"What's yours is mine": Partners' everyday emotional experiences and cortisol in older adult couples.

The existing literature consistently finds that emotional experiences and cortisol secretion are linked at the within-person level. Further, relationship partners tend to covary in emotional experience, and in cortisol secretion. However, we are only beginning to understand whether and how an individuals' emotions are linked to their relationship partners' cortisol secretion. In this project, we harmonized data from three intensive measurement studies originating from Canada and Germany to investigate the daily dynamics of emotions and cortisol within 321 older adult couples (age range=56-87 years). Three-level multilevel models accounted for the nested structure of the data (repeated assessments within individuals within couples). Actor-Partner Interdependence Models were used to examine the effect of own emotional experiences (actor effects) and partner emotional experiences (partner effects) on momentary and daily cortisol secretion. Adjusting for age, sex, education, comorbidities, assay version, diurnal cortisol rhythm, time spent together, medication, and time-varying behaviors that may increase cortisol secretion, results suggest that higher relationship partner's positive emotions are linked with lower momentary cortisol and total daily cortisol. Further, this association was stronger for older participants and those who reported higher relationship satisfaction. We did not find within-couple links between negative emotions and cortisol. Overall, our results suggest that one's relationship partner's positive emotional experience may be a protective factor for their physiological responding, and that these more fleeting and day-to-day fluctuations may accumulate over time, contributing to overall relationship satisfaction.

The interpersonal benefits of goal adjustment capacities: the sample case of coping with poor sleep in couples.

Introduction: This study examined the role of goal adjustment capacities and coping in the association between spousal sleep efficiency and relationship satisfaction in romantic couples. Method: A community lifespan sample of 113 heterosexual couples (age range = 21-82 years) was recruited using newspaper advertisements in the Greater Montreal Area from June 2011 to December 2012. Participants completed study measures (i.e., Goal Adjustment Scale, Brief Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Relationship Assessment Scale, and the Brief Cope) at two time points, ~1 year apart. Results: The results of actor-partner interdependence models with moderation (MIXED procedure in SPSS) reveal that goal disengagement buffered people from worsening relationship satisfaction associated with poor spousal sleep [95% CI B (-1.17, -0.12)], in part via increases in actor active coping [95% CI B (-0.32, -0.02)] and decreases in partner self-blame [95% CI B (-0.28, -0.01)]. Goal reengagement was related to diminished relationship satisfaction in response to poor own sleep [95% CI B (0.59, 1.79)], in part through increases in actor behavioral disengagement [95% CI B (0.05, 0.41)]. Discussion: These findings point to a need for future studies to examine goal adjustment capacities and relationship-specific coping strategies as potential targets of intervention to maintain peoples' relationship satisfaction in the face of sleep problems.

Three facets of emotion regulation in old and very old age: Strategy use, effectiveness, and variability.

The ability to regulate emotions in stressful situations is an important building block for high well-being across the lifespan. Yet, very little is known about how old and very old adults regulate their emotions. In this study, 123 young old adults (Mage = 67.18, SD = 0.94) and 47 very old adults (Mage = 86.70, SD = 1.46) were prompted 6 times a day for 7 consecutive days to report both their stressors and 10 emotion regulation strategies. Overall, there was little indication of age differences in the use of emotion regulation strategies during exposure to stressors, but very old, as compared with young old, individuals used three of the 10 strategies considered here more intensively. The 10 emotion regulation strategies were similarly effective across age groups based on their association with perceived overall emotion regulation success. We also did not find age group differences in within-strategy variability, defined as the variation in using a given strategy across stressor situations. By contrast, between-strategy variability, defined as the selective use of fewer rather than many strategies across stressor situations, was lower for very old participants. Only between-strategy, and not within-strategy, variability contributed to overall emotion regulation success. There was no age group difference in this regard. Taken together, the evidence suggests small age differences in emotion regulation if at all. This is noteworthy given the advanced age of the very old subsample in this study and the deficits in multiple domains of functioning reported in the literature for this advanced age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Let's Enjoy an Evening on the Couch? A Daily Life Investigation of Shared Problematic Behaviors in Three Couple Studies.

