Measuring Early Life Adversity across the Lifespan

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilana Berman ◽  
Katie A McLaughlin ◽  
Nim Tottenham ◽  
Kieth Godfrey ◽  
Teresa E. Seeman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Early Adversity ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Early Life Adversity ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
The Impact

Exposure to adversity in childhood is associated with elevations in numerous physical and mental health outcomes across the life-course. The biological embedding of early experience during periods of developmental plasticity is one pathway that contributes to these associations. While a rich literature documents associations between early adversity and key outcomes in childhood and early adulthood, little research investigates the impact of adversity on processes of health and wellbeing in later life. This lack of research impairs progress as the strong theoretical prediction of early embedding models is that the impact of early adversity will be observed throughout the lifespan, even into late life. Recently articulated dimensional models (e.g., McLaughlin et al., 2021) specify mechanistic pathways linking different dimensions of adversity to health and wellbeing outcomes later in life. While findings from existing studies testing these dimensions have provided promising preliminary support for these models, less agreement exists about how to measure the experiences that comprise each dimension. Here we review existing approaches to measuring two dimensions of adversity: threat and deprivation. We recommend specific measures for measuring these constructs and, when possible, document when the same measure can be used by different reporters and across the lifespan to maximize the utility with which these recommendations can be applied. Through this approach we hope to stimulate progress in understanding how particular dimensions of early adversity exposure contribute to outcomes in late life.

Autism Spectrum Disorders in Later Life

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ye In (Jane) Hwang ◽  
Kitty-Rose Foley ◽  
Samuel Arnold ◽  
Julian Trollor
Keyword(s):  
Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Biological Marker ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Autistic Adults

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or autism, is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is typically recognized and diagnosed in childhood. There is no established biological marker for autism; rather, the diagnosis is made based on observation of behavioral traits, including (a) persistent deficits in social interaction and communication, and (b) restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. Because autism is a spectrum disorder, autistic individuals are a highly heterogeneous group and differ widely in the presentation and severity of their symptoms. The established prevalence of ASD is approximately 1% of the population. Information about autism in adulthood is limited; most of the literature examines childhood and adolescence. While the term “later life” has traditionally been associated with those over the age of 65, a dire lack of understanding exists for those on the autism spectrum beyond early adulthood. Individuals remain on the spectrum into later life, though some mild improvements in symptoms are observed over time. Autistic adults experience high levels of physical and mental health comorbidities. Rates of participation in employment and education are also lower than that of the general population. Quality of life is reportedly poorer for autistic adults than for nonautistic peers, though this is not affected by age. More robust studies of the health, well-being, and needs of autistic adults are needed, especially qualitative investigations of adulthood and aging and longitudinal studies of development over the lifespan.

scholarly journals CONTINUITY OF CAREER OVER THE LIFE COURSE ON LIFE SATISFACTION AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS IN LATER LIFE

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S128-S129
Author(s):  
Melanie S Hill ◽  
James E Hill ◽  
Stephanie Richardson ◽  
Jessica Brown ◽  
Jeremy B Yorgason ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Career Choice ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Identity scholars have suggested that having a unified sense of past, present, and future is related to positive well-being outcomes (Whitbourne, Sneed & Skultety, 2009). One’s occupation can have a profound influence on an individual’s identity throughout the life course (Nazar & van der Heijden, 2012). Research has looked at career mobility among younger age groups (Baiyun, Ramkissoon, Greenwood, & Hoyte, 2018); however, less is known about the impact of career stability later in life. Consistency in career choice over the life course may have positive outcomes down the line as career becomes part of an individual's identity. The current study uses the Life and Family Legacies dataset, a longitudinal state-representative sample of 3,348, to examine individual’s careers at three points in the life course: high school (projected career choice), early adulthood, and later life. Results revealed that a match of desired career in high school and actual career in early adulthood was not predictive of life satisfaction or depressive symptoms in later life. However, a match of career in early adulthood and later life was significantly related to better life satisfaction and less depressive symptoms, which was explained through higher levels of job satisfaction. This study highlights the importance of acquiring and maintaining a career that is fulfilling to the individual over the course of early adulthood to later life.

scholarly journals Loneliness, cumulative inequality and social capital in later life: Two stories

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-217
Author(s):  
Robert Hagan ◽  
Roger Manktelow ◽  
Brian Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Bridging Social Capital ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
Cumulative Inequality ◽  
The Impact

The potential impact of cumulative inequality upon loneliness in later life is under-researched. This study applies Ferraro and Shippee’s axioms of cumulative inequality to the narratives of two Northern Irish older women, who completed semi-structured diary entries over a 16-week period, recording and reflecting on their social lives and their personal histories. The two women were subsequently interviewed on the basis of what they had recorded. These stories reveal how the life trajectories of these two individuals are influenced by the different experiential impact of bonding and bridging social capital. Despite similar life experiences, significant and substantial differences emerged in the women’s stories, relating to work life, social class, the restrictions of a caring role, and physical and mental health. These two narratives not only provide evidence of the impact of cumulative inequality on loneliness but also highlight the lifetime impact of socio-economic status and access to capital affecting older women’s vulnerability to loneliness.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and loneliness: A rapid systematic review

