Do We Become More Lonely With Age? A Coordinated Data Analysis of Nine Longitudinal Studies.

Loneliness is a pervasive experience with adverse impacts on health and well-being. Despite its significance, notable gaps impede a full understanding of how loneliness changes across the adult life span and what factors influence these changes. To address this, we conducted a coordinated data analysis of nine longitudinal studies encompassing 128,118 participants ages 13 to 103 from over 20 countries. Using harmonized variables and models, we examined loneliness trajectories and predictors. Analyses revealed that loneliness follows a U-shaped curve, decreasing from young adulthood to midlife and increasing in older adulthood. These patterns were consistent across studies. Several baseline factors (i.e., sex, marital status, physical function, education) were linked to loneliness levels, but few moderated the loneliness trajectories. These findings highlight the dynamic nature of loneliness and underscore the need for targeted interventions to reduce social disparities throughout adulthood.

Psychological Resilience: An Affect-Regulation Framework.

Exposure to adversity (e.g., poverty, bereavement) is a robust predictor of disruptions in psychological functioning. However, people vary greatly in their responses to adversity; some experience severe long-term disruptions, others experience minimal disruptions or even improvements. We refer to the latter outcomes-faring better than expected given adversity-as psychological resilience. Understanding what processes explain resilience has critical theoretical and practical implications. Yet, psychology's understanding of resilience is incomplete, for two reasons: (a) We lack conceptual clarity, and (b) two major approaches to resilience-the stress and coping approach and the emotion and emotion-regulation approach-have limitations and are relatively isolated from one another. To address these two obstacles,we first discuss conceptual questions about resilience. Next, we offer an integrative affect-regulation framework that capitalizes on complementary strengths of both approaches. This framework advances our understanding of resilience by integrating existing findings, highlighting gaps in knowledge, and guiding future research.

Rural-urban differences in personality traits and well-being in adulthood.

OBJECTIVE: One large focus of personality psychology is to understand the biopsychosocial factors responsible for adult personality development and well-being change. However, little is known about how macro-level contextual factors, such as rurality-urbanicity, are related to personality development and well-being change. METHOD: The present study uses data from two large longitudinal studies of U.S. Americans (MIDUS, HRS) to examine whether there are rural-urban differences in levels and changes in the Big Five personality traits and well-being (i.e., psychological well-being, and life satisfaction) in adulthood. RESULTS: Multilevel models showed that Americans who lived in more rural areas tended to have lower levels of openness, conscientiousness, and psychological well-being, and higher levels of neuroticism. With the exception of psychological well-being (which replicated across MIDUS and HRS), rural-urban differences in personality traits were only evident in the HRS sample. The effect of neuroticism was fully robust to the inclusion of socio-demographic and social network covariates, but other effects were partially robust (i.e., conscientiousness and openness) or were not robust at all (i.e., psychological well-being). In both samples, there were no rural-urban differences in Big Five or well-being change. CONCLUSIONS: We discuss the implications of these findings for personality and rural health research.

Well-Being and Cognitive Resilience to Dementia-Related Neuropathology.

Not all older adults with dementia-related neuropathology in their brains experience cognitive decline or impairment. Instead, some people maintain relatively normal cognitive functioning despite neuropathologic burden, a phenomenon called cognitive resilience. Using a longitudinal, epidemiological, clinical-pathologic cohort study of older adults in the United States (N = 348), the present research investigated associations between well-being and cognitive resilience. Consistent with preregistered hypotheses, results showed that higher eudaimonic well-being (measured via the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale) and higher hedonic well-being (measured via the Satisfaction with Life Scale) were associated with better-than-expected cognitive functioning relative to one's neuropathological burden (i.e., beta-amyloid, neurofibrillary tangles, Lewy bodies, vascular pathologies, hippocampal sclerosis, and TDP-43). The association of eudaimonic well-being in particular was present above and beyond known cognitive resilience factors (i.e., socioeconomic status, education, cognitive activity, low neuroticism, low depression) and dementia risk factors (i.e., apolipoprotein E [ApoE] genotype, medical comorbidities). This research highlights the importance of considering eudaimonic well-being in efforts to prevent dementia.

The Health Behavior Model of Personality in the Context of a Public Health Crisis.