Symptom-system fit theory proposes that problematic behaviors are maintained by the social system (e.g., the couple relationship) in which they occur because they help promote positive relationship functioning in the short-term. Across three daily life studies, we examined whether mixed-gender couples reported more positive relationship functioning on days in which they engaged in more shared problematic behaviors. In two studies (Study 1: 82 couples who smoke; Study 2: 117 couples who are inactive), days of more shared problematic behavior were accompanied by higher daily closeness and relationship satisfaction. A third study with 79 couples post-stroke investigating unhealthy eating failed to provide evidence for symptom-system fit. In exploratory lagged analyses, we found more support for prior-day problematic behavior being associated with next-day daily relationship functioning than vice-versa. Together, findings point to the importance of a systems perspective when studying interpersonal dynamics that might be involved in the maintenance of problematic behaviors.

Daily solitude and well-being associations in older dyads: Evidence from daily life assessments.

Older adults spend significant time by themselves, especially since COVID-19. Solitude has been associated with positive and negative outcomes. Partners need to balance social connectedness with time for one's own needs. This project examines how individual and partner solitude are associated with daily affect and relationship quality in dyads of older adults and a close other. One-hundred thirty-six older adults plus a close other rated their relationship quality and reported affect, solitude, and its characteristics (desired and bothersome) every evening for 10 days. Over and above overall associations, individual and partner effects emerged; when individual desired solitude was up, participants reported more positive affect and their partners less negative affect. When bothersome solitude was up, participants and their partners alike reported more negative affect and less positive affect. Desired solitude was associated with more support, whereas bothersome solitude was associated with less partner support. Findings provide further evidence on the potential benefits of solitude, highlighting the importance of considering the social context of what is often believed to be an individual-level phenomenon.

Age differences in the experience of everyday happiness: The role of thinking about the future.

Happiness can be experienced differently in young as compared to older adulthood, possibly due to shifts in temporal focus and differences in preferences for high- versus low-arousal affective states. The current project aimed to replicate initial evidence on age-related differences in the experience of happiness by investigating the positive affective correlates of everyday happiness; we further explored the role of thinking about the future in moderating such associations. We used daily life assessments from 257 participants (Mage = 48.3, SDage = 24.6; 68% female; 77% Asian [East Asian, South Asian, and Southeast Asian]; 73% postsecondary educated), combining four data sets collected at two locations (Vancouver, Canada; Hong Kong) with different age samples (older and younger adults). Participants provided up to 30 repeated daily life assessments of momentary affective states and thoughts about the future, over 10 days. Results replicate previous findings by showing that happiness was more strongly associated with low-arousal positive affect and more weakly associated with high-arousal positive affect among older compared to younger adults. Engagement in thinking about the future was higher among younger compared to older adults in general, but its role in moderating the association between happiness and positive affect varying in arousal levels was confounded by the age moderation. Separate analyses conducted for each age group indicate different roles of everyday thinking about the future in shaping happiness experiences for different age groups. Age and future thinking-related contours of happiness are discussed in the context of emotional aging theories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Daily Rumination-Affect Associations in Dyads During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Negative and repetitive self-oriented thinking (rumination) is associated with lower well-being and health. The social context of rumination remains underexplored and mostly centers on marital relationships. To embrace the diversity of older adult relationships, this study includes a range of different relationships (e.g., spouses, siblings, friends, etc.) and examines the role of rumination by close others on individual well-being during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. METHODS: Using daily diary data from 140 Canadian older adults (M = 72.21 years, standard deviation [SD] = 5.39, range: 63-87 years, 47% women, 71% university educated) and a close other of their choice (M = 59.95 years, SD = 16.54, range: 18-83 years, 78% women, 81% university educated), this project builds on past research examining daily life rumination dynamics from a dyadic perspective. For 10 days, both dyad members reported their daily rumination and affect quality in the evening. RESULTS: Multilevel models replicate past work showing that individual rumination was associated with higher negative affect (within-person: b = 0.27, p < .001, between-person: b = 0.57, p < .001) and lower positive affect (within-person: b = -0.18, p < .001, between-person: b = -0.29, p < .001). Importantly, we additionally observed that partner rumination was associated with higher negative affect (b = 0.03, p = .038) and lower positive affect (b = -0.04, p = .023), highlighting the social context of rumination. DISCUSSION: Findings illustrate the significance of rumination for the self and others and underline the merit of taking a dyadic perspective on what is typically viewed as an individual-level phenomenon.

