Background and Objectives In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a pandemic. Given that such a global event might affect day-to-day stress processes, the current study examined individuals’ daily stress reactivity and its moderators early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Research Design and Methods Two-level, multilevel models examined the daily relationship between perceived stress and negative affect, or stress reactivity, as well as the moderating effects of daily pandemic worry, age, and daily positive affect on this process. Participants included 349 individuals (Age Range = 26-89) from the Notre Dame Study of Health & Well-being (NDHWB) who completed a 28-day, daily diary study at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results Older individuals were less stress reactive than younger individuals. Within individuals, however, stress reactivity was buffered by daily positive affect, and exacerbated by daily pandemic worry. Finally, although daily positive affect buffered daily stress reactivity, this effect was weaker on days individuals were more worried about the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussion and Implications The mobilization of positive emotion may be a promising avenue for buffering stress reactivity during the COVID-19 pandemic, although this may be limited on days individuals are particularly concerned about the pandemic.
Individuals typically experience changes in physical health and cognitive ability across the life span. Although these constructs dynamically relate to one another, the temporal ordering of dynamic changes in physical health and cognitive ability is not well-established. Therefore, we examined the temporal ordering of the dynamic, bidirectional relationship between physical health and memory across ages 50 -87 with Bivariate Dual Change Score Models (BDCSM). Employing a model-comparison approach, we tested whether inclusion of specific directional coupling parameters resulted in a meaningful improvement in model fit, controlling for education, gender, and race. The current sample included 9,103 individuals who participated in Waves 4 -11 (1998Waves 4 -11 ( -2012 of the Health and Retirement Study. Results indicated that both memory and physical health declined across ages 50 -87. Furthermore, level of memory at a given time point was positively associated with subsequent change in physical health, meaning higher memory was linked to less decline in physical health by the subsequent time point. The opposite effect, namely physical health predicting memory, was much weaker. Age differences were also evident in the bidirectional coupling model, indicating that old-old individuals (i.e., ages 75-87) exhibited a much stronger coupling effect from memory to change in physical health than younger individuals (i.e., ages 50 -74). In conclusion, memory buffers decline in physical health across mid-tolater life, and this effect is especially strong at older ages.
On March 13th, 2020, the World Health Organization declared a novel coronavirus, COVID-19, a pandemic. Given the day-to-day behavioral changes necessitated by this global threat, the current study examined daily stress reactivity and its potential moderators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two-level, multilevel modeling was used to examine the daily relationship between perceived stress and negative affect, as well as the moderating effects of daily positive affect, average pandemic worry, and age, on this process. Participants included 349 individuals from the young adult, midlife, and later-life cohorts of the Notre Dame Study of Health & Well-being who completed a 28-day, daily diary study amidst the COVID-19 pandemic (NDHWB; Age Range = 26-89). Individuals were affectively reactive to perceived stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, experiencing higher negative affect on days of higher perceived stress. Regarding moderators, older individuals were less stress reactive than younger individuals, and the extent of individuals’ pandemic worry exacerbated their stress reactivity. Furthermore, daily positive affect buffered daily stress reactivity, regardless of pandemic worry and age. In sum, individuals who were younger or more worried about the pandemic tended to be more stress reactive than older or less worried individuals. Furthermore, daily positive affect buffered stress reactivity, and this buffering effect did not depend on age or the extent to which individuals were worried about the pandemic. Thus, mobilizing positive affect during the COVID-19 pandemic may be a promising avenue for intervention in daily stress processes.
Objectives Future time perspective (FTP), or the way individuals orient to and consider their futures, is fundamental to motivation and well-being across the life span. There is a relative paucity of studies, however, that explore its contributing factors in mid-to-later life, specifically. Therefore, uncovering which variables contribute to individual differences in FTP, as well as the ways these variables interact, is paramount to developing a strong understanding of this construct during this life-span stage. Method This study used three data mining techniques (ie, elastic net, decision tree, and tree ensemble analyses) to simultaneously test several potential contributors identified in the literature, including the five-factor personality domains, several health indices, and age. Results Personality, especially neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness, had the most influence on FTP. Age and health were not among the most salient FTP contributors in mid-to-later life. Furthermore, decision tree analyses uncovered interactive effects of personality; several profiles of neuroticism, extraversion, and/or conscientiousness were linked with differing FTP levels. Discussion Although the extant literature has indicated that FTP, age, and health are inextricably tied, these results indicate that there is more variability to be explained in FTP, perhaps especially when looking within specific age groups.
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