scholarly journals Harmonisation and Between-Country Differences of the Lifetime of Experiences Questionnaire in Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin Ourry ◽  
Natalie L. Marchant ◽  
Ann-Katrin Schild ◽  
Nina Coll-Padros ◽  
Olga M. Klimecki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Cognitive Reserve ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
International Comparisons ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Promising Tool ◽  
Behavioural Determinants ◽  
Country Differences ◽  
The Life Course

Background: The Lifetime of Experiences Questionnaire (LEQ) assesses complex mental activity across the life-course and has been associated with brain and cognitive health. The different education systems and occupation classifications across countries represent a challenge for international comparisons. The objectives of this study were four-fold: to adapt and harmonise the LEQ across four European countries, assess its validity across countries, explore its association with brain and cognition and begin to investigate between-country differences in life-course mental activities.Method: The LEQ was administered to 359 cognitively unimpaired older adults (mean age and education: 71.2, 13.2 years) from IMAP and EU-funded Medit-Ageing projects. Education systems, classification of occupations and scoring guidelines were adapted to allow comparisons between France, Germany, Spain and United Kingdom. We assessed the LEQ's (i) concurrent validity with a similar instrument (cognitive activities questionnaire - CAQ) and its structural validity by testing the factors' structure across countries, (ii) we investigated its association with cognition and neuroimaging, and (iii) compared its scores between countries.Results: The LEQ showed moderate to strong positive associations with the CAQ and revealed a stable multidimensional structure across countries that was similar to the original LEQ. The LEQ was positively associated with global cognition. Between-country differences were observed in leisure activities across the life-course.Conclusions: The LEQ is a promising tool for assessing the multidimensional construct of cognitive reserve and can be used to measure socio-behavioural determinants of cognitive reserve in older adults across countries. Longitudinal studies are warranted to test further its clinical utility.

scholarly journals KEEPING THINGS, BUT ONLY FOR A WHILE

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S362-S363
Author(s):  
David J Ekerdt
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Museum Objects ◽  
Entire World ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Aging Adults ◽  
The Life Course

Abstract The life course is accomplished by material culture held as a convoy of possessions, but also sustained by public affordances and amenities that include the artifacts and artworks to be found in museums. In both places—household and museum—objects come and go, but there is mainly keeping. The difference lies in the capacity to keep things indefinitely: it is virtue for museums but a predicament for households of aging adults. Museums model ideals of permanence and responsibility toward things, ideals that, in the long run, households can only faintly attain. For older adults and for gerontologists, preservation is the wrong lesson to take away from the galleries. Rather, what we can learn there is how single, selected things can show, in a thoughtful way, an entire world of ideas and universe of meaning. No need to keep it all—and forever—but we can honor things while we can. ​

scholarly journals LEISURE, LONGITUDINALLY: PARTNER DISAGREEMENTS ABOUT LEISURE DECREASE OVER THE LIFE COURSE

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S694-S694
Author(s):  
Jill Juris Naar ◽  
Shelbie Turner
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Longitudinal Research ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Utility ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Couple Interactions

Abstract Leisure is a major context within which older couples interact, and researchers have recently called for more longitudinal data analysis exploring how leisure-related couple interactions change over the life course. Several waves of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study include a single-item question asking respondents how much they disagree with their spouse or partner about leisure activities. Given the longitudinal nature of MIDUS, the variable offers great utility to explore shifts in leisure-related couple interactions over the life course. Utilizing longitudinal data from Wave 1 (1995-1997), 2 (2004-2006), and 3 (2013-2015) of the MIDUS study, we explored how leisure-related partner disagreement changed with increased age (age range = 20-93). We first ran an unconditional multilevel model, which revealed that 68% of the variation in leisure-related spousal disagreement was attributed to within-person differences over time, justifying our analysis of longitudinal within-person change. An age-based growth curve model then revealed that leisure-related partner disagreements decreased linearly over the life course (Estimate = -0.01, SE = 0.001, p<.0001). Men reported more leisure-related partner disagreements than women at age 20 (p = 0.002). But men’s reported disagreements decreased over the life course at a faster rate than did women’s reported disagreements (p = 0.03), so that from ages 70-93, men reported less disagreements than women. To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study to explore leisure-related couple disagreements over an extended period of time (20 years). The significance of our results sheds light on the value of longitudinal research on leisure.

Sexy till I die: What applied theatre can offer in approaches to sexual health

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-375
Author(s):  
Leah Tidey
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Sexual Health ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Sexually Transmitted ◽  
The Social ◽  
Applied Theatre ◽  
The Life Course

Abstract For older adults in Canada, too often shame and silence describe their experiences of sexual health. With more citizens over the age of 65 than ever before and increasing rates of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) in older adults, we are facing a serious issue. Applied theatre offers an innovative approach to deconstructing social stigma in sexuality across the life course, whereby new understandings and perceptions may emerge for people of all ages. The usefulness, gaps and application of three different approaches to sexual health issues are examined to highlight innovations in addressing sexual health and critique ageist, sexist and heteronormative assumptions through a feminist, critical pedagogy lens. The analysis culminates in a proposed outline for an intergenerational, community-based theatre project to address the social stigma of sexuality across the life course entitled You're Doing What?! At Your Age?!

scholarly journals FAMILY-MEMBER LOSS AS A CUMULATIVE BURDEN FOR HEALTH AMONG BLACK AND WHITE OLDER ADULTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S604-S604
Author(s):  
Rachel Donnelly
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Family Member ◽  
Functional Limitations ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Cardiometabolic Health ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Family Loss ◽  
The Life Course