OBJECTIVE: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended behavioral measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, such as social distancing and wearing masks. Although many individuals comply with these recommendations, compliance has been far from universal. Identifying predictors of compliance is crucial for improving health behavior messaging and thereby reducing disease spread and fatalities. METHODS: We report preregistered analyses from a longitudinal study that investigated personality predictors of compliance with behavioral recommendations in diverse US adults across five waves from March to August 2020 (n = 596) and cross-sectionally in August 2020 (n = 405). RESULTS: Agreeableness-characterized by compassion-was the most consistent predictor of compliance, above and beyond other traits, and sociodemographic predictors (sample A, ß = 0.25; sample B, ß = 0.12). The effect of agreeableness was robust across two diverse samples and sensitivity analyses. In addition, openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion were also associated with greater compliance, but effects were less consistent across sensitivity analyses and were smaller in sample A. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals who are less agreeable are at higher risk for noncompliance with behavioral mandates, suggesting that health messaging can be meaningfully improved with approaches that address these individuals in particular. These findings highlight the strong theoretical and practical utility of testing long-standing psychological theories during real-world crises.

Coping With Health Threats: The Costs and Benefits of Managing Emotions.

How people respond to health threats can influence their own health and, when people are facing communal risks, even their community's health. We propose that people commonly respond to health threats by managing their emotions with cognitive strategies such as reappraisal, which can reduce fear and protect mental health. However, because fear can also motivate health behaviors, reducing fear may also jeopardize health behaviors. In two diverse U.S. samples (N = 1,241) tracked across 3 months, sequential and cross-lagged panel mediation models indicated that reappraisal predicted lower fear about an ongoing health threat (COVID-19) and, in turn, better mental health but fewer recommended physical health behaviors. This trade-off was not inevitable, however: The use of reappraisal to increase socially oriented positive emotions predicted better mental health without jeopardizing physical health behaviors. Examining the costs and benefits of how people cope with health threats is essential for promoting better health outcomes for individuals and communities.

Being Happy and Becoming Happier as Independent Predictors of Physical Health and Mortality.

OBJECTIVE: The present study tested preregistered predictions regarding the prospective associations between level and change in subjective well-being (SWB) and physical health. METHODS: In two large longitudinal panel studies conducted in the United States (N = 3294) and Japan (N = 657), we used multilevel growth curve models to estimate level and change in components of SWB (i.e., life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect). Next, we used random intercepts and slopes to predict subsequent self-reported general health and number of chronic health conditions (in the United States and Japan) and mortality risk (in the United States). RESULTS: Greater life satisfaction, higher positive affect, and lower negative affect were associated with better health (0.22 < |ß values| < 0.46) and longer survival. Above and beyond SWB level, longitudinal increases in life satisfaction and positive affect and longitudinal decreases in negative affect were associated with better health (0.06 < |ß values| < 0.20). Moreover, all three SWB components independently predicted health, and life satisfaction and negative affect independently predicted survival. The preregistration and analysis scripts are available at osf.io/mz9gy. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that being happy and becoming happier across time are independently associated with better physical health in the United States and Japan.

Depressive symptoms and deficits in stress-reactive negative, positive, and within-emotion-category differentiation: A daily diary study.

OBJECTIVE: The present research aimed to better understand deficits in emotion differentiation that accompany depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms have been associated with more undifferentiated negative emotion experiences-experiencing multiple negative emotions simultaneously. We extend previous research by asking: (a) Are depressive symptoms and negative and positive emotion differentiation related above and beyond emotion intensity? (b) Are deficits in negative emotion differentiation specific to distinct categories of negative emotions (sadness, guilt, anger, and anxiety)? and (c) Do age or gender predict emotion differentiation or its associations with depressive symptoms? METHOD: In 220 community participants (59% female; 21-60 years), we assessed depressive symptoms using surveys and emotion differentiation using daily diary emotion ratings in response to daily stressful events. RESULTS: Greater depressive symptoms were associated with lower negative, but not positive, emotion differentiation, above and beyond emotion intensity. Depressive symptoms were specifically related to lower differentiation among sadness-related emotions, and this sadness-specific deficit accounted for the deficit in negative emotion differentiation. Age and gender did not predict or moderate associations with emotion differentiation. CONCLUSION: Depressive symptoms are associated with undifferentiated negative emotions above and beyond emotion intensity, and this association appears to be driven by undifferentiated sadness-related emotions, across gender and age.

Personality Trait Change Across a Major Global Stressor.