2021 ◽  
pp. 000486742110314
Author(s):  
Nagesh Pai ◽  
Shae-Leigh Vella
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Inclusion Criteria ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
General Adult Population ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
The Impact

Background: Loneliness is known to be associated with both poorer physical and mental health, being associated with increased mortality. Responses throughout the world to the current COVID-19 pandemic all incorporate varying degrees of social distancing and isolation. There is an imperative to provide a timely review and synthesis of the impact of COVID-19 on loneliness in the general population. Methods: PubMed was searched using the key terms ‘COVID-19’, ‘coronavirus’, ‘SARS-COV2’ and ‘loneliness’. Fifty-four articles were identified and screened against the inclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria stipulated that the study needed to incorporate a measure of loneliness with participants being drawn from the general adult population. Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria. Results: The key data extracted from the 24 reviewed studies are presented and summarised with a focus on key demographics of participants, the research designs utilised, the measures of loneliness employed and the other variables assessed in the studies. Overall, the findings indicate that loneliness has been a significant issue during the current COVID-19 pandemic and loneliness is positively associated with mental health symptoms. However, there were inconsistencies in the results evident across studies. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review of research investigating loneliness during the current COVID-19 pandemic in the general adult population. Despite the inconsistencies evident in some of the results across the studies, it is clearly apparent that loneliness is having an impact on the mental health and wellbeing of the general adult population. Furthermore, it is apparent that the current COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on loneliness in the general adult population and that loneliness is significantly positively associated with mental illness symptomatology. Thus, there is an imperative to address loneliness through public policy and interventions. The limitations of this review are noted and directions given for future research.

scholarly journals Building Evidence for the Impact of Older Adult Learning on Active Ageing

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Marvin Formosa
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learning ◽  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Older Adult ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
The Social ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

Lifelong learning constitutes one of the pillars of active ageing on the basis that learning reinforces wellbeing and enables older people to stay healthy and engaged in society. This paper reports on a pretest-posttest study carried out at the University of the Third Age in Malta that measured the impact of late-life learning on levels of active ageing. The findings demonstrated that participation in older adult learning has a strong positive impact on the participants’ levels of active ageing and constitutes a resilient source of social capital in later life, and that people who presumably have had positive early experiences of education are more motivated to engage in late-life learning. The paper concludes that lifelong learning in later life acts as a possible mitigation to the social isolation, cognitive impairment, and age discrimination that people tend to experience in later life.

scholarly journals The Impacts Of Socio-Economic Challenge On Long-Term Physical and Mental Health In Retirement Age

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 1057-1058
Author(s):  
Ilan Kwon ◽  
Sojung Park ◽  
BoRin Kim ◽  
ByeongJu Ryu
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Latent Class Analysis ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Class Analysis ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Term Care ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Despite consistent evidence on the negative effect of social and economic challenges on health, little is known about the pattern of economic difficulties people experience and the impact of those challenging patterns on long-term health in later life. This study used the national data, Mid Life in the United States (MIDUS 3 in 2013-2014), to identify the different patterns of socio-economic challenges that older Americans (50-64 ages old) experienced during the Recession in 2008 and to examine the impact of past challenging experiences on physical and mental health in their later life. Socio-economic challenges included twenty-six items such as losing or moving a job, missing rent, selling or losing a home, bankruptcy, having debts, and cutting spending. We conducted the latent class analysis and regression while controlling other social determinant factors (e.g., education, employment status, poverty, etc.). The latent class analysis result found five patterns during the Recession: people who experienced various difficulties during the Recession, who moved their jobs, who experienced financial difficulties, who bought a home with decreased debts, and who experienced no difficulty. Compared to people with no challenging experience, those who needed to move their jobs but could make debt off during the Recession reported physically healthier, but not mentally healthier in later life. Interestingly, among this group, women reported more long-term physical health problems than men. The findings suggest the close connection between physical and mental health and the importance of long-term care for mental health among older adults in recovering from socio-economic challenges.

Attitudes towards ageing and their impact on health and wellbeing in later life: an agenda for further analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 214-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Social Care ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Psychosocial Interventions ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Service Development ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a high-level overview of a substantial body of research on the impact that negative attitudes towards ageing have on the health and wellbeing outcomes of people in later life and to highlight the need for a more interdisciplinary approach towards older people’s wellbeing. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws from an initial analysis of over 70 peers reviewed and published studies on the psychosocial impact of negative stereotypes about ageing. Findings There is overwhelming evidence that the way in which people think about ageing can have a very significant adverse impact on a wide array of health and wellbeing outcomes. This research evidence is largely unknown, nor operationalised, within the field of health and social care policy or service development. Practical implications The fact that beliefs and attitudes can have such a profound impact on health and wellbeing outcomes suggests the possibility of psychosocial interventions to address them in order to improve older people’s experience of later life. There is a need for a much more interdisciplinary research agenda to take these findings forward. Social implications The evidence suggests the need for a much more rigorous and comprehensive approach to addressing the effects of socially constructed ageist attitudes. Originality/value Whilst the research itself is not new, the originality of this paper is its attempt to bring data from a different discipline into the health and social care ambit and thereby extend the knowledge base and create the possible conditions for the development and application of new psychosocial interventions to improve the lives of older people.