Long-term aging trajectories of the accumulation of disease burden as predictors of daily affect dynamics and stressor reactivity.

Multiple-timescale studies provide new opportunities to examine how developmental processes that evolve at different cadences are intertwined. Developmental theories of emotion regulation suggest that the long-term, slowly evolving age-related accumulation of disease burden should shape short-term, faster evolving (daily) affective experiences. To empirically examine this proposition, we combined data from 123 old adults (65-69 years, 47% women) and 32 very old adults (85-88 years, 59% women) who provided 20 + year within-person longitudinal data on physician-rated morbidity and subsequently also completed repeated daily-life assessments of stress and affect six times a day over 7 consecutive days as they were going about their daily-life routines. Results from models that simultaneously articulate growth and intraindividual variability processes (in a dynamic structural equation modeling framework) revealed that individual differences in long-term aging trajectories of the accumulation of disease burden were indeed predictive of differences in three facets of affective dynamics that manifest in everyday life. In particular-over and above mean levels of disease burden-older adults whose disease burden had increased more over the past 20 years had higher base level of negative affect in their daily lives, more emotional reactivity to the experience of daily stressors, and more moment-to-moment fluctuations in negative affect that was unrelated to stressors (affective systemic noise). We highlight that developmental processes evolving over vastly different timescales are intertwined, and speculate how new knowledge about those relations can inform developmental theories of emotion regulation and daily-life functioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Daily Affect and Daily Prospective Memory in People after Stroke and Their Partners: The Moderating Role of Resting Heart Rate.

INTRODUCTION: Experimental research suggests that affect may influence prospective memory performance, but real-life evidence on affect-prospective memory associations is limited. Moreover, most studies have examined the valence dimension of affect in understanding the influence of affect on cognitive performance in daily life, with insufficient consideration of the arousal dimension. To maximize ecological validity, the current study examined the relationships between daily affect and daily prospective memory using repeated daily assessments and the role of resting heart rate on these relationships. We examined both valence and arousal of daily affect by categorizing affect into four dimensions: high-arousal positive affect, low-arousal positive affect, high-arousal negative affect, and low-arousal negative affect. METHOD: We examined existing data collected from community-dwelling couples, of which at least one partner had a stroke history. The analytic sample included 111 adults (Mage = 67.46 years, SD = 9.64; 50% women) who provided 1,274 days of data. Among the participants, 58 were living with the effects of a stroke and 53 were partners. Participants completed daily event-based prospective memory tasks (in morning and/or evening questionnaires), reported daily affect in the evening, and wore a wrist-based Fitbit device to monitor resting heart rate over 14 consecutive days. RESULTS: Results from multilevel models show that, within persons, elevated high-arousal negative affect was associated with worse daily prospective memory performance. In addition, lower resting heart rate attenuated the inverse association between high-arousal negative affect and lowered prospective memory performance. We did not find significant associations of high- or low-arousal positive affect and low-arousal negative affect with daily prospective memory. DISCUSSION: Our findings are in line with the resource allocation model and the cue-utilization hypothesis in that high-arousal negative affect is detrimental to daily prospective memory performance. Lower resting heart rate may buffer individuals' prospective memory performance from the influence of high-arousal negative affect. These findings are consistent with the neurovisceral integration model on heart-brain connections, highlighting the possibility that cardiovascular fitness may help maintain prospective memory into older adulthood.

