Regret in Later Life: Exploring Relationships between Regret Frequency, Secondary Interpretive Control Beliefs, and Health in Older Individuals

Abstract

The present study examined what older people regret, and the relationships between regret, health and life satisfaction. The study also explored the role of secondary interpretive control beliefs in relation to regret. Participants (N= 228; 79-98 years old) were asked to report on the content and frequency of their regret, secondary interpretive control beliefs (e.g., beliefs in finding the "silver lining" in a dark cloud), health, and life satisfaction. A content analysis revealed that participants most commonly reported feeling regret due to things they had not done, the death of a loved one, and their own or others' health problems. Regression analyses indicated that experiencing regret more frequently was associated with poorer health and life satisfaction. Moreover, evidence for an emotion-modifying role of secondary interpretive control beliefs was shown through its negative association with regret. Results suggest that older adults may be experiencing age-related regrets that differ in content from those experienced at younger ages and that certain control beliefs may serve to lessen regret.

Striving for Positive Aging Among Chinese Older People: Effects of Life Stress and Control Beliefs in a Longitudinal Study

“…Research in Taiwan has also confirmed that maintaining control is pivotal to mental health and well-being in older age (Chen et al, 2013;Lu & Hsieh, 1997). However, compared with the unequivocal evidence of control beliefs being a predictor for favorable adjustment (i.e., main effect), the support for their wellbeing-modifying roles (e.g., moderating effect) is far less consistent (Holahan & Moos, 1991;Newall, Chipperfield, Daniels, Hladkyj, & Perry, 2009).…”

Secondary Control Belief Combinations (Adjustment and Acceptance) and Well-Being in Older Adults

“…Since 1982, empirical research has found Rothbaum et al's four separate types of secondary control and related constructs to relate to health and well-being (e.g., Affl eck, Tennen, Croog, & Levine, 1987 ;Grootenhuis & Last, 1997 ;Newall, Chipperfi eld, Daniels, Hladkyj, & Perry, 2009 ). That said, researchers have only started to consider the possibility suggested by Morling and Evered, that individuals might hold different combinations of secondary control beliefs simultaneously that could in turn relate to health and well-being.…”

“…Secondary control has been found to relate to many positive physical and psychological outcomes, such as adjustment to juvenile diabetes (Band & Weisz, 1990 ); children's adjustment to cancer-related medical procedures (Weisz, McCabe, & Dennig, 1994 ); lower levels of depression in adolescents with infl ammatory bowel disease (Szigethy et al, 2007 ); health and well-being in college students (Hall, Chipperfi eld, Perry, Ruthig, & Goetz, 2006 ); lower recurrence of heart attack, morbidity, depression, and greater life satisfaction in adult cardiac patients (Affl eck et al, 1987 ;Croog & Levine, 1982 ); less depression, anxiety, and distress in adult cancer patients (Carver, Pozo, Harris, & Noriega, 1993 ;Thompson, Collins, Newcomb, & Hunt, 1996 ); and less depression in HIV-positive adult men (Thompson, Nanni, & Levine, 1994 ). In older individuals, who may be even more likely to experience decreased health and well-being by virtue of age, secondary control and related constructs have more recently been linked to outcomes such as lower levels of depression, decreased feelings of regret, greater life satisfaction, positive emotion, fewer hospitalizations, shorter hospital stays, and survival in later life (Chipperfi eld et al, 2012 ;McQuillen, Licht, & Licht, 2003 ;Newall et al, 2009 ;Swift, Bailis, Chipperfi eld, Ruthig, & Newall, 2008 ).…”

A Study on the Effectiveness of Mourning through the 49 Day Funeral Ceremony : Focus on Middle-aged Women's Parental Bereavement

“…몇몇 연구자들은 상실로 인한 상처에 주목하면서 애도의 과정을 제대로 보내지 못할 경우, 심리적 어려움이 가중될 위험이 있으므로 애도의 과정을 조력할 필요가 있음을 강조하고 있다. 실제로, 가족과 사별한 중년 여성들 은 사별 이후 타인을 향한 미움이 상실의 슬픔보다 훨씬 더 강력하 게 드러났으며 (최승이, 2011), 이윤희․김지연(2016) (Newall, Chipperfield, Daniels, Hladkyj, & Perry, 2009…”