Abstract The health consequences of multiple family member deaths across the life course has received less attention in the bereavement literature. Moreover, recent research shows that black Americans are more likely than white Americans to lose multiple family members. I analyze longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (1992-2014) to assess how multiple family member losses across the life course are associated with declines in health among older adults. Findings suggest that multiple family losses prior to midlife are associated with a number of indicators of poor health (e.g., functional limitations, cardiometabolic health) and steeper declines in health as individuals age. Losses after midlife additionally undermine health declines for older adults. Thus, family member loss functions as a cumulative burden of stress across the life course that erodes health in mid- and later-life. Family loss disproportionately burdens black Americans and serves as a unique source of disadvantage for black families.

scholarly journals Transitions, generations andinformal learning in later life

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
John Field
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Demographic Change ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Identity Change ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
The Life Course

The nature of transitions across the lifecourse is changing, as are the ways in which these transitions are understoodand investigated by social scientists. Much earlier debate on older adults’ transitions has tended to be rooted in acco-unts of relatively fixed social roles and age-based social stages. However, while we can detect some tendencies towardsdestandardization and restandardization of the lifecourse in later life, we can also see significant continuities in theinfluences of socio-economic position, gender, and ethnicity, as well as of generational position, that continue to affectpeople’s life chances, as well as the expectations and experiences of transition of older people. The paper examines theinterplay of these complex and contradictory structural positions and cultural locations on transitions, and considersthe ways in which older people use and understand learning, formally and informally, as a way of exercising agencyand recreating meaning. It will draw on recent research into the life histories of adults in Scotland, a relatively smallcountry with a typically European pattern of demographic change. The study was concerned with agency, identity,change and learning across the life course, and this paper will concentrate on the evidence relating to experiences oftransition in later life. It will particularly focus on the idea of ‘educational generations’ as a key concept that helps usunderstand how adults use and interpret learning in later life.

scholarly journals The Crush: A Proto-Romantic Relationship Across the Life Course

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 283-283
Author(s):  
Joseph Kotarba ◽  
Amanda Couve
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Younger Women ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Fluid Process ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Developmental Phases

Abstract This presentation describes the “crush” experience as it occurs among older adults. A basic definition of a crush is a one-sided, proto-romantic relationship. The scholarly and commonsense understanding in American culture focuses on the crush as most commonly occurring during the developmental phases of adolescence and pre-adolescence. Symbolic interactionists view life course as a somewhat fluid process of adapting to changing situations in life. Experiences like the crush can potentially occur at almost any age at which romantic thoughts and feelings are possible. Our ethnographic research on older adults residing either in group facilities or in domiciliary locations indicates that crushes are fairly common. These crushes follow the same general narrative as crushes among younger people: a beginning, a middle and an end. There are two narrative styles among older adults: face-to-face and mediated. The crush in a group facility is encouraged by interaction during social hours, meals, entertainment, and religious/spiritual activities. Crushes are more observable among women who do not have to delve into their past for objects of their affection. Available paramours from the mass media include young celebrities such as Michael Buble and Josh Groban. These crushes differ from those among younger women in the denouement, to the degree affection generally fades away from memory rather than comes to a distinct end. Factors such as increased access to electronic media and music, and increased sociality in the community and in residential environments will create situations in which the security, excitement and rewards of a crush are plausible.

scholarly journals Residence in urban and rural areas over the life course and depression among Ghanaian and South African older adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 102349
Author(s):  
Dzifa Adjaye-Gbewonyo ◽  
George W. Rebok ◽  
Joseph J. Gallo ◽  
Alden L. Gross ◽  
Carol R. Underwood
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Course ◽  
South African ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas ◽  
The Life Course

scholarly journals INTEREST GROUP SESSION—MENTAL HEALTH PRACTICE AND AGING: INTEGRATION OF SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH IN DEFINING HEALTH BEHAVIORS AND OUTCOMES AMONG DIVERSE OLDER ADULTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S393-S393
Author(s):  
Jacquelyn Minahan ◽  
Tamara A Baker
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Social Determinants Of Health ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Chronic Illnesses ◽  
Community Context ◽  
Determinants Of Health ◽  
The Life Course

Abstract Social determinants of health (SDoH) are conditions in which individuals live, learn, work, and play. Specifically, they are influenced by the distribution of resources, money, and power, and have significant implications on health behaviors and outcomes across the life span. Existent data show the influence these indictors may have in the onset and progression of chronic illnesses. However, much of these data focus on the effect of race and health, as social determinants, but fail to adequately address the myriad other factors (e.g., health care, social and community context) that influence the social patterning across the life course. This symposium presents findings from several studies highlighting the nuanced role of SDoH across diverse populations of older adults. Scholars will present findings on the influence that identified determinants, such as social networks, lifestyle behaviors, and gender, have in defining health outcomes across the life course. Minahan presents the relationship between chronic illnesses and depression and compares depressive symptomatology according to disease cluster in a nationally-representative sample of older adults. Atakere discusses determinants of well-being among African American males with chronic illnesses and the challenges associated with this marginalized population. Booker examines spirituality as a mechanism for pain management among older African Americans and presents this as a crucial determinant of health. This symposium will expand on the existing body of literature by emphasizing social and cultural determinants, aside from race, that influence health behaviors and outcomes across the life span.

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