Everyday Pain in Middle and Later Life: Associations with Daily and Momentary Present-Moment Awareness as One Key Facet of Mindfulness.

This study investigated everyday associations between one key facet of mindfulness (allocating attention to the present moment) and pain. In Study 1, 89 community-dwelling adults (33-88 years; Mage = 68.6) who had experienced a stroke provided 14 daily end-of-day present-moment awareness and pain ratings. In Study 2, 100 adults (50-85 years; Mage = 67.0 years) provided momentary present-moment awareness and pain ratings three times daily for 10 days. Multi-level models showed that higher trait present-moment awareness was linked with lower overall pain (both studies). In Study 1, participants reported less pain on days on which they indicated higher present-moment awareness. In Study 2, only individuals with no post-secondary education reported less pain in moments when they indicated higher present-moment awareness. Findings add to previous research using global retrospective pain measures by showing that present-moment awareness might correlate with reduced pain experiences, assessed close in time to when they occur.

In it Together: Relationship Transitions and Couple Concordance in Health and Well-Being.

Events that change the family system have the potential to impact couple dynamics such as concordance, that is, partner similarity in health and well-being. This project analyzes longitudinal data (≥ two decades) from both partners of up to 3,501 German and 1,842 Australian couples to investigate how couple concordance in life satisfaction, self-rated health, mental health, and physical health might change with transitioning to parenthood and an empty nest. Results revealed couple concordance in intercepts (averaged r = .52), linear trajectories (averaged r = .55), and wave-specific fluctuations around trajectories (averaged r = .21). Concordance in linear trajectories was stronger after transitions (averaged r = .81) than before transitions (averaged r = .43), whereas no systematic transition-related change in concordance of wave-specific fluctuations was found. Findings emphasize that shared transitions represent windows of change capable of sending couples onto mutual upward or downward trajectories in health and well-being.

Social Prescribing Outcomes for Trials (SPOT): Protocol for a modified Delphi study on core outcomes.

PURPOSE: This is a study protocol to co-create with knowledge users a core outcome set focused on middle-aged and older adults (40 years+) for use in social prescribing research. METHODS: We will follow the Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET) guide and use modified Delphi methods, including collating outcomes reported in social prescribing publications, online surveys, and discussion with our team to finalize the core outcome set. We intentionally center this work on people who deliver and receive social prescribing and include methods to evaluate collaboration. Our three-part process includes: (1) identifying published systematic reviews on social prescribing for adults to extract reported outcomes; and (2) up to three rounds of online surveys to rate the importance of outcomes for social prescribing. For this part, we will invite people (n = 240) who represent the population experienced in social prescribing, including researchers, members of social prescribing organizations, and people who receive social prescribing and their caregivers. Finally, we will (3) convene a virtual team meeting to discuss and rank the findings and finalize the core outcome set and our knowledge mobilization plan. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first study designed to use a modified Delphi method to co-create core outcomes for social prescribing. Development of a core outcome set contributes to improved knowledge synthesis via consistency in measures and terminology. We aim to develop guidance for future research, and specifically on the use of core outcomes for social prescribing at the person/patient, provider, program, and societal-level.

Bidirectional Links of Daily Sleep Quality and Duration With Pain and Self-rated Health in Older Adults' Daily Lives.