The current research examined three related questions in a 21-month longitudinal study of a diverse sample of U.S. participants (N = 504): (a) How did Big Five traits change during the COVID-19 pandemic? (b) What factors were associated with individual differences in trait change? and (c) How was Big Five trait change associated with downstream well-being, mental health, and physical health? On average, across the 21-month study period, conscientiousness increased slightly, and extraversion decreased slightly. Individual trajectories varied around these average trajectories, and although few factors predicted these individual differences, greater increases in conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness, and greater decreases in neuroticism were associated better well-being and fewer mental and physical health symptoms. The present research provides evidence that traits can change in the context of a major global stressor and that socially desirable patterns of trait change are associated with better health.

Perceptions of a good life: Associations with culture, age, wellbeing, and health.

What does a good life look like? The present research investigated individual differences in people's perceptions of the factors that are most important for living a good life using two waves of data in probability samples from the U.S. (MIDUS; N = 4,041) and Japan (MIDJA; N = 381). We examined country- and age-related similarities and differences in perceptions of a good life and associations of perceptions of a good life with experiences of wellbeing and physical health. Some factors were considered important for living a good life in both countries and across age (e.g., positive relationships with family), whereas other factors varied between countries (e.g., U.S. participants were more likely to perceive faith as important) and by age (e.g., younger adults were more likely to perceive having a good job as important). Further, perceptions of a good life were related to experiences of wellbeing and physical health concurrently and prospectively. This research informs our understanding of how people differ from one another in their perceptions of a good life, and how these differences may matter for individuals' experiences of a good life.

Valuing versus having: The contrary roles of valuing and having money and prestige on well-being.

Using data from Midlife in the United States (N=3,767), this study investigates how believing having money or occupational prestige is important for a good life is associated with different aspects of well-being. Actual income was positively associated with sense of purpose, personal growth, self-acceptance, environmental mastery, and life satisfaction, negatively associated with negative affect, and was not associated with autonomy, positive relations with others, or positive affect. Meanwhile, perceiving having enough money or extra money as important for a good life predicted poorer well-being across all nine well-being indicators. Occupational prestige was positively associated with sense of purpose, autonomy, personal growth, self-acceptance, environmental mastery, and life satisfaction, while perceiving having occupational prestige as important was negatively associated with autonomy, personal growth, self-acceptance, positive relations with others, and positively with negative affect. The discussion focuses on how desiring money or prestige can influence well-being beyond having-or not having-those desires.

Longitudinal associations among the Big Five personality traits and healthcare utilization in the U.S.

OBJECTIVE: One critical component of individual and public health is healthcare utilization, or the extent to which individuals have routine check-ups, schedule treatments, or use emergency services. However, we know little about who uses healthcare services and what types, the conditions that exacerbate utilization, or the factors that explain why people seek out services. The present study fills these gaps in the literature by investigating the role of personality factors in predicting various forms of healthcare utilization, how these associations vary by age, socioeconomic resources, and chronic conditions, as well as one potential psychological mediating mechanism (i.e., sense of control). METHODS: We use data from a large longitudinal sample of Americans (N = 7108), with three assessments spanning 20 years. Participants reported on their Big Five personality traits using the Midlife Development Inventory, healthcare utilization across three domains (routine visits, scheduled treatment, urgent care), age, income, insurance, chronic conditions, and sense of control. RESULTS: Multilevel models showed that people who were more agreeable and neurotic tended to use more healthcare services. Moreover, on occasions when people were more extraverted and open, they tended to use more healthcare services. There were several nuances in personality-healthcare utilization associations depending on the type of healthcare service, age, and socioeconomic resources. Longitudinal mediation analyses demonstrated sense of control as one mechanism linking personality traits to healthcare utilization in the U.S. CONCLUSIONS: We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of interactions between individuals and structural systems for promoting the health of aging U.S. Americans.

A Longitudinal Investigation of the Association Between Stroke and Loneliness.

OBJECTIVES: The present research examined associations between stroke and long-term trajectories of loneliness. METHODS: We conducted secondary analyses in 3 large representative panel studies of adults 50 years and older in the United States, Europe, and Israel: the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA; analytic N = 14,992); the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE; analytic N = 103,782); and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; analytic N = 22,179). Within each sample, we used discontinuous growth curve modeling to estimate loneliness trajectories across adulthood and the impact of stroke on loneliness trajectories. RESULTS: Across all 3 samples, participants who experienced stroke reported higher levels of loneliness relative to participants who did not experience stroke. In ELSA and HRS (but not SHARE), loneliness levels were higher after stroke onset relative to before stroke onset. DISCUSSION: This research adds to a growing body of evidence demonstrating elevated loneliness among stroke survivors and highlights the need for interventions to increase social connectedness after stroke.

A review of the literature on wellbeing and modifiable dementia risk factors.

