchers and policymakers), which are based on objective criteria.Leading researchers agree that SWB has a cognitive component (namely, the evaluation of one's life) and an affective component (namely, the presence of positive-and absence of negative feelings) (Diener, 2006). This consensus is also shared by prominent researchers of SWB in late life (Diener and Suh, 1998;Ferring et al., 2004;Pinquart and Sörensen, 2000;Staudinger, 2000 Clark and Tellegen, 1988). Table 1 provides a classification of the SWB measures. Even though SWB has a cognitive and an affective component, the measurement in many existing studies has focused on just one of them-that is, life satisfaction (often global life satisfaction assessed by just one item) or positive/negative affect. A domain-specific measure of positive or negative affect has-to the best of our knowledge-not been realised yet, and this represents an ...

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“…In an attempt of identifying possible mechanisms in action for time-to-death-related changes in life satisfaction, Gerstorf et al found initial level of comorbidity to predict level of life satisfaction, but not change in life satisfaction related to death (Gerstorf et al 2008). In a recent study, Palgi et al confirmed these results in their study of terminal change in subjective well-being; the inclusion of gender, marital status, place of residence, cognitive function and diagnoses did not reduce the terminal change effects (Palgi et al 2010). Two limitations characterize these studies.…”

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confidence: 90%

Personality and personal control make a difference for life satisfaction in the oldest-old: findings in a longitudinal population-based study of individuals 80 and older

et al. 2011

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This study investigates life satisfaction in relation to impending death among the oldest-old using overall disease load, self-rated health, and personality as interacting covariates of level and change. We used data from a sample of 370 healthy individuals who completed the Life Satisfaction Index-Z at four measurement occasions during a 6-year period in the Swedish OCTO-Twin study of individuals aged 80 and older. Growth curve analyses showed a linear decrease in life satisfaction as individuals approached death. The decrease was not related to level or change in self-rated health and disease load. High disease load was, however, related to lower levels of life satisfaction, but, this association was moderated by locus of control, such that those with high disease load and high locus of control did not show lower life satisfaction. Poor self-rated health was also associated with lower life satisfaction, but, this association was moderated by neuroticism, such that those with poorrated health and low neuroticism did not show lower live satisfaction. Personality factors such as locus of control and neuroticism can influence the association between health and life satisfaction. The findings suggest further investigations of the role of personality characteristics in late life satisfaction and whether interventions aimed to increase personal control can improve life satisfaction in old age.The notion of lifelong stability of life satisfaction produced by a set-point equilibrium mechanism has been questioned in recent longitudinal studies of life satisfaction in the oldest-old. In a previous study we found a linear and largely homogenous decrease in life satisfaction across four measurement occasions during a 6-year period in individuals aged 80-98 (Berg et al.

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Delineating Terminal Change in Subjective Well-Being and Subjective Health: Brief Report

Cited by 57 publications

References 16 publications

The Nature and Correlates of Self-Esteem Trajectories in Late Life

The Nature and Correlates of Self-Esteem Trajectories in Late Life

Subjective Well-being in Older Adults: Current State and Gaps of Research

Personality and personal control make a difference for life satisfaction in the oldest-old: findings in a longitudinal population-based study of individuals 80 and older

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