BACKGROUND: Sleep and health perceptions, such as self-ratings of pain and health are closely linked. However, the temporal ordering of such associations is not well understood, and it remains unclear whether sleep quality and sleep duration show similar or differential associations with health perceptions. METHODS: We used ecological momentary assessment data from 123 young-old (66-69 years, 47% women) and 47 old-old adults (84-90 years, 60% women). Across 7 consecutive days, participants reported their sleep quality and sleep duration each morning and rated their momentary pain and health 6 times per day. We applied dynamic structural equation models to examine bidirectional links of morning reports of sleep quality and duration with daily levels of self-rated pain and health. RESULTS: In line with the hypotheses, results showed that when participants reported better sleep quality than what is typical for them, they reported less pain and better self-rated health on the day that followed. Longer sleep duration was not linked with subsequent pain or self-rated health. On days when people rated their health as better than usual, they reported better sleep quality but not longer sleep duration the following night. These associations were not moderated by age, gender, or chronic pain. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that in old age, sleep quality is more relevant for health perceptions than sleep duration. Associations between sleep quality and self-rated health seem to be bidirectional; daily pain was linked to prior but not subsequent sleep quality.

Having time to oneself in times of extended togetherness: Solitude experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study investigated how time to oneself (solitude) is experienced under conditions of extended togetherness with household members during the pandemic. Both structural (living arrangements) and qualitative characteristics (relationship quality and conflict) were examined for their association with solitude desire and daily solitude-affect links. We expected that people living with others and those with more high-quality as well as those with more conflictual relationships would report better affect quality when experiencing solitude. A Canadian adult lifespan sample (N = 141; Mage = 38.43 years, SDage = 17.51; 81% female; 73% White; data collected from April to August 2020) provided information on household size and relationship characteristics and completed repeated daily life assessments of solitude desire, solitude, and affect. Findings show that living arrangements were not associated with an increased desire for solitude or better affect quality from solitude. Individuals reporting higher relationship quality and individuals reporting more conflict showed more favorable affect quality on days when they had time in solitude than individuals reporting lower quality relationships and lower conflict. Findings add to the growing solitude literature by delineating who seeks and benefits from solitude, and under what conditions.

Good night-good day? Bidirectional links of daily sleep quality with negative affect and stress reactivity in old age.

Bidirectional links between sleep quality and emotional experiences are complex and not yet well understood-especially in old age when substantial changes occur in sleep and emotional experiences. Because previous research rarely considered the role of stressors, we examine if older adults' sleep quality is directly associated with subsequent negative affect (NA) or more indirectly via affective reactivity to stressors. Specifically, we investigate whether and how older adults' sleep quality predicts negative affect and affective reactivity to stress on the following day, and vice versa. For seven consecutive days, 325 older adults (61-90 years, 49% women) reported their sleep quality each morning as well as momentary negative affect and stressful events multiple times a day. Results from multilevel structural equation models showed that after nights of lower sleep quality, older adults reported more negative affect, but not higher affective reactivity to stressors. In turn, after days with increased affective reactivity but not more negative affect, participants reported worse sleep quality. We discuss whether older adults are able to regulate the effects of low sleep quality, but have difficulties downregulating stress and its effects on sleep. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Momentary subjective age is associated with perceived and physiological stress in the daily lives of old and very old adults.

Subjective age, that is the age people feel in relation to their chronological age, can vary on a day-to-day and even momentary basis. Previous long-term and daily-diary studies have shown that elevated stress covaries with older subjective age. However, it is an open question whether such links can also be observed at the momentary level within a given day and go beyond self-reports of stress. Moving ahead, we investigated how two indicators of stress (self-reported: perceived stress; physiological: salivary cortisol) are associated with the age people feel on a momentary basis. We examined data from 118 older (Mage = 66.67 years) and 36 very old adults (Mage = 85.92 years) who reported their momentary subjective age and perceived stress and also provided saliva samples up to seven times a day over seven consecutive days. Dynamic structural equation models showed that both higher momentary perceived stress and higher cortisol levels preceding the measurement predicted an older momentary subjective age. In contrast, subjective age at the previous measurement did not predict subsequent stress. These effects were moderated by participant age group and grip strength, albeit not consistently. Our results corroborate and extend earlier findings that both self-reported and physiological stress are important explanatory variables for people's subjective age variation even on relatively short time scales and shed light on differential time-ordered dynamics between stress and subjective age in daily life. Findings also inform theoretical models of subjective age that highlight the importance of contextual, momentary influences on how old people feel and help better understand how biological and psychological processes are intertwined in later life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Having a Good Time Together: The Role of Companionship in Older Couples' Everyday Life.

