Contribution of stressful life events to gambling activity in older age

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Roser Granero ◽  
Susana Jiménez-Murcia ◽  
Fernando Fernández-Aranda ◽  
Amparo del Pino-Gutiérrez ◽  
Teresa Mena-Moreno ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Older Age ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
Diagnostic Tools ◽  
Violent Behaviour ◽  
Clinical Criteria

Abstract Older subjects are susceptible to develop gambling problems, and researchers have attempted to assess the mechanisms underlying the gambling profile in later life. The objective of this study was to identify the main stressful life events (SLE) across the lifespan which have discriminative capacity for detecting the presence of gambling disorder (GD) in older adults. Data from two independent samples of individuals aged 50+ were analysed: N = 47 patients seeking treatment at a Pathological Gambling Outpatient Unit and N = 361 participants recruited from the general population. Sexual problems (p < 0.001), exposure to domestic violent behaviour (p < 0.001), severe financial problems (p = 0.002), alcohol or drug-related problems (p = 0.004) and extramarital sex (p < 0.001) were related to a higher risk of GD, while getting married (p = 0.005), moving to a new home (p = 0.003) and moving to a new city (p = 0.006) decreased the likelihood of disordered gambling. The accumulated number of SLE was not a predictor of the presence of GD (p = 0.732), but patients who met clinical criteria for GD reported higher concurrence of SLE in time than control individuals (p < 0.001). Empirical research highlights the need to include older age groups in evidence-based policies for gambling prevention, because these individuals are at high risk of onset and/or progression of behavioural addiction-related problems such as GD. The results of this study may be useful for developing reliable screening/diagnostic tools and for planning effective early intervention programmes aimed to reduce the harm related to the onset and evolution of problem gambling in older adults.

scholarly journals COPING BEHAVIORS THAT INCREASE STRESS AMONG OLDER ADULTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S958-S958
Author(s):  
G Rainville ◽  
Alicia R Williams ◽  
Lona Choi-Allum
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
Coping Behaviors ◽  
Sample Analysis ◽  
Full Sample ◽  
Stress Buffering ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This study examined the efficacy of a series of 28 behaviors (e.g., comfort eating, attending worship services, getting a massage, etc.) in moderating the perception of stress among older adults. First, 28 individual behaviors were assessed to determine whether they buffered or exacerbated the impact of an objective stress measure (i.e., the count of stressful life events) on perceptions of stress (measured using Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale [PSS]). A full sample analysis used data from 1,000 randomly selected U.S. adults age 40 and older, but subsequent analyses explored coping behaviors for two age groups—those age 40 to 59 and those 60 and older. In the full sample analysis, multiple moderating conditions were noted including stress-buffering for worship service attendance, recreational shopping, and getting a massage. Also among the full 40+ sample, stress-exacerbation was noted for social media use and coping by “overreacting to things.” Factor analysis (employing a polychoric correlation matrix) reduced the 28 individual behaviors into 9 clusters comprised of related behaviors and representing a general coping approach. Looking within the age groups, significant stress-buffering was limited to those age 60 and older for two coping approaches—a “Self-Care and Travel” approach and an Inspirational approach (e.g., praying, attending church, etc.). For both age subgroups there was no coping approach, not even the hedonistic “blowing off steam” approach, that was found to exacerbate the impact of stressful life events on the perception of stress.

The Impact of Stressful Life Events and Social Support on Drinking among Older Adults: A General Population Survey

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen M. Jennison
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Prolonged Exposure ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
Stress Buffering ◽  
The Impact

This article is an analysis of stressful life events, the buffering hypothesis, and alcohol use in a national sample of 1,418 respondents 60 years of age and over. The results indicate that older adults who experience stressful losses are significantly more likely to drink excessively than those who have not experienced such losses or who have experienced them to a lesser extent. Increased drinking among older adults may therefore be a reaction to life circumstances in which alcohol represents an attempt to cope with traumatic loss, personal as well as within the kinship network. Supportive resources of spouse, family, friends, and church appear to have a stress-buffering effects that reduces the excessive-drinking response to life crisis. Data suggest, however, that older persons are vulnerable to the magnitude of losses experienced as they grow older and lose more of their family, friends, and peers. These stressors appear to seriously impact their drinking behavior and are not effectively buffered. Respondents report that drinking may increase during periods of prolonged exposure to emotionally depleting life change and loss, when supportive needs may exceed the capacities of personal and social support resources.

Stress and Diabetes Mellitus in Later Life

1995 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neal Krause
Keyword(s):  
Diabetes Mellitus ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Stress Measurement ◽  
Nationwide Survey ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Coping Resources ◽  
Recent Developments

Research indicates that there may be a link between stressful life events and the onset of diabetes mellitus. However, the wide majority of these studies have involved either children or adolescents. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between stress and diabetes with data provided by a recent nationwide survey of older adults. An effort is made to improve on previous work by coupling recent developments in stress measurement with the study of key coping resources (i.e., social support). Two main findings emerged from the analyses. First, stressors arising in social roles that are highly important to older adults are more strongly related to diabetes than events associated with roles that are less important. Second, social support buffers the deleterious effects of stressors in salient roles, but not life events emerging in roles that are valued less highly.

scholarly journals Polygenic risk, stressful life events and depressive symptoms in older adults: a polygenic score analysis

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (8) ◽  
pp. 1709-1720 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. L. Musliner ◽  
F. Seifuddin ◽  
J. A. Judy ◽  
M. Pirooznia ◽  
F. S. Goes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
Stressful Event ◽  
Polygenic Risk ◽  
Polygenic Scores

Background.Previous studies suggest that the relationship between genetic risk and depression may be moderated by stressful life events (SLEs). The goal of this study was to assess whether SLEs moderate the association between polygenic risk of major depressive disorder (MDD) and depressive symptoms in older adults.Method.We used logistic and negative binomial regressions to assess the associations between polygenic risk, SLEs and depressive symptoms in a sample of 8761 participants from the Health and Retirement Study. Polygenic scores were derived from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium genome-wide association study of MDD. SLEs were operationalized as a dichotomous variable indicating whether participants had experienced at least one stressful event during the previous 2 years. Depressive symptoms were measured using an eight-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale subscale and operationalized as both a dichotomous and a count variable.Results.The odds of reporting four or more depressive symptoms were over twice as high among individuals who experienced at least one SLE (odds ratio 2.19, 95% confidence interval 1.86–2.58). Polygenic scores were significantly associated with depressive symptoms (β= 0.21,p⩽ 0.0001), although the variance explained was modest (pseudor2= 0.0095). None of the interaction terms for polygenic scores and SLEs was statistically significant.Conclusions.Polygenic risk and SLEs are robust, independent predictors of depressive symptoms in older adults. Consistent with an additive model, we found no evidence that SLEs moderated the association between common variant polygenic risk and depressive symptoms.

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