The impact of retirement on physical, mental health and wellbeing

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
A Odone ◽  
B Frascella ◽  
G Vigezzi ◽  
G Gaetti ◽  
V Gianfredi
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Population Ageing ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Relevant Evidence ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Population ageing presents both challenges and opportunities for societies around the world. Increasing statutory retirement age and limiting exits to early retirement are frequent policy responses to population ageing, but this is unlikely to have the desired impact if the complex relationships that link work, retirement and health remains unknown. In this context, we designed and are currently conducting the multi-partner project on pension reforms and spatial-temporal patterns in healthy ageing, funded by Fondazione Cariplo. The project involves a multi-disciplinary research team from University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Bocconi University and the Unit of Epidemiology of the Regional Health Service of ASL TO3. In this first presentation we will first describe the project design, its general aim and specific objectives, then we will present a proposed conceptual framework on the association between retirement and health and its determinants. The framework is the first deliverable of the project and is the results of a comprehensive review of the available evidence and consultation with experts in the field. In particular we conducted a scoping review to retrieve, pool and critically appraise the relevant evidence on the impact of retirement and transition to retirement on physical and mental health and their determinants. We summarized the evidence collected in a conceptual framework that attempt to quantify how health and retirement are bi-directionally linked, how health is central to the timing of retirement, how labor-associated determinants condition employment cessation, how and retirement have varying effects on risk factors for physical and mental health and the role of confounding factors and mediators. Towards the end of the presentation we will outline an extensive stakeholder mapping carried out for the purposes of the project at the national and European level

scholarly journals MOBILITY AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN OLDER ADULTS: OBSERVATIONAL AND INTERVENTION RESEARCH

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S429-S430
Author(s):  
Patricia M Bamonti ◽  
Jonathan Bean
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Intervention Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
National Guidelines ◽  
Mobility Disability ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Mobility disability is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality in late life. Physical activity [PA] is a modifiable behavior that can reduce mobility disability, as well as improve physical and mental health outcomes in older adults. However, only a minority of older adults meet the minimum PA requirements based on national guidelines. Research examining factors impacting PA and mobility in late life, as well as novel interventions to increase PA and improve mobility is essential to enhancing health and wellbeing. This symposium will provide an overview of observational and intervention research focused on understanding factors associated with PA and mobility, as well as intervention research designed to increase PA and improve mobility in older adults. First, Dr. Lien Quach will present research examining the impact of social engagement in reducing the risk of mobility decline among older adults with mild cognitive impairment. Second, Dr. Patricia Bamonti will examine psychological factors related to uptake and adherence of pulmonary rehabilitation in older Veterans. Third, Dr. Stephanie Robinson will explore engagement, feasibility, acceptability, and change in PA following a web-based intervention in middle-aged and older adult patients with COPD. Fourth, Dr. Elisa Ogawa will present research examining the feasibility and acceptability of an exergaming intervention compared to an exercise control condition among older adults at risk for falls. The symposium will conclude with discussion led by Jonathan Bean, MD, MPH, who will highlight implications of findings across studies and identify areas for future research.

scholarly journals LINKING FAMILY TRANSITIONS AND LATER-LIFE DEPRESSION: DOES LIFE-COURSE SOCIOECONOMIC STANDING MATTER?

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S576-S577
Author(s):  
Claudia Recksiedler ◽  
Boris Cheval ◽  
Stefan Sieber ◽  
Robert S Stawski ◽  
Stephane Cullati
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Single Women ◽  
Family Transitions ◽  
Early Life Adversity ◽  
Marital Transitions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Research documented the impact of marital transitions—particularly marital loss—on depression in old age, yet its severity depends multiple factors. Individuals’ capability to cope with transitions depends on available resources and previous exposure to stressors, such as early-life adversity, which buffers or aggravates the impact of marital transitions on later-life depression. Although studies documented the pivotal link between early-life adversity and negative health trajectories, our study is the first attempt to examine whether early-life adversity influences the relationship between prospectively-tracked, later-life marital transitions and depression. We drew data from SHARE, which samples individuals aged 50+ across Europe (N = 13,258; 2004-2016). Using multilevel linear models, we found that women who became widowed had higher levels of depression compared to coupled and single women, but experienced lower increases in depression over time. After adjusting for early-life and adulthood SES, losing a partner remained significantly associated with depression. Life-course SES was associated with levels of depression, yet interactions between marital transitions and SES were not, with some exceptions: single women who reported difficulties in their ability to make ends meet experience higher increases of depression over time. Overall, results were similar for men. Interactions between family transitions and SES were again not significant, with a few exceptions for single men: those born in more childhood conditions, and those with high education, had lower levels of depression. We interpret and discuss our findings through the lens of life-course and stress-resiliency perspectives and in light of changing family dynamics for this age group.

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