INTRODUCTION: Companionship (i.e., enjoyable shared activities) is associated with higher emotional and relational well-being. However, the role of companionship for emotional well-being and relationship satisfaction in older couples' everyday life is not well understood. This article studies time-varying associations of companionship with emotional and relational well-being as older couples engage in their everyday life. METHODS: Participants provided three data points a day over 7 days using electronic surveys that were simultaneously completed by both partners. A total of 118 older heterosexual couples reported momentary companionship, positive and negative affect, and closeness. Data were analyzed using an intensive longitudinal dyadic score model. RESULTS: Couples with higher average companionship showed lower overall negative affect, more overall positive affect, and higher overall closeness. During moments of elevated momentary companionship, partners reported more positive affect, less negative affect, and higher closeness. Regarding between-couple partner differences, i.e., when the female partner's momentary companionship was higher on average than the male partner's momentary companionship, the female partner also showed less negative affect, more positive affect, and higher closeness than the male partner. During moments in which the female partner's momentary companionship was higher than the male partner's momentary companionship, the female partner showed less negative affect, more positive affect, and higher closeness than the male partner. DISCUSSION: Older couples show a consistent link between companionship and emotional well-being and closeness in everyday life emphasizing the importance of studying companionship in close relationships.

The differential roles of chronic and transient loneliness in daily prosocial behavior.

Loneliness is a recognized risk factor for morbidity and mortality across the adult life span including old age. Loneliness is a negative emotional experience that has been associated with social isolation, but loneliness may also be adaptive to the extent that it signals a need to socially reengage. To reconcile these seemingly contradictory findings, we unpack the timing of the underlying processes by distinguishing between transient and chronic loneliness in shaping prosocial behaviors. Using 10 days of electronic daily life assessments from 100 middle-aged and older adults (Mage = 67.0 years; 64.0% women), findings indicate that chronic loneliness moderates time-varying associations between transient loneliness and prosocial behavior. Simple slope results point to individual differences in daily loneliness-prosocial action associations. Specifically, adults high in chronic loneliness, but not those low in chronic loneliness, showed decreased prosocial behaviors on days with elevated transient loneliness. Findings suggest that chronic loneliness may elicit maladaptive responses to transient loneliness by hampering the use of opportunities to engage in prosocial behavior. Exploratory analyses point to fear of evaluation as a potential mechanism that is associated with increased loneliness and reduced prosocial behavior. Findings highlight the differential roles of transient and chronic loneliness in shaping prosocial activities in midlife and older adulthood, thereby providing a more nuanced picture as well as potential avenues for intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Determinants of implementing reablement into research or practice: A concept mapping study.

PURPOSE: Reablement is a health and social model of care gaining international prominence. It is included in some publicly funded healthcare systems in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden and other European countries. To advance reablement research and practice, we aimed to synthesize expert opinion on opportunities and challenges to delivering care with this model. METHODS: We invited authors of reablement publications and other experts from the field to take part in a three-step online concept mapping exercise: (i) brainstorming statements based on a focus prompt; followed by (ii) sorting and (iii) rating statements. We invited 63 participants, of whom 19 participants generated 114 statements. Two authors reviewed each statement independently then met three times to determine one main idea/statement and removed unrelated or duplicate ideas. The research team used concept mapping software and online and email discussion to generate clusters or groups of determinants. RESULTS: There were 58 statements for sorting and rating; 11 and 12 participants completed the sorting and rating steps, respectively. The five clusters were person and caregiver elements for participation; key reablement components for success; reablement content and delivery; organizational factors; and provider beliefs and training. Statements rated as both highly important and feasible to implement into practice were generally captured under the domains of goal setting and pursuit and person-centred care. CONCLUSION: These results generate hypotheses for future research and practice in reablement for older adults.