Wellbeing-defined broadly as experiencing one's life as enjoyable and fulfilling-has been associated with lower risk for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. The mechanisms underlying this association are largely unknown. However, prior research and theory suggest that wellbeing impacts health behaviors and biological systems that are relevant to cognitive and brain health. Several of these factors have also been identified by the 2020 Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention, Intervention, and Care as modifiable dementia risk factors. In the current review, we summarize and evaluate the evidence for associations between wellbeing and each of the 12 Lancet Commission risk factors. We found relatively consistent evidence for associations between higher wellbeing and lower levels of most of the risk factors: physical inactivity, social isolation, smoking, depression, hypertension, diabetes, hearing loss, traumatic brain injury, and air pollution. By contrast, we found evidence for only modest associations between wellbeing and education and mixed evidence for associations of wellbeing with alcohol use and body weight. Although most of the reviewed evidence was observational, longitudinal and experimental evidence suggests that many of the observed associations are likely bidirectional. These findings suggest that modifiable dementia risk factors may be mediators (i.e., intermediate steps in the causal chain) and/or confounders (i.e., variables that impact both wellbeing and dementia, and thus could induce a spurious association) of the association between wellbeing and dementia. We conclude by discussing next steps to test mediation hypotheses and to account for potential confounding in the relation between wellbeing and dementia.

Associations Between Generativity and Social Asymmetry Among Older Adults in Japan.

OBJECTIVES: Loneliness and social isolation are major public health concerns among older adults in Japan. Generativity, the concern for and commitment to future generations, may buffer older adults from loneliness. This study examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between generativity and social asymmetry (the discrepancy between social isolation and loneliness) among older adults in Japan. METHODS: Data were from 2 waves (2008 and 2012) of the Midlife in Japan survey, a nationally representative longitudinal study of 645 adults aged 30-79 residing in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Generativity was measured using the 6-item Loyola Generativity Scale. Social asymmetry was computed as the residual score from regressing loneliness onto social isolation. RESULTS: Higher generativity levels were associated with lower social asymmetry scores (B=-0.21, SE=0.04), but generativity change across waves did not predict social asymmetry 4 years later (B=-0.04, SE=0.06). DISCUSSION: Generativity may play a protective role in buffering older adults from the adverse effects of social isolation on loneliness. Promoting generativity among older adults may be a potential intervention strategy to reduce loneliness and improve well-being in aging populations in Japan.

The Benefits and Challenges of a Unifying Conceptual Framework for Well-being Constructs.

Centuries of philosophical debate and decades of empirical research have sought to characterize what it means to be psychologically well. A unifying conceptual framework to organize these diverse perspectives is needed to facilitate clear communication and cumulative science within the field of well-being science. Although a handful of overarching theoretical and measurement models of well-being have been proposed, they typically make strong claims about which constructs should be included or excluded as well as the manner and degree to which well-being constructs are related to one another. Thus, these models are often not widely adopted as organizational or communicative tools, due to their exclusion of particular theoretical perspectives or disagreement among researchers about the empirical structure of well-being. While the field continues to grapple with these issues, it would benefit from a unifying conceptual framework that is broad in scope and that can flexibly accommodate diverse theoretical perspectives and new empirical advances. In this paper, I discuss the benefits of a unifying conceptual framework for well-being, as well as the challenges in its construction. Specifically, I review strengths and limitations of Park et al.'s proposed framework of "emotional well-being," and suggest an alternative framework of "psychosocial well-being" that encompasses the diverse array of constructs that have been proposed as positive psychological aspects of well-being.

Well-Being as a Protective Factor Against Cognitive Decline and Dementia: A Review of the Literature and Directions for Future Research.

OBJECTIVES: Treatments that target the biological causes of dementia remain limited, making prevention critically important. Well-being-defined broadly as living in accordance with one's potential and experiencing one's life as enjoyable and satisfying-is a promising avenue for prevention. It can be targeted by large-scale, noninvasive interventions and has been linked with better cognitive health and lower dementia risk. In the current review, we begin by summarizing empirical evidence linking well-being to cognitive functioning, cognitive decline, dementia diagnosis, and dementia-related neuropathology. Then, we highlight 3 key areas for future research. METHODS: We searched the literature on wellbeing, cognitive decline, and dementia, focusing on prospective and longitidinal evidence. RESULTS: The research reviewed here provides consistent evidence for associations of well-being with cognitive decline, dementia risk, and cognitive resilience to neuropathology. However, several open questions remain regarding (1) causality and mechanism(s), (2) specificity versus generalizability of associations, and (3) timing. DISCUSSION: To inform potential intervention efforts, the field must address complex open questions about whether, how, when, and for whom well-being influences dementia risk. The majority of existing research on well-being and cognitive health is correlational, and few studies have tested potential mechanisms that may explain those associations. Further, relatively little is known about the generalizability of associations across different aspects of well-being and for different sociocultural groups. Finally, we do not yet understand when in the life span and on what timescale well-being might influence cognitive health. We discuss challenges and opportunities for addressing each of these open questions, including concrete recommendations for research designs and use of open science practices.

