OLDER AND MORE MINDFUL? ASSOCIATIONS OF MINDFULNESS CHARACTERISTICS AND WELL-BEING VARY WITH AGE

Research examining how mindfulness confers benefits for well-being is in its infancy. Furthermore, few studies have considered the positive effects of mindfulness on psychological functioning from a lifespan perspective. The present study aimed to examine a recently proposed model of mindfulness and whether the importance of the proposed mechanisms for well-being varied as a function of age. A community-based sample of 623 participants aged between 18 and 86 years (M = 48.78, SD = 16.74) was recruited via an internet-based research platform. Participants completed questionnaire measures of mindful characteristics (i.e., present-moment attention, nonjudgment, interoception, acceptance, nonattachment, and decentering), flexible goal adjustment, and well-being. Parallel mediation analyses using bootstrapping showed that both present-moment attention and nonjudgment provided significant pathways to (a) well-being through acceptance, nonattachment, and decentering; and (b) flexible goal adjustment through nonattachment and decentering. Furthermore, most aspects of mindfulness were positively associated with age. Conditional process analyses revealed that the direct relationships between (1) present-moment attention and well-being, (2) nonjudgment and well-being, and (3) decentering and flexible goal adjustment were significant for adults from around age 40 and became stronger with increasing age. The findings provide preliminary support for a recently proposed model of mindfulness and suggest that present-moment attention, nonjudgment, and decentering may become especially important for well-being across the second half of life. In particular, these aspects of mindfulness may represent psychological qualities that require a relatively modest investment of physiological and cognitive resources and can be targeted in interventions designed to enhance well-being in later adulthood.

Tenacious Goal Pursuit, Flexible Goal Adjustment, and Life Satisfaction Among Chinese Older Adult Couples

We aimed to examine the roles of tenacious goal pursuit (TGP) and flexible goal adjustment (FGA), mediated by positive self-perceptions of aging (PSA), in Chinese older couples’ life satisfaction. Using a cross-sectional design, 245 Chinese older couples (age range: 55–93 years) completed measures of TGP, FGA, PSA, and life satisfaction. The results showed that (a) spousal interrelations existed for TGP and FGA; (b) TGP and FGA had significant actor effects on life satisfaction, with FGA having a stronger effect; (c) although the partner effect of FGA did not differ between husbands and wives, husbands’ TGP was positively associated with wives’ life satisfaction, but not vice versa; and (d) PSA mediated the effects of TGP and FGA on life satisfaction at the actor and partner levels. These results have implications for developing couple-based interventions to enhance successful aging, with a focus on promoting both partners’ accommodative coping and positive age beliefs.

Assimilative and Accommodative Coping and Older People’s Leisure Activities

Objectives: Assimilative and accommodative coping strategies have hardly been studied in relation to leisure activities in old age. We investigated whether tenacious goal pursuit (TGP) and flexible goal adjustment (FGA) influence the association between physical performance and participation in leisure activities. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted among 187 community-dwelling people aged 79 to 93 years. TGP, FGA, and leisure activity participation were asked with questionnaires. Physical performance was assessed with the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB). Results: TGP moderated the relationship between physical performance and leisure activity participation. Despite low physical performance, people with high TGP had close to mean level of leisure activity participation, whereas low TGP was associated with very little activity. Most notably, people without high TGP had fewer outdoor activities and group activities outside home. Similar effects were not found for FGA. Discussion: Persistency, rather than flexibility, in goal pursuit appears to help older people be active in their leisure time.

Spirituality, health and well-being in the elderly

Bailly et al. (2018) examined the trajectory of spirituality in a cohort of 567 non-institutionalized older adults living in Tours, France, during a period of five years. The measurements for spirituality (Daily Spiritual Experience Scale, DES), social support (Satisfaction with Social Support subscale of the Duke Social Support Index), and accommodative tendencies (Flexible Goal Adjustment) were longitudinally collected at three time points (2007, 2009, and 2012). The results of the study confirmed some expected observations, such as higher levels of spirituality among religious older adults when compared with the ones without religion, and older women reporting higher levels of spirituality than older men. But the most interesting finding was the observation that the measured levels of spirituality among older adults remained stable during this five-year period. Based on a growing number of studies and theories of aging suggesting that the levels of spirituality increases during a person's lifetime, one would expect an increase in the levels of spirituality along the study follow-up. The authors, however, interpreted the stable level of spirituality informed by the participants as having already reached a relatively high mean rating score of spirituality at baseline. From the beginning of the trail, many participants expressed self-contentment and reported having found meaning in their lives. Moreover, the responders had, in general, more years of education than expected for people in their age group, lived at home independently with a good self-health evaluation, had relatively fewer diseases, and a good perception of financial satisfaction; these characteristics perhaps make this group not representative of the French general population in the same age bracket.

Adaptación de las escalas “Tenacious Goal Pursuit and Flexible Goal Adjustment” y “Goal Disengagement and Goal Reengagement”

El objetivo de este estudio es realizar la adaptación y validación al castellano de las escalas “Tenacious Goal Pursuit and Flexible Goal Adjustment” y “Goal Disengagement and Goal Reengagement”. La muestra se compone de 681 estudiantes de la Facultad de Psicología de Málaga. El análisis factorial exploratorio muestra el mismo número de factores a seleccionar que las escalas originales, ratificado mediante análisis factorial confirmatorio. El alfa de Cronbach, la fiabilidad test-retest y las correlaciones entre escalas también son similares a las de los instrumentos originales. Se estudia la validez de criterio mediante correlaciones con medidas de afecto positivo y negativo y bienestar, con una muestra diferente de 201 estudiantes. Por todo ello, y a pesar de la limitación de que la muestra esté compuesta únicamente por universitarios, se considera si bien la adaptación muestra propiedades psicométricas aceptables, se debe seguir trabajando en su mejora.