Judging emotions as good or bad: Individual differences and associations with psychological health.

People differ in their initial emotional responses to events, and we are beginning to understand these responses and their pervasive implications for psychological health. However, people also differ in how they think about and react to their initial emotions (i.e., emotion judgments). In turn, how people judge their emotions-as predominantly positive or negative-may have crucial implications for psychological health. Across five MTurk and undergraduate samples collected between 2017 and 2022 (total N = 1,647), we investigated the nature of habitual emotion judgments (Aim 1) and their associations with psychological health (Aim 2). In Aim 1, we found four distinct habitual emotion judgments that differ according to the valence of the judgment (positive or negative) and the valence of the emotion being judged (positive or negative). Individual differences in habitual emotion judgments were moderately stable across time and were associated with, but not redundant with, conceptually related constructs (e.g., affect valuation, emotion preferences, stress mindsets, meta-emotions) and broader traits (i.e., extraversion, neuroticism, trait emotions). In Aim 2, positive judgments of positive emotions were uniquely associated with better psychological health and negative judgments of negative emotions were uniquely associated with worse psychological health concurrently and prospectively, above and beyond the other types of emotion judgments, and above and beyond conceptually related constructs and broader traits. This research gives insight into how people judge their emotions, how these judgments relate to other emotion-related constructs, and their implications for psychological health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

When daily emotions spill into life satisfaction: Age differences in emotion globalizing.

Although the objective conditions of people's lives are fairly stable from day to day, daily life can feel like an emotional rollercoaster. For some people, life satisfaction hitches a ride on the emotional rollercoaster (i.e., momentary emotions spill over into broader evaluations of life). The extent to which positive and negative emotions spill over into life satisfaction is referred to as positive and negative emotion globalizing. Initial evidence suggests that emotion globalizing varies between individuals and is linked to a maladaptive psychological profile. Integrating a lifespan perspective, this is the first study to identify and describe age differences in emotion globalizing using data from two adult community samples (Study 1: N = 133 women, age range = 23-78; Study 2: N = 137, age range = 18-95). Further, we tested key boundary conditions of emotion globalizing by examining two types of emotions (i.e., current or after most stressful event of the day) and two types of satisfaction (i.e., overall life satisfaction [life satisfaction] or current day satisfaction [day satisfaction]). Specifically, we investigated how younger and older adults differed in the associations of current emotions with life satisfaction (i.e., emotion globalizing; Study 1), stressor-related emotions with life satisfaction (i.e., stressor-related emotion globalizing; Study 1), and stressor-related emotions with day satisfaction (Study 2). Results revealed that older (compared to younger) adults exhibited less negative (but not positive) emotion globalizing and stressor-related emotion globalizing. We found no age differences in the association between stressor-related emotions and day satisfaction. These findings extend insights into emotion globalizing and inform theories of emotional aging. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Short-term implications of long-term thinking: Temporal distancing and emotional responses to daily stressors.

Temporal distancing (TD) is a promising yet understudied emotion regulation strategy that involves reflecting on how one will feel much later in the future. Although limited, the available evidence suggests that TD is a beneficial way to appraise negative events. Experimental studies have demonstrated causality: Situational use of TD (e.g., when thinking about a negative event) confers short-term emotional benefits in the laboratory. In addition, correlational studies show that habitual use predicts better long-term well-being. However, several open questions remain. First, we do not fully understand associations between habitual TD and emotions in daily life. Second, we do not fully understand daily TD, either on average across days or fluctuating within person. We conducted an 8-day diary study to test associations between TD and emotional responses to daily stressful events for three distinct measures at two levels of analysis: habitual TD assessed with a survey, average daily TD across days, and within-person fluctuations in TD across days (N = 155 participants, 837 observations). TD was associated with lower negative emotion at the within-person level and with greater positive emotion at both levels. Overall, these findings suggest that TD-on average and fluctuating within person-is associated with a beneficial pattern of daily emotional experiences, which